Top bass pros like Ott DeFoe and Bill Lowen may embody the rugged individualism that it takes to succeed on the water, but behind the scenes almost all of them have a “pit crew” of supporters to help them win trophies. It could be family members, or a team of specially-chosen professionals, or a combination of the two, but no one goes it alone and expects to last long on the Elite Series or the Bass Pro Tour.

J.D. Blackburn is one of those high level support staff who make it look easy, and furthermore he’s one of the nicest guys around. As only an occasional visitor to the tournament scene, I know that I can count on J.D. for a good story tip, some constructive feedback, and most of all a welcoming smile. He’s a “fixer” who gets things done and then lets others claim the credit.

As I’ve gotten to know him, I’ve learned that his vocation in the fishing industry stems from his passion for the sport. He loves to travel, loves to wet a line, and is not a bass-only purist. Here’s his story:

HPFC: I don’t think that I’m able to completely or accurately describe your job. What do you tell people that you do?

BLACKBURN: I love to tell a story. Sometimes it’s with a photo, or it could be a video that I put together, an article or a social media post. My job is to connect these anglers and these companies with their fans. For a 45 year old guy who grew up fishing, I feel like I know both sides pretty well.

HPFC: How does a clean-cut guy with a business background end up in the fishing business specifically?
BLACKBURN: I was in healthcare management, dealing with surgeons and surgical facilities. The more I spent time with those folks – they were highly specialized, really good at what they do, but maybe not always the best on the business side – it’s very similar to a pro angler who has learned all of these things but a lot of times don’t understand how something they learned to do so well is valuable to other fishermen. They don’t always know how to go about sharing what they do and how they go about catching fish or fishing a tournament.

JD Blackburn with Bassmaster Classic champion Ott DeFoe

HPFC: As someone who likes to fish, is it difficult to travel to all of these great fisheries and stay on the sidelines and never get to wet a line?

BLACKBURN: No. The first time I was ever in a boat with a pro was with Bill Lowen. I thought I was a pretty good fisherman. I was about 30 years old and I saw him go down a bank and fish and I realized that I hadn’t missed my calling.

HPFC: You get to go to a lot of amazing places with the tours. What are some of your favorite places from a fishing perspective, or a scenery or tourism perspective?
BLACKBURN: El Salto was great. That wasn’t a tournament, but it was a great fishing business trip, going there with the Bassmaster and Mustad people. I liked Pickwick, not just because Bill Lowen won, but also because it’s a beautiful place. My granddad actually did some of the clearing, working for the CCC, so there’s a little bit of a personal connection to Pickwick. I also like Eufaula – got to go there twice last year and then again this year for Redcrest. That’s a place that I could live. A lot of times I’ll look at a place and go, “Would I want to live here?” I could love at Eufaula, I could live at Guntersville, I could live at Pickwick. I could also live upstate New York or in Vermont.

HPFC: Obviously some of those spots you revisit again and again. Is there someplace that you look forward to because of a particular restaurant or a local delicacy that you like?

BLACKBURN: Anywhere there’s crawfish, so I cannot wait to go back to Orange, Texas. One of the best meals ever was when Chris Lane won at the Sabine River and a bunch of us went and ate crawfish. I can’t remember the name of the place there, but when they rescheduled [the Elite tournament] back from August to April, I didn’t think about anything else – I thought about crawfish.

HPFC: Is there a venue that none of the tours have visited but you wish they would?
BLACKBURN: Okeechobee was on that list before but now I’ve been there. I like Northern California. I wouldn’t mind going to Shasta. I really like the area around Redding, California. I wouldn’t mind seeing a tournament at Lake Tahoe.

HPFC: There are bass in Lake Tahoe?

BLACKBURN: Skeet says there are good bass in there. It’s just probably too big.

HPFC: In addition to traveling with the tours you also like to travel to fish yourself, both with your family and with friends. What are some places you’ve been and some species that you’ve caught?
BLACKBURN: I caught bonefish in January. My wife is a travel agent and she booked us to Staniel Cay Yacht Club in the Exumas and I got a guide one day and we went and caught bonefish on a fly. That was really cool. I love the Little Red River in Arkansas. I have a friend there who has a place there, and another real good buddy is the guy who owns the Trout Magnet. I get to borrow his boat when I go to the Little Red for trout. El Salt was great. We’re trying to go to Iceland. We were supposed to go right after the Classic but then because of COVID they announced you could not fly to Europe and we were booked to go two or three days later.

HPFC: Were you going to fish for salmon?

BLACKBURN: Brown trout is primarily what we were going to fish for.

HPFC: Besides Iceland, what are some other places or species that are still on your bucket list?
BLACKBURN: I want to catch a tuna and fillet it right there and eat it on the boat.

HPFC: You love to fly fish, which is something that many bass anglers are either afraid of or dismissive of. What are some things that bass anglers and fly anglers don’t understand about each other?

BLACKBURN: For some reason, if a guy’s on a river and he’s catching fish on a particular fly, he’ll give you one. He’ll tell you everything you want to know about how he’s catching them. That doesn’t happen so much in the bass world. I don’t know why that is. I don’t like to use a strike indicator. I throw a streamer, so I’ll use a woolly bugger and I fish for brown trout like I’d fish for smallmouth. For some reason fly guys are generally more helpful on the water, but I don’t personally have any idea why that is.

HPFC: Might it have something to do with the tournament culture in bass fishing?
BLACKBURN: Maybe. There aren’t fly tournaments, so you’re not going to show up Saturday morning and find someone on the hole where you’re trying to fish a tournament – but if I’m out on Thursday practicing for a bass tournament and I show you where they’re at, and show you what to throw, you could hurt me in my tournament. But then again, my trademark phrase is that “Good people fish.” Everyone who fishes is a good person, they may just not share all of their information.

HPFC: When you travel – on tour, or to the Bahamas or Iceland, or someplace like that – what is a non-tackle item that always goes with you?

BLACKBURN: Of course, all of my camera gear. But also my Mavic Pro Drone. I enjoy seeing different views of the places I go.

HPFC: What else do people need to know about you?
BLACKBURN: My friends and I have a weekly fishing challenge. It runs Monday to Sunday, for three plus years now, starting the first week of January. There are ten of us. All fish count, you have to have a photo. We have not done a good job of keeping stats. Sometimes it’s a race to see who can catch one first. Once Monday turns around, usually by Monday or Tuesday we have what we call the quota fish. You take the picture of the first fish you catch but hopefully it’s a good one.

HPFC: Is it that everyone has to catch a fish every week, or just one of you does?

BLACKBURN: It can be anybody. Just somebody in the group. If there’s a guy out there and you pick up that he’s a little bit bummed for whatever reason, something’s got him down, you want to make sure that you can meet the quota – so it results in extra fishing trips.