Lee Byrd: Living Your Best Fishing Life

When I first joined a bass club in 1995, I was in awe of my new friend Lee Byrd. He’d won the Wrangler Angler title (now the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship) to qualify for the 1990 Bassmaster Classic and had also competed in the Red Man All-American. He was the best bass fisherman I knew and might still be, although he’d probably bristle at that description both then and now. What continues to distinguish him in my mind is that where most anglers tend to complicate everything they do, Lee is a master at distilling a situation to it's simplest elements and truths.

After fishing a handful of pro-on-pro Invitationals and guiding a bit, he gave up the search for pro bassing glory and entered a career in IT. Today he is a very successful executive at a major bank, and while he long ago abandoned “the dream” he never gave up bass fishing. He qualifies for Alabama’s State Team most years and wins more than his fair share of big events. He also has a lovely, supportive wife, a young son, and has fished everywhere from Africa to Spain and – as of last week – Guatemala.  

As we spent time on the boat, in the pool, and at the dinner table with Lee and his wife Emily, it forced me to think about what it means to have your best fishing life. Your dream scenario at 25 might not be the same as what you actually want when you’re 50. Many of Lee’s early-90s peers continue to fish for a living, but for many of them it’s a tenuous life. Did Lee ever fish the Bassmaster Classic again? He did not, but the chance is still there (he’s on the State Team headed to Hartwell in a couple of months), he’s financially secure, and he fishes with no pressure other than that which he puts upon himself. 

Part of our goal in starting this website is to help our friends and acquaintances “make the most of our remaining casts.” No two people will share the same processes or the same outcomes, but as Rick Clunn – who won the 1990 Classic in which Lee competed – said just a few years ago: “Don’t ever believe your best moments are behind you.” The Lee that lived in 1990 might have been disappointed if told he’d be sitting behind a desk 30 years hence, but 2021 Lee knows that he has a lot of fishing runway left to ride.