Happy Valentines Day to the spouses of all the anglers out there! Thanks for putting up with our addiction!
Stefanie Kriet (Jeff Kriet), 17th anniversary the day after the 2010 Classic
DPR: We know Jeff as the class clown when we see him at fishing events. Seems he always has a funny story to tell and a crowd around listening. Is he this way at home or just when he's in the fishing circle? Also, we remember him being somewhat superstitious and wondering if you share in those, especially during Classic week?
Stefanie: Oh, that's Jeff all the time - he's definitely that way around the house. We have a 14-year-old daughter and when her friends come over they're always asking, "Is your dad here?" knowing there will be some entertainment if he is. If her answer is no, their response is often, "Heck, guess I picked the wrong weekend to visit." That could give me a complex, you know? While he's known for his pranks, he saves those for the guys and doesn't pull any on me.
Am I superstitious? No, not at all. We both know that Jeff has enough of those for all of us.
Stacy McClelland (Mike McClelland), married 7 years
DPR: We've been around Mike quite a bit over the years and also see him on the TV coverage he gets, and he always appears to have the same demeanor whether catching them or not, being a "steady-eddie" type of guy. Is that the same Mike McClelland you know?
Stacy: What you see is what you get. That is the real Mike McClelland. He's quite level headed and even keeled all the time. He's always wanting to please everybody and rarely loses his cool. Fishing is an important part of our entire family. I love to fish, and we enjoy fishing as a family during the summer, with six lakes within 10 miles of our home (Arkansas).
Kerry Short (Kevin Short), married 17 years
DPR: Okay, the "pink" thing has really worked well for Kevin in his boat wrap and fishing jersey, to the point that his nickname has become K-Pink. So what's the real story behind the color choice?
Kerry: Honestly, it was just because Kevin was needing a color for his boat wrap, a requirement that came with the original introduction of the BASS Elite Series a few years back. We looked and studied what everybody else was doing and they looked so much alike in the common reds, whites, greens and blues that we really wanted to do something different to distinguish him from the others. One day when he came home wearing his pinkish, salmon-colored Farm Bureau logoed work shirt I said, "pink," as he walked through the door. "Pink what?" he said. I explained that pink was the color he needed for his wrap and shirt. When we started looking for help in the design, I actually became interested in graphic design, developed his boat wrap and turned it into my career. It works out well because I can be mobile and do my job and travel with him. That's important to us both.
Sharron Biffle (Tommy Biffle), married 30 years
DPR: As you know, we both had to work pretty hard to convince Tommy to get into the bathtub with his fishing clothes on and play with his "Biffle-O" for the Gene Larew TV commercial that ran on one of the ESPN fishing programs. Once he finally got into the tub and started pulling that bait around, he became quite the ham. You had to have had some interesting discussions with him that day. Care to share?
Sharron: Well, you know he can be hard headed, but he also has a great sense of humor so he appreciated the concept of the commercial. He was just a little nervous about how it would actually look, and he was somewhat concerned with how much fun the other pros would have in giving him a hard time about it. I told him he had to trust you guys because he and I both knew you had his best interest at heart. When he reluctantly left the house and was headed out the door to meet you guys to film it he said, "You do know I have to be in the bathtub with two naked models to shoot this, right?" and was gone. I'll have to admit I wasn't sure if he was joking or not, and then remembered what I had said about needing to trust you guys. The commercial was funny and he really did enjoy doing it. Did he get teased? Of course, but that's good for him.
Sherry VanDam (Kevin VanDam), married 17 years
DPR: You're married to the top ranked bass pro in the world, you are his business partner and manager, you help maintain his schedule throughout the week, plus you have twin boys who become teenagers the day after this Classic ends, so our question is: how do you know what hat to wear when?
Sherry: Just like Kevin has to be versatile on the water, I have to be the same way on this end too. It's simply a matter of doing what you gotta do. Classic week is unbelievably busy and it's ever changing from hour to hour. Lots of really wonderful things happening with this one - it is Kevin's 20th Classic so that's a big one, Jackson and Nicholas turn 13, and we have family members who come together at this time. We do try to have a family night to celebrate the boys' birthdays while were here, but we also have our big family celebration for them during the Memorial Day weekend because that's when they originally came home from the hospital. This is a big week for Kevin, and neither his parents nor I have missed one of his Classics. I'm very proud of him.
