Wired photo
A Day on Amistad with Ike
By Terry Brown
This past week I had the opportunity to spend a full day in the boat with Mike Iaconelli at the Tru-Tungsten writers conference and to say it was a once in a lifetime experience would indeed be an understatement. This guy exudes confidence, loves fishing and is everything positive about the sport we love. He has energy, he never quits even out with press people, and he is definitely living his dream.
When asked if he ever gets tired of fishing he adamantly said "no, I love everything about fishing. The fishing, the anglers, the fan's and the kids". While on the water we ran into several boats and he never wavered. He had time for each and every person and showed as much energy with the last one as he did the first one. "Even when a pontooner cut between us and the bank all he did was turn back to me and grin."
I have known Mike since 1998. Several hours on the water with him this past week at Amistad allowed me to know him even better. His honesty about why he does what he does, his passion for the sport and its fans and his genuine love for the environment is what endears those of us that know him to like him the way we do. Every bass he catches is special, its like catching his last one ever.
Do you wonder if he screams and gets excited in the boat when he's out pleasure fishing? You bet he does. When he catches a good one he screams "its a giant" and looks like a kid that has just caught his first fish. He loves what he does and each bass he lands is like looking at a painting to Ike. He examines them for marks, he wants to see their markings and he wants to know if they were pre or post spawn. He can show you the differences. He is all about the details.
The Real Ike
As we were driving down the lake a coffee cup blew out of the boat. Some anglers would have kept right on going. Not Mike. He immediately turned around and went to retrieve it. "This is way too pretty of a place to trash it up" was his remark.
Several other items of significance on that day:
During the day he discussed every detail of what he was doing and why. Some anglers keep that close to the vest. Not Mike. He made sure I knew what we were fishing and how it was laid out. He was genuinely concerned about me catching them as much as he was himself.
He fondly refers to his Federation days as his roots. "I would not be here today if not for the Federation" he said. He smiled when he talked about his jon boat, fishing club tournaments and going with his buddies. He told me the story of the first boat he won. He knew nothing about how to run it, park it or back it in but it was another step in his progression. I took a ton of baby steps to get here. Some guys don't have to take small steps, like KVD or Skeet, they hit the ground running. I had to take a different approach.
No acting there, nothing for the cameras, nothing for TV.....just genuine Ike.
He also is very proud of his family. His daughters are his life. He girlfriend Becky is the one he said. I asked if she could back the boat down the ramp and he grinned again and said" She can back it in better than I can". He also talked about his mother, her devotion to him and of course his uncle who overcame cancer and travels with Mike.
TV does not do justice to Mike. He is as genuine as they come and his love for the sport is catching. The next time you see him yell or get excited count on it.....its the Real Mike. He loves this sport and he lives for competition. He's on a roll and the other anglers know it.
The next time you see Ike......Watch out gang....."Its a giant".
