Performance Profile: Frank Divis Sr.

Frankly speaking
Frank Divis Sr. takes a backseat to no one, proving himself a leader among competitive anglers

The view from the backseat of a bass boat can be frustrating, if not downright intimidating, for some bass anglers. Imagine your whole day of bass fishing dictated by the angler on the front casting deck. He chooses the style of water to fish, he chooses the speed at which to fish and he chooses the next hot spot he’s jetting off to, sometimes before the angler in the back of the boat has finished working his last cast.

Such is life for the cadre of anglers who fish as co-anglers in FLW Outdoors bass-fishing tournaments.

“If they’re doing their job right, the angler in the front seat will make many more hook sets in a day of fishing than the guy in the back,” said Frank Divis Sr., one of the most consistent backseat bass fishermen during the past three years on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour. Despite his tourney-day weigh-ins that rarely see him bring more than two bass to the scales, Divis has a consistent history of finishing in the top 10.

It’s rather remarkable, really, that the 42-year-old Divis, who makes his home in Elkins, Ark., is anywhere near the top of the ranks of the Co-angler Division year after year. His first cast at a bass was made in 1994 when a “stranger,” FLW Tour angler Brent Chapman of Shawnee, Kan., needed a co-angler to qualify for entry in a tournament on Beaver Lake. Divis recalls he met Chapman a year earlier during a tournament weigh-in at Beaver, but the acquaintance didn’t grow until just three days before the 1994 tournament, when Chapman was pre-fishing the 28,000-acre impoundment on the White River. Details aside, Divis was in the vicinity of the lake because his work for the previous 20 years was guiding trout fishermen on Arkansas’ famed White River tail waters downstream from Beaver, Table Rock and Bull Shoals.

“Until 1994, I never picked up a bass rod,” Divis said. “So I armed myself with a $23 rod and reel, some line and a couple of spinner baits, and I joined Brent on the water. The first day I pulled a blank. Go figure.”

But day two of that tournament serendipitously paired Divis with high-profile angler Randall Hutson of Washburn, Mo. Since 1996, Hutson has fished more than 40 FLW Outdoors events, earning more than $360,000. Hutson shared a tip on jigging tactics with Divis, and it soon paid off.

“We were up in the White River arm of the lake,” Divis said. “Randy told me to put a jig on, and at about 2 p.m., I caught a 4-pound bass. That one fish was all I caught, but it was enough for me to finish fourth that day.”

Nowadays, as a seasoned co-angler working from the backseat, Divis has managed to improve his average catch rate. He usually strides up to the tournament scales with two fish in the bag, a tournament-day catch consistent enough to earn him the nickname “Two-Fish Divis.”

“Yeah, that’s me. I almost always come in with just a couple of fish,” he said.

So why hasn’t Divis moved forward after eight years of competing from the back of the boat?

“Because when the tournaments are tough, I’m always right there in the money,” he said, recalling a $15,500 paycheck earned on a day’s catch of only 1 pound, 14 ounces. “I’d like to be the first (co-angler) to break the $100,000 mark.”

He’s still got a way to go, but there aren’t many bass fishermen who wouldn’t respect Divis’ bass-tournament statistics. Since 1997, he has fished almost 50 tournaments, finished 10 times in the top 10, won one championship and accumulated career earnings of more than $72,000. In 2000, 2001 and 2002, Divis finished the tournament season ranked third, seventh and fifth, respectively, in the Co-angler Division of the FLW Tour.

If he’s going to make that hundred grand from the back of the boat, Divis knows his fishing has got be something different than what’s going on up front.

“The guy in the back of the boat has got to do everything right,” he said. “The guy in the front of the boat…His job is to `vacuum’ the water. He’s got to catch every fish in front of me. That’s why if I can catch two fish in the day, I’ve got a really good shot at finishing in the top 10. I’ll be in the money.”

Getting his name onto that leaderboard also means Divis is not likely to be fishing the same pattern as the pro up front. First, he realizes he’s not fishing against the angler he’s paired with.

“A lot of backseaters are worried about what the guy in the front of the boat is doing, but it’s not that guy they’re fishing against, and he’s not fishing against them,” he said. “It’s only the luck of the draw that pairs a co-angler with a pro, and the guy in the backseat doesn’t have to limit his fishing to the methods preferred by the guy on the front pedestal. Sure, my potential is going to be limited from the back of the boat, but if the front fisherman is working water in one way, I often fish in a completely different method and in different water. The pros are machines, you know. You’re not supposed to catch many fish behind them. If I’m sitting behind Gary Klein and he’s pitching jigs, I’m more likely to be Carolina-rigging off the other side of the boat.”

Second, Divis doesn’t let the pro up front intimidate him.

“Oh, I respect them all right,” he said. “Klein, Blaukat and all those other guys are outstanding anglers, but when you’re in the boat with them, you can’t be in awe of them. What’s most important for the co-angler to remember is that you have got to fish, you have got to fish in your own way and you have got to realize that the pro is getting paid to catch fish.”

Third, Divis realizes he can improve his own fishing skills with a lot of observation and well-timed questions.

“Fishing from the back of the boat is supposed to help the co-angler learn more about pro bass fishing,” he said. “That’s where the next generation of pro bass anglers is expected to come from, and the pro is likely to help his partner learn as much as he can. But there’s a time and a place for asking questions, and it’s not when the guy up front doesn’t have a fish in the livewell. You have got to respect him not only for his bass-fishing skills but also for the enormous pressure he’s facing when fishing against the pool of top anglers that make up his competing field.”

That’s one of the reasons, Divis adds, that he continues to compete from the back of the boat. He insists that he’s going to have fun when he’s bass fishing, and it’s much easier for him to do so from the rear casting deck.

“Sure, I’m competing from the back of the boat, but as a co-angler, I’m not under the same kind of pressure as my partner,” he said. “As a result, I’m not spending a lot of time thinking about the way I fish. And it’s a good thing, too, because I keep my tactics simple. When you see me fish, you’ll see three colors of jigs and three colors of plastics. I keep my bass fishing as simple as I can, often finding that I’m fishing much different from my partner. I think some co-anglers put too much into their fishing, worrying far too much on what the guy up front is doing.”

While he tries his best to keep things simple during tournaments, Divis’ practice time is anything but. He often pre-fishes a lake for seven to 10 days ahead of a tournament. Multiply that by the 24 tournaments he fishes each year, and it is no wonder why Divis is away from home from January to June. Yes, tournament fishing is “a major deal” for Divis, but that “deal” also includes Divis’ commitment to children. Divis says his tournament earnings are earmarked for his children’s education. He also shares his fishing knowledge and experience with the children at Elkins Public School.

“It’s called `Shadow Day’ when several of the fourth- and fifth-graders at Elkins School spend the day with adults at their jobs,” Divis said. “I put them through a full day of tournament fishing because that is my job, and they have a really good time learning about the lures and the techniques. They also get a good lesson in fish biology.”

Divis shares his fishing stories, tips and techniques, too, with the anglers who visit Southtown Sporting Goods in nearby Fayetteville. He works at the shop on a part-time basis when he’s not on the tournament trail.

“I love to talk to people about fishing,” Divis said. “I’m lucky, I guess, to be successful on the tournament trail and have the shop to extend my interest in fishing to others.”

Luck probably has little to do with it. Frank Divis might take the backseat when he’s on the water, but his bass-fishing skills, tournament stats and attitude prove that he is a true leader.