Performance Profile: Bobby Lane

From BFL to EverStart Series to FLW Tour, Lane has found success

These days, when Bobby Lane heads out for a day of bass fishing, he usually starts by hooking his shiny Ranger to his burly Chevy Tahoe.

The 31-year-old up-and-coming pro angler from Lakeland, Fla., hasn’t always traveled in such style.

When he was a teenager, Lane’s main fishing craft was a 10-foot-long aluminum johnboat, which he often carted to his fishing holes atop a beat-up old BMW.

Just like years ago, Lane still fishes for bass every chance he gets, but there is often a lot more on the line. As a rookie on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Lane is sometimes fishing for a potential six-figure payday.

It would have been tough to get off to a better start.

On the first day of the FLW Tour opener on Lake Okeechobee in January, Lane boated two 8-pound-plus monsters by early afternoon, giving him a solid anchor for a big limit. He planned to fish another hour.

“Then these guys who saw me catch them asked how much weight I had,” Lane said. “I told them over 20 pounds. They said, `Son, you better get to the scales. We’ll follow you in just to make sure you get there.'”

A couple hours later, Lane’s name was atop the tournament’s leaderboard.

The rest of the tournament didn’t go quite as well. On day two, Lane had just two keepers, squeaking into the finals by a mere four ounces. He eventually finished seventh, winning $16,000.

“On the last day I watched Kelly Jordon catch the big ones that won him the tournament,” Lane said. “I was thinking it was nice to just be there, but I’d sure like to be the one catching those fish.”

Not completely satisfied with his performance at Okeechobee, Lane hushed anyone who doubted his skill by finishing third at the next FLW Tour event on Lake Toho, which earned him $25,000. Even then, he was upset that he led day three and then lost the event.

Lane knows he has little room for sour grapes, considering his remarkable success in a relatively short career.

He continued his amazing rookie run at the next FLW Tour event on the Ouachita River, finishing ninth and earning $14,000.

Lane has been fishing FLW Outdoors events for just a few years. He qualified for the FLW Tour after a strong performance in the 2004 EverStart Series, finishing sixth in the Southeast Division standings. He plans to fish the EverStart Southeast Division again this year, and he opened the season with a fifth-place finish at Lake Okeechobee.

Lane also has been successful in BFL tournaments, earning second place in the 2002 BFL regional at Lake Seminole, fifth in the 2003 regional at Clark Hill and third in the All-American on the Mobile Delta in 2003.

At press time, Lane’s winnings in FLW Outdoors events were more than $100,000. That’s a pretty good haul for just three years of part-time fishing, which is why Lane decided to put his landscaping business on the backburner and make bass fishing more of a priority in 2005.

“It’s been a rough ride in that business,” Lane said. “Fishing has been a whole lot more fun.”

Lane has always balanced the fun and competitive aspects of bass fishing. Growing up, he was often on the water with his dad, Robert, and two brothers, Chris and Arnie.

“Dad used to tie us together with a rope so if one of us fell in, he wouldn’t have to jump in after us,” Lane recalled of those early fishing adventures. “He’d just grab the rope and pull us in.”

The three boys managed to stay out of the water most of the time and learn the basics of bass fishing.

All four of the Lane men are now tournament bass fishermen.

“We’ve always been pretty competitive,” said Arnie Lane, who is 33, “especially when it comes to fishing.

“But you could say Bobby gets a lot of support from the family tree.”

Heading into his rookie FLW Tour campaign, Bobby Lane said he was eager to fish against the sport’s best, but when he actually saw all of his heroes at the first pretournament meeting, he couldn’t help feeling somewhat intimidated.

“My competitive level started to fade a little bit,” he admitted. “Then, when I got the last flight, I figured those guys would have limits before I even got started.”

Instead, Lane found himself getting more attention than expected.

“Having the helicopter follow me in to the weigh-in on the final day was one of the biggest rushes of my life,” he said. “This is going to be an exciting year.”

And he’ll have lots of fun, too.