Introducing Myself
How I came up through the ranks
My name is Grae Buck and I just finished my third season as a pro on the FLW Tour. I’m excited to be writing a monthly blog for flwfishing.com, so if you have any suggested topics or things you would like to know more about don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or shoot me a message on Facebook or Instagram.
I want to start off by telling you a little bit about myself. I grew up in Pennsylvania about 45 minutes north of Philadelphia. I grew up fishing for whatever would bite with my grandfather and in middle school I had a friend who started taking me with his dad down to the Chesapeake Bay. That was my first time ever on a bass boat, and I was immediately hooked!
When I was 16-years-old I joined a local club and started fishing as a co-angler. I was addicted to fishing tournaments and when I started looking at colleges I discovered collegiate-level bass fishing. I ended up choosing Penn State University, and I immediately joined their bass fishing team. This was a great opportunity to get a feel for large tournaments, with financial and logistical support from the school. College fishing also gave me the opportunity to travel across more of the country and fish new water bodies. I even got to compete in partner tournaments with my wife Jess, who was girlfriend at the time!
After graduating from Penn State with a degree in Environmental Resource Management, I put my schooling and passion for the environment to work as an aquatic biologist. During this time I started fishing the BFL circuit and my first season was a success. I won the 2014 Northeast Division Super Tournament at the 1000 Islands, which allowed me to upgrade from an 18-foot boat to a 20-foot boat to handle some bigger waters in New York and Maryland. In my second BFL season a win at the Regional on the Potomac River gave me with the opportunity to take my fishing to the next level. The payout of a Ranger boat and $20,000 allowed me to pursue my dream of tournament fishing full-time, and I left my job to fish the Costa FLW Series and Bassmaster Opens with the hopes of qualifying for one of the professional tours.
After a great season fishing the Northern Division of the Costas I qualified for the FLW Tour. I’m very grateful for the stepping stones provided by FLW that let me work my way up to the professional Tour. I was once told to always fish a circuit that leads to a championship to provide yourself with the opportunity to take fishing to the next level and that philosophy paid off! If you have the same dream of fishing professionally that I did, don’t hesitate to start at the bottom and work your way up!
Because it’s smallmouth season I’m going to write about some things I do to fish and prepare for rough water in my next blog. In the meantime, good luck on the water!