As president of my bird club, one of my jobs is to run the annual meeting. At our meetings after the business portion we have a presentation. Sometimes the presentation is done by a member or board member. Other times we hire out a guest speaker. Last year we had Greg Miller who is one of the most famous birders in America thanks to Jack Black playing him in the movie "The Big Year".
This year we got Gene Ellison. Gino (as most people call him) did a big year in 2023 seeing 801 species of birds in USA, Canada and Hawaii. His job throughout his life was a professional fisherman. As president, it is my job to arrange the travel and itinerary for the day.
The plan was for Gino to do a morning walk with club members then go to the meeting later in the day with time in between to get some food. Mother Nature canceled the walk so Gino, Michael Gow (our treasurer) and I had breakfast in Middletown. After breakfast, Michael went home for a while and Gino and I drove around Newport. The weather was lousy so we just drove around the sights and talked. We drove by the church JFK got married in. We went down Bellevue Ave and looked at the mansions. The ocean was rough when we went down Ocean Drive and Breton Point.
Mostly we talked. More precisely I asked questions, he talked, I listened, I soaked in info...repeat. It is not too often that a fisherman has the ear of a professional BASS angler so I made the best of my time. Gino is an extremely interesting guy. He was the original executive director of the PAA (Professional Anglers Association. This means that after they unionized ALL of the anglers or their reps went through Gene. He is on a first name basis with every bass angler in the country from Kevin Van Dam, Roland Martin, and Tim Horton. They may be more famous fishermen but they came to Gene for financial advice!
He is also a very dedicated hunter. We spent a good amount of time talking about some really hard hunts in some really beautiful locations.The guy just loves the outdoors!
Because of his tournaments and association with the PAA, I got a first hand account of what goes on behind the scenes at tournaments. How they are won and strategy. It was all really interesting. One answer would lead to the next question and the next. I got to hear what Roland Martin is like. Gene would room with Keven Van Dam (KVD) when at tournaments and on promotional tours. Both Kevin and Gino are sponsored by Bass Pro Shops so they would have to be at events together. Rooming with KVD if you are a fisherman is the equivalent of rooming with the Babe, Jordan, or Ali. No one in the professional bass game is more famous or won more money.
I was asking questions about the KVD rod and how it was designed. Gene gave me the in and outs of how Kevin had input on the actual rod design. He explained how Kevin would make adjustments to prototypes. It was also interesting to hear how KVD prepares for tournaments, how he fishes practice days, and tournament strategy.
By no means was Gino a slouch. He won a $100,000 grand prize tourney of Lake Champlain and another tournament on Lake Erie. On Erie, he fished so far from the shoreline each day that he couldn't see land! Hearing about his approach in those tournaments was fascinating and I was mesmerized.
The whole point of the day was for Gene to be our guest speaker at the bird club meeting. The guy saw over eight hundred birds during his big year. We talked very little about birds before the meeting. I think he was prepared to talk about birds all day, but I started talking about fishing and asking questions. Gene was kind enough to pivot and stay on that conversation for hours ( there are infinite avenues to go down talking about fishing)
As you can imagine, I had a great day. Gino's presentation was awesome. He had the entire crowd's attention for ninety minutes. He was interesting, he gave a lot of great info, his photos are awesome, and he is funny. After the meeting, we went for a quick drink with a couple board members and a couple club members. It was fun but the best part of my day was the one on one time where I soaked in so much info and heard some great stories.
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