Page 22 - Erath

Spike said he and Stone fsh a schedule that begins in early spring. “Most of the tournaments start then and fnish up about June,” he said. “There are still a few tournaments after that. The bigger ones, mostly.” One of the later events this year is the inaugural Bud Light Trail Tournament at his home lake, Hubbard Creek. The frst-time tournament offers a frst prize of $10,000. Then, there’s the biggie, the annual Bass Champs at Lake Ivie the frst weekend of October at which Stoker and Stone will be the defending champions. “That was the biggest amount of money we’ve ever won at one time,” he said of last year’s Bass Champs event. “Before that we’d won a bunch of the smaller ones; $1,000, $5,000 tournaments. And we won that 18-foot Skeeter bass boat (at Lake Amistad in 2007).”

Does that win give them bragging rights among the other fshermen? “I don’t know about that,” Stoker drawled. “I just say it’s luck, I’d rather be lucky than good any day.” When he describes the work and research that go into the bigger tournaments, it sounds like luck plays a very small part in his well-documented success.

Stoker began his preparation for the October Bass Champs Tournament in August with what is called pre-fshing. “Pretty much every day I have

ABOVE Spike’s love of the outdoors and fshing, specifcally, has takenhimto lakes and tournaments all over the state. “I fsh all over Texas,” he said. “We won the Choke Canyon Tournament, south of San Antonio a little over a month ago. We won $20,000, but most of the lakes we fsh are south and west of Stephenville.” ABOVE RIGHT Spike with his children and prize catch. OPPOSITE PAGE Stoker and his wife Leslie with their son Brayden age 6, and their daughter, Macyn, age 1.