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make me quit going.”

The champion Stephenville angler said he and his partner, Stone, who resides in Hamlin, lived near each other as kids, but only met when both came to Tarleton State University. Their friendship and love for fshing steered them into opening a new business together, Tour Edge Lures (www.touredgelures.com), featuring JigX Jigs. “He lived 20 miles from me my whole life and I never met him,” Stoker said. “We went to school at Tarleton at the same time. We were in a chemistry class together and he came up to me after class one time and asked if my name was Spike.”

“He said he knew I fshed all the time and he asked if he could go fshing with me,” Stoker related. “We went to (Lake) Proctor the frst time. After that we’ve fshed every day together. Both of us grew up hunting and fshing our whole lives. Our ranch was, maybe, fve miles from theirs and we never met each other.”

Though Stoker is competitive and his schedule is pretty tight, he still makes time to give back a portion of his good fortune to others. On a recent weekend, he and his six-year-old son participated in a Catch A Special Thrill (CAST) Tournament, to give sick kids a chance to get out on the lake. “We took some kids from Cook Children’s Hospital to Eagle Mountain Lake fshing for a day,” he said. “I took my little boy with me and he had a blast.” So did his sponsored child. “The little girl we took was about the same age as my little boy,” Stoker said. “She had never been in a boat before. We let her drive the boat and run the trolling motor, anything she wanted to, so it was her day.” His ability to fnd the fsh also helped make the day a success for his one-day protégé. “We got into a bunch of sand bass and she probably caught 20 fsh,” he said. “She caught more than she cared to reel in. It fnally got to the point she was like, ‘nah, go ahead.’”

Stoker and his wife Leslie have a son Brayden age 6, and daughter Macyn, age 1, which have kept them from spending as much time as they’d like together outdoors. “We all go hunting and fshing whenever we can,” he said. “We’d rather be outside than inside.” Yeah, and it’s hard to win boats and money when you’re inside.  ECL

Spike said the time he spends away from his family in pre-fshing mode is the only real negative to his lucrative hobby. “I’ll get there at 5 o’clock Friday afternoon, put my boat in the water and fsh until after dark,” he said, explaining the schedule that takes up every minute of his weekend. “Saturday morning I get up at 5:30 and fsh from daylight until after dark. Sunday I do the same thing. Then I drive home.”

Hometown Living At Its Best 23