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Five Questions for Gary Dobyns

Category: article

 Dec 3rd, 2012 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Dec 3rd, 2012 at 12:00 AM

In this edition of Five Questions, BassFIRST.com headed out west to query one of the all-time great left-coast bass assassins, Gary Dobyns.

	Gary Dobyns

Dobyns is one of the most prolific tournament pros who doesn’t travel the country fishing the entire FLW Tour or Bassmaster Elite Series. Since starting his path toward tournament greatness some 30 years ago, Dobyns has racked up over 80 victories and a couple million bucks in winnings.

In addition to all of the tournament success, he started Dobyns Rods, www.dobynsrods.com, a few years back, The company produces custom rods and Gary oversees the entire process.

So let’s see if he can step up and answer Five Questions.

DL – Who is your favorite actor?

GD – That’s easy, John Wayne! For me he is by far my all-time favorite actor. The movies always showed how good can overcome evil. The good guy wins in the end, even if they aren’t perfect. John Wayne just seemed to do everything right. I really admired him.

DL – Do you prefer the gym or the bar?

GD – Going to the bar. I’ve never been a gym guy. All anyone has to do is look at my photos and they can see that.

Although I don’t really drink at all. I like to go to the bar with the guys at tournaments. They’ll have drinks and I’ll have a Diet Coke. I’m the designated driver. In fact, I’m okay with the other guys drinking. The more the merrier, especially the nights before competition.

I just don’t believe you need to be in great shape to fish from the front of the boat. You don’t see any 75-year old pro football players, but you do see 75-year old anglers fishing tournaments.

DL – Hip Hop, Rock or Country music?

GD – One hundred percent country. I have bad hearing and that is the only music I can usually understand anyway. I like a variety of country music, but George Strait is a favorite of mine.

DL – Why do you fish?

GD – I just can’t imagine myself not fishing. I’ve always fished. My roots are from Oklahoma and we always fished there. Of course, I was always a meat fisherman prior to tournament fishing. In the 60’s and 70’s, nobody knew what catch-and-release was.

At 23, I fished my first tournament. It was out of a local tackle shop. Something like 50 bucks to enter. I did terrible. I think dead last, but I really liked it. I was always competitive in other sports and I love to fish, so it was a perfect mix. It just took me a while to become a good tournament angler.

DL – Why did you get into the rod manufacturing biz?

GD – I always dabbled with my fishing rods. I’m really picky about what I use. Especially with the balance and the action, Back in the 70’s, you really couldn’t get what you wanted commercially. Always short rods.

I started getting better and better at making rods over the years. I would pick up some of the old stuff I used and thought how could I have used that piece of crap?

Anyway, now I am involved with everything in making our quality rods. The one thing we do different from many other manufacturers is we start with high-quality blanks. My blanks are how I want them. Many manufacturers use lower grade blanks and try to cover up with a fancier wrap, etc. A piece of crap blank gets you a piece of crap rod.