In today’s Friday Finale, we’re going to go back to 2006 and visit with Skeet Reese. Skeet was somewhat of a veteran by this time, having fished his first Bassmaster Western Invitationals in the late 1990s, and garnering a host of other West Coast tournament successes.
A related story that same year, 2006, in The Sacramento Bee, describes Skeet’s early beginnings before his tournament success:
At that time, Reese was managing the merchandising, marketing and sales departments for Outdoor Pro Shop in Rohnert Park. “I think it is super what Skeet has achieved,” said Ken Elie, owner of Outdoor Pro Shop. “He was managing the store by the time he left, but when he started working here in 1992, he was just a little snot-nosed punk kid with big dreams. But he made his dreams come true. We’re very, very proud of him.”
In that same story, Skeet recalled, “It was a great job, but that was when I had to make the decision to make a 100 percent commitment to professional bass fishing. I went for it, because I didn’t want to have regrets later on, wondering what would have happened if I had only tried.”
“My timing was just perfect. I won my first five tournaments after I quit, won Angler of the Year, and my first trip to the Bassmaster Classic. It was a real roller-coaster ride: TV, media, sponsors…and it gave me the opportunity to show my personality. It was wild.”
Also of interest from that story was what some might consider his “cart before the horse” approach. “I joined the Redwood Empire Bass Club when I was 14, and got my first bass boat when I was 18. I didn’t even have a vehicle to tow it, but I figured that I could always find someone to get me to the lake.”
Luck or good fortune was on Skeet’s side, because there were plenty of people who had the tow vehicles and enthusiasm to take him and his boat to the water. And once Reese was on the water it didn’t take him long to make his mark.
