Tournament fishing can be a grueling sport, especially in the summer. The temperature ranges from hot to sizzling, and the humidity-laden air barely stirs. The only relief you get is when you run from one spot to the next. As tough as it is for you, though, imagine what it must be like for Adam Koch.

Lancen Halbert is going pro this year in the ranks of the Walmart FLW Tour, but not for long. It’s not because Halbert isn’t a good fisherman, because he is. However, a recent change of plans will force the South Carolina angler to put his fishing career on hiatus after this season.

Andrew Upshaw is 5-7, weighs 155 pounds and was an all-conference tight end in high school at Hemphill, Texas. That should tell you something about his determination to succeed. Because his team ran the ball “24-7,” as he puts it, the only way he was going to get any playing time was to become a lineman or a back. There was no shortage of backs, so Upshaw learned how to block. He became so good at it that he won accolades despite his lack of size.

Perhaps you’re a young, aspiring FLW fisherman steeped in bass-fishing history. Since you were a kid, you’ve followed the careers of all the greats of the sport, and maybe you pattern your fishing style after one or more of them. In fact, maybe you’re confident you could hold your own against any of them. Wouldn’t it be cool to have had the chance to fish against some of those heroes and role models from that first generation of professional bass fishing?

By his own reckoning, Alex Davis has caught no more than 15 bass or so on a spinnerbait this year, which doesn’t help explain his nickname: the Spinnerbait Kid.

Some things are pretty much a cinch: Green Bay will play in a Super Bowl, the Yankees will represent the American League in a World Series, and Adam Wagner will fish in a Walmart Bass Fishing League All-American.

Texas native Jim Tutt holds record for most events fished in FLW Outdoors history
Football has its Brett Favre and baseball its Cal Ripken – tough guys who hold records for consecutive starts in their respective sports. If there’s a parallel Iron Man in the ranks of FLW Outdoors, his name is Jim Tutt.

That’s how I remember Jack Wingate, that’s how I’ll always see him: black wavy hair and twinkling eyes, syrupy Georgia accent and happy-go-lucky. There are people and places that we store away in our memory, that are so special we won’t let time or the world touch them. Mister Jack is one of mine.

You’re 50 years old, settled into a pretty good groove with a wife and family and told by your doctor that you have from one to three years to live. What do you do now?

Summers can’t be more perfect than those that settle on Minnesota. The weather is mild, the fish are biting and there are ten thousand places to catch them – it says so, right there in the state slogan. This summer, however, Minnesota isn’t so cordial and inviting to anglers who haven’t gotten around to buying a license yet.

Fishermen choose to be co-anglers in FLW Outdoors tournaments for various reasons. Some simply enjoy the whole competition scene and they want to stay plugged into it. Some just want to learn from the pros, and become more equipped to solve various bass-fishing problems on their own. And still others aspire to become full-fledged pros themselves.

David Cosner can’t catch a break. During the last few years, he’s been whittled on, flunked and generally mishandled by life. Not that he’s complaining, mind you, but it does wear a body down.

For George Kapiton, 2010 was golden, a once-in-a-blue-moon fishfest. Last year should have been the year you got him to buy lottery tickets for you, or pick the winner of the Kentucky Derby. Kapiton had a phenomenal tournament season in 2010. As a co-angler, the 35-year-old Florida angler ranked first in the FLW Series Eastern Division (now Walmart Opens) and was 13th in the EverStart Series. In the Walmart Bass Fishing League, he wound up in 11th place in the boater division.

When you’re a co-angler in the Walmart Bass Fishing League, your ride is assured. The person you’re fishing with might not be your first choice, or might not fish the way you like to fish, but at least you can count on having a seat in the boat. James Jackson is grateful for that, because all of his other transportation needs are pretty much up for grabs.

There might have been a better way for a 24-year-old to spend her birthday, but Allison Shaw couldn’t think of one. There she was on Kentucky Lake in a tricked-out Ranger, at sunrise on a beautiful spring morning, seated beside her fishing buddy, Tom White, and preparing to do battle against 24 other teams in the opening round of the 2011 National Guard FLW National College Fishing Championship. The five best teams of the circuit’s five regions are here – including the defending national champions, University of Florida’s Jake Gipson and Matt Wercinski – for a three-day test that will determine who gets bragging rights and the $100,000 top prize.

Miles Burghoff’s nickname is “Sonar,” which suggests that he’s some sort of offshore angler who knows a thing or two about fishing deep water. But that would be a misconception. Burghoff’s nickname is a takeoff of his famous father Gary’s stage moniker, Radar O’Reilly, who was a star in the movie, Mash, and the long-running television series that followed it. Radar earned his nickname because of some sort of mental detection system that enabled him to anticipate visitors or events before others around him even knew what was going on. His son hopes his nickname is equally well-earned because of an instinctive ability to find bass.

… And in other news this week, the Green Bay Packers were declared the winners of the 2011 Super Bowl, Japan said the recent earthquake that created a devastating tsunami was a national disaster, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that bighead carp were dangerous and added them to its list of injurious wildlife.