With his colorful tattoos and booming hip-hop sound track, Mike Iaconelli has turned the world of big-money competitive bass fishing upside down. In
Fishing on the Edge, Iaconelli tells his own story–and it’s a whopper: a Philly-born, Jersey-bred Yankee who’s been stealing the spotlight from bass fishing’s traditionally all-Southern anglers, attracting fans and dominating one of the fastest-growing sports in America.
How did Mike Iaconelli, a college-educated kid from New Jersey, come blasting into a sport
dominated by old-school stars like Gary Klein, Kevin VanDam, and Denny Brauer? How did Mike, aka “Ike,” take a secret childhood passion and turn it into a profession, earning million-dollar sponsorships and a storm of media attention, ranging from ESPN’s SportsCenter to profiles in
The New York Times and
Esquire? While Mike has attracted both fans and foes on the tour,
his success speaks for itself, especially his victory at the 2003 CITGO Bassmaster Classic, the Super Bowl of competitive fishing.
Forty-four million Americans fish, but no one does it quite like Mike Iaconelli. In
Fishing on the Edge, he lets you in on the secrets to his extraordinary success–how he developed his “power” fishing style, how he attacks the water, positions the boat, and perseveres through those days when the bass just aren’t biting. With sidebar tips that can be used by any fisherman–from using spinner baits to picking out the right rod to his no-fail “secret weapons”–this is an intensive, informative, and often raucous journey through the life of a brash young man destined to do for fishing what Tony Hawk did for the X Games: take the sport to a whole new level. At the same time, it’s the compelling first-person story of a man who prepared carefully every step of the way, kept notes on every fish he ever caught, and executed the perfect plan to get to the top.
A tale of passion, competition, and extreme personality,
Fishing on the Edge is a book for anyone who loves the sport of fishing, wants to turn a hobby into a career, or is simply fascinated by a man’s unstoppable drive to succeed.
From the Hardcover edition.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Fishing on the Edge: The Mike Iaconelli Story (Hardcover)
I am not much of a fisherman. As a kid, I fished irregularly at best. For a few years, I lived barely a cast away from an artificial lake liberally stocked with bluegill which me and my buddies proceeded to assassinate at a terrifying pace: sometimes pulling as many as 100 a day out on cheese bait and marshmallows. Despite living near the ocean, I only managed to go out once on a day boat to Catalina and in addition to the many mackeral I pulled in that trip, I managed to land a bonito (which narrowly lost the jackpot to a fair-sized halibut, I might add). I once caught a trout while on vacation in Colorado. This is about the sum total of my fishing experience. As an adult, to say that I am an indifferent fisherman would be generous. I can't even remember the last time I picked up a pole. This is why I was as surprised as anyone recently when, while flipping the channels on my satellite system, I landed on the BASSMASTERS program on ESPN2 and ACTUALLY STAYED THERE AND WATCHED IT. I watched the program in its entirety and, I must admit, it was not uninteresting. I was a little surprised, to say the least, when I saw these men jumping aroung like maniacs, dancing on their boats, and otherwise acting goofy and hamming it up for the cameras whenever they caught each fish. Needless to say, one of the loudest was Mike Iaconelli. I remembered that name Several days later, as I perused the new titles shelves of my local library, serendipity intervened and this book, FISHING ON THE EDGE, popped out at me. I added it to my growing stack of books to look at and possibly review this week. I read FISHING ON THE EDGE in one sitting. Iaconnelli broke down the sport of BASS tournament bass fishing for me--a sport and a league I hardly knew existed a week prior--and he made it interesting enough that I may just check out those ESPN programs again the next time I am flipping through channels. FISHING ON THE EDGE is Mike Iaconelli's auto-biography, but it is also more than that. It is an introduction to tournament bass fishing which includes not a few of the sport's dirty little secrets. Iaconelli pulls no punches when he exposes the sometimes shocking behavior of the other pros on tour, the tournament officials, and even himself from time to time. But, outsider that he is (a New Jersey hip-hop kid in a sport dominated by southern good ole boys), he displays a deep affection and respect for the sport and for the sport's greatest stars. I also learned quite a bit about fishing itself. Sprinkled throughout FISHING ON THE EDGE, Iaconelli offers generous sidebars which shed light on everything from his theories about tackle, technique, lures, boat positioning, and his favorite fishing locales as well as a guided tour of his several tattoes and his suggestions for how to watch a bass tournament as a spectator. Underlying it all, is the portrait of the man himself: what motivates him and how he came to become a champion bass fisherman. As inspiring as the story is, I have no desire to be a bass fishing pro. Those guys work too hard. However, I may just have to sneak out to the lake one weekend this summer and see if i can land me my first bass. Go Ike! I'll be routing for you at this year's Classic. Jeremy W. Forstadt
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