Bobby Murray: Doctorate In Bass Fishing
BOBBY MURRAY IS a doctor. Not in the sense of he’s checking your pulse and giving you a couple of aspirin with instructions to call him in the morning kind of doctor, but he’s got a Ph. D.
That endowment comes from decades of on-the-water experience. You know the scenario where a flurry of bites or a strong day on the water creates a situation that cures everything? No sickness could ever permeate that situation. That’s the kind of doctor Murray has become.
Bassmaster gives him that title after a fishing trip that started with these words from Dr. Murray: “You can become a doctor before you can become a productive, competitive professional angler. It takes more studying and focus to become an angler than it does to become a doctor.”
Murray’s statement is grounded in a retirement that has him fishing a lot with none other than retired doctors, with some lawyers and businessmen mixed in.
“It’s become really obvious there are a lot of fishermen out there, guys who can buy a fishing license and then go chunk and wind,’’ Murray said. “But you can’t buy what it takes to become an angler. You have to learn it and earn it.”
Let’s settle into the fact that Murray is old school. He helped start this crazy world of tournament bass angling. At 76 years old, he grouses about things, but with two Bassmaster Classic trophies and a Hall of Fame career, he’s earned the right. One of the first things the
