SCHULTZ: I sense that you almost wish one of them, at least, had pursued fishing as a career.
COOK: I don’t know….only if they really wanted it for themselves. I see people dabble in professional fishing. Others come up to me at a sports show and say how they would love do what I do for a living. Well, it all comes back to obsession. You have to be obsessed 24/7 at an early age in order to develop the skills and knowledge…and the drive. To be successful at this, you have to live and breathe it all the time because it’s so competitive nowadays. The young kids that we taught to fish are amazing; how well they understand how to catch bass nowadays is something else. That’s probably the biggest change I’ve witnessed over the past five years. That along with equipment. It’s incredible how much better these guys are at catching fish than when we were starting out!
SCHULTZ: The new generation of competitive anglers!
COOK: Yep. They observed everything we were doing 10 years ago and expanded on it. It’s always been like that, but it seems like it’s more accelerated now with these guys. These young guys are really good.
SCHULTZ: They are good. It’s getting hard to compete with some of the rookies.
COOK: Very hard! They’ve got all that stamina and enthusiasm, and that obsession. They live it 24/7. I won’t lie to you; there are a lot of distractions when you get older. Kids, grandkids…you just don’t have the time.
SCHULTZ: Sponsor obligations?
COOK: Yeah, sponsor obligations, travel time, etc.
SCHULTZ: Plus, you started Tarbone Ranch. Tell us a bit about that.
COOK: I actually graduated with a degree in wildlife management. I’ve always had an interest in hunting as well as fishing. After I began to achieve success in fishing, One of my goals was to buy some land and manage it as a deer ranch. A few years back I decided I wanted to high-fence it so that I could better manage the properties I had. Now, I guess it’s well on its way to becoming my retirement plan.
When I get tired of traveling, I’ll stay home and manage my little hunting ranch and grow a few big deer. It’s a commercial hunting area, so I’ll be able to sell deer hunts, some elk hunts possibly, and some turkey hunts. I may stay home and guide a few hunters on an annual basis, make a little profit and grow big deer, which is one of my passions.
SCHULTZ: How big is the ranch?
COOK: It’s only 320 acres, but it’s well situated. It’s as good a wildlife property as there is in the world. It’s got water, woods, grasslands. There’s a good mix, and the genetics there are good, even though I brought in more genetics to improve the herd. The key element is to let the deer get older, and to feed them, that way they’ll reach their potential. Big whitetails are in demand, so hopefully I’ll have hunters that want to come shoot my deer. It will be a good thing. I’m looking forward to some of that.
I’ve shot deer all my life, and I’ve killed enough of them. Over the last few years I’ve gotten a lot of pleasure out of taking a novice out turkey hunting, or watching a kid shoot his first deer. Hopefully that will be my legacy, having helped somebody catch some fish, or helped them shoot a deer… just helped them have fun in the outdoors. I guess it goes back to being a fisheries biologist. You want to help people shorten the time between bites, and to enjoy the outdoors. And that’s one of the ways we’ll preserve the outdoors, to have more participants. They’ll help us protect what we have, and improve on it hopefully.
SCHULTZ: You have a reputation for being a savvy hunter. My former roommate on the B.A.S.S. tour, Joe Thomas, always praised your hunting skills. Would you rank yourself as good a hunter as you are a fishermen?
COOK: Better actually. I think that’s one of those skills I developed by living my life in the outdoors. It’s another thing I’m obsessed with, I guess. I look back over my life as a hunter and I achieved just about every goal I set for myself. I went to Alaska and killed a brown bear with my bow the week after I won the Classic (laughing).
SCHULTZ: That was a good week!
COOK: You don’t do those things just everyday. I’ve been to Africa a couple of times, and tournament fishing made all that possible. I think I have the ability to relate to the outdoors, whether it’s hunting or fishing. If I have a gift, that’s it.