Seth Feider, fresh voice/vision: Rising star at Schaumburg Show

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Seth Feider brings truth.

And a fresh sharp take on chasing the dream of being a professional fisherman.

“Honestly, [professional fishing] ain’t for everyone,’’ Feider said Wednesday as he prepped to come down from Minnesota to the Chicago area. “You have to be willing to live in buddies’ basements. I was crashing on couches and sleeping in my truck.’’

“If you currently have a really good job, I recommend keeping it and fishing weekend tournaments. Majority of us [pros] are scrapping.’’

I look forward to seeing and hearing him at the Chicagoland Fishing, Travel & Outdoor Expo. The area’s big fishing show opens Thursday at Schaumburg Convention Center and runs through Sunday.

There will be a plethora of big fishing stars, including Mike Iaconelli and Ish Monroe from bass fishing; Jim Saric, Joe Bucher and Steve Herbeck on muskies; and Marianne Huskey on walleye.

Feider fished team tournaments for years and worked jobs–construction, carpeting, apartment maintenance–that allowed him to take the time off to fish tournaments, before he tried the Bassmaster Elite Series.

“First year, I literally didn’t make a dollar,’’ Feider said. “This year I made a little bit. Next year I basically got my [costs covered already].’’

What changed things was the end of the second year as an Elite. He made a charge to second in the tournament on the Mississippi River out of LaCrosse, Wis. He was not familiar with that stretch of the Mississippi, but it was similar to what he fished upstream in Minnesota.

That finish qualified him for the Angler of the Year tournament on Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota in September. He tore it up, averaging more than 25 pounds of smallmouth bass a day to win by more than 7 pounds.

“I’m a smallmouth guy, but I pride myself on versatility,’’ he said. “I am not great at [just] any one thing.’’

Smallmouth will be his main focus at Schaumburg, but he will also bring insight on largemouth bass, too. Feider, who should be around the Daiwa booth among other sponsors, will present at 2:30 p.m. Friday, noon Saturday and 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

He knows our local waters. He is friends with Mike Hoese of Crown Point, Ind. Together they have fished Angler’s Dream tournaments in Indiana for smallmouth on Lake Michigan. They have also fun fished for largemouth at Willow Slough.

From his travels, Feider said Mille Lacs has surpassed Green Bay as the top smallmouth water. For largemouth bass, he likes the sheer size of them in the California Delta.

Some fishing stars have tunnel vision. Feider is focused, but he enjoys the down time in the tournament season over the winter when he can hunt deer and ducks. Take his Christmas Eve, when he went shed hunting and found three antlers. He shot no big bucks this year, but put meat in the freezer from does.

All the same, he was happy to mention his boat wrap will be done before the show and he will be back fishing within days.

“You have to love it more than anything and being willing to do anything,’’ he said of the professional fishing life.

Click here for information on the “Schaumburg Show.”


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