Introducing the Advanced Angler.com, an interview with Managing Editor Dan O'Sullivan
 

Introduction: We sit down with Dan O'Sullivan, an industry veteran and Managing Editor of a new site, officially launching today, called the Advanced Angler. This project is designed to create a place for anglers to get information about tournament news, angler communication, industry buzz as well as techniques to help anglers improve their own fishing effectiveness.

Zander: Hi Dan, thanks for taking the time to talk to us, before we get into your new project let’s explore a little bit about your past and what brought you to this point. Let’s kick things off with when you first discovered a passion for fishing?

Dan: I’ve fished pretty much my whole life in one form or another.  My grandfather and uncles on my Mom’s side of the family did some commercial salmon fishing for a while in Oregon, and I was always interested in it.  I started fishing for trout and bluegill when I was around eight years old in Auburn after we moved there from the Bay Area. 

 Meet Dan O'Sullivan (center), experienced Outdoor Writer and now Managing Editor of Advanced Angler.com

We had a little creek in the hills behind our house that had bluegill in it, and a water storage lake about a mile and a half away that we would ride our bikes to and fish for trout in.  My Dad was a teaching Golf pro at the time, and I started discovering bass fishing in the ponds on the courses he worked at.

When I was 12, a friend of my Dad’s, who had fished several of the U.S. Bass and original Western Bass events took me to Lake Oroville to fish for smallmouth out of his Monark McFast 5 bass boat.  I couldn’t sleep the night before, and we only caught one fish that day on a Charlie Brewer Slider Worm, but I was hooked on bass fishing from that point on.

Dan interviews Pro Angler Michael Bennett

Zander: I know that you were also quite the baseball player prior to being involved in the fishing industry as well, can you tell us a little more about that?

Answer - I loved, and still love baseball, I think it is the most poetic form of sport there is.  Baseball has a unique rhythm that is part symphony and chess match mixed with moments of absolute violence when it comes to the explosion of a pitcher’s release and a hitter letting it all go in pursuit of perfect contact.

I played a lot of different sports, and lettered in soccer, golf, baseball and football in high school, and was even an All League linebacker and punter at Del Oro High School in 1988.  But, baseball was my first love.

After High School, I played at The Master’s College, a Christian College in an NAIA league in Southern California about 10 minutes from Castaic Lake.  I was the starting catcher for my team and first team All District for three years, and was named to the NAIA All America team my sophomore and junior years.

I was scouted by all 26 Major League teams in high school, and most of the teams again in college.  I found out in the fall of my senior year that I had torn my rotator cuff that would require major reconstructive surgery.  It was then that I found competitive bass fishing with my Dad, who had gotten into fishing by then too.

Dan spends a lot of time working with the Pro Anglers, here he takes a victory shot of Pro Angler Brent Ehrler

Zander: Very cool, let’s transition now to writing and how you started out writing about fishing and what were your goals were when it came to being a published outdoor writer?

Dan: I started writing a column for an organization called New Bass in 1993 for their pullout section in The Fish Sniffer Magazine.  My first published column was called New Bass Pro-File on a Northern California angler named Nate Lemons in early 1994 I believe.  The organization got several comments about it, so the column went on for the next two years.

After that I began writing for West Coast Bass News, then Western Bass again at The Fish Sniffer, where I did the bulk of my work from 1998 through 2005 or so.   During that time I helped Vince Harris at Future Pro Tour build his organization for five years as a staff member.  I helped him run tournaments, and act as a communications consultant when he needed it.  In 2007 I got the opportunity to work with ESPN Communications during the West Coast Swing of the Bassmaster Elite Series.  It was there that I met Mark Jeffreys of BASS ZONE .com, whom I worked for the rest of 2007 and 2008 until I did a stint with the PAA. 

I spent three years working with River2Sea helping them write catalog descriptions as well as some marketing, sales, press release construction and distribution. In December of 2008 I went to work at Bass West USA with Tony Stoltz and MAM Marketing. 

I’ve also worked with Skeet Reese on his personal website since around that time, and was there when he won the Classic in 2009.  Seeing him achieve that milestone was amazing, and being able to experience the elation through him, his family and friends during that was something I’ll never forget.  That brings us to the current time, I’m sure I’m leaving a few things out, but oh well.

Skeet blasts off at the 2008 Classic

What’s interesting about that time was that I held a full time job as a Safety Coordinator at HP, Account Manager of a Fortune 500 janitorial company and a Property Manager all the way through May of 2008, when I went full time in the fishing industry.  My wife and I also owned Lim-it Lures of California, a small premium tackle company from 2002 to 2006, a company we purchased from our friend Bob Lim, and subsequently sold to another friend Paul Cunningham, who still operates it today.  Looking at it now, I don’t know how we did it all.

I knew early on in my first few articles that I wanted to share stories with readers.  I liked getting the opportunity to take an angler’s thoughts and finding a way to help communicate their message with the everyday angler that drives our sport.

When I first developed the love of writing, I knew; like I had done in my baseball life that I would set a goal to be involved at the highest levels.  My Dad and I became members of B.A.S.S. almost immediately after watching an episode of The Bassmasters on TNN. 

Skeet's 2009 Classic Victory

When I started writing and getting published, I started dreaming of writing for Bassmaster, and seeing my name next to guys like Tim Tucker, Steve Price and Louie Stout, and Westerners George Kramer and Mike Jones.

Steve Price and Louie Stout are my personal favorite national writers currently, as is Don Barone who writes for B.A.S.S. and Wired2Fish.  I’ve gotten a chance to work around all of those guys quite a bit over the past several years, and they are all true professionals that I look up to.  My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to meet Tucker, I hear he was tough, but everyone who worked around him has great respect for his work, and what he did for the profession.

I was published in BASS Times for the first time in 2008 by then Editor Matt Vincent, and have done a few pieces for them over the past three years.  Ken Duke Senior Editor at Bassmaster .com has become a good friend and been really good to me with space on that website.  I’ve recently had two submissions, well one submission and an assignment by chance truthfully, accepted for the February issue of Bassmaster Magazine by James Hall. 

A Story called Off the Wall Football will be in there as will a story about Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay and his day fishing with Skeet Reese on Clear Lake will also be in that issue.

That’s a long way around your question, but it’s the story.

Another of Dan's shots from last year's Classic where KVD was once again Champion

Zander: Is there anything you don’t like about being an outdoor writer?

Dan: About the profession, no.  I am extraordinarily blessed to be doing what I love, in an industry that I care about.  I get a chance to work with great anglers and tell great stories.  I get to try and find new ways to communicate topics that have been told for years, and learn about the cutting edge products and tactics that anglers use to win on tour.

I also get to share those with the angling public, which hopefully enhances their ability to enjoy their hobby.  My ultimate feeling is that I get to be a servant to the industry I love, to the anglers I respect and the readers who deserve getting as accurate a portrayal of the news as I can.

Pro Angler John Crews with his signature Little John crankbait

The biggest difficulty I face is that the profession can cause a burden on my wife Christina and my three daughters.  There are days I’m not here, even when I am in the same house.  Deadlines stack up, projects need to be completed or I travel.  While I thoroughly enjoy the work and being in the middle of some of the great stories our sport produces; I miss my family and know that it places an unfair burden on Christina at times.

Fortunately, she is behind me and supportive of the career choices.  Aside from the occasional time that it becomes too much and things get overwhelming, we seem to manage okay.  I know I can always improve, and it’s never perfect, but we do alright.  Her support and knowing she stands with me in this are really the proudest moments I have in all of it.

Being close to the action means getting the shot

Next Section: First look at the Advanced Angler