So who is Theo Corcoran? He is the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup Co-Angler Champion. Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, this young man hit the stage Thursday in his first ever Cup appearance with a very impressive five fish limit of 14 pounds 13 ounces. No small feat considering 44 of the 46 FLW Pro’s couldn’t match it. He sealed the deal Friday after bringing an additional 11 pounds 13 ounces to the scales for a total two day limit of 10 bass weighing 26 pounds and 10 ounces. His two day weight bested 43 of the Pro’s two day totals.
When asked what words he would use to describe his win, Theo just looked in shock for a monument. It is, after all, a Championship worth $50,000.00. Keep in mind this is a young angler who, the day before, walked on stage in a plain white T-shirt without any sponsors but had the love and support of his family. When Theo was able to gather his thoughts and speak he said, “Duh – I mean there are no words, it’s surreal; I am living the dream.” When asked just how long Theo had been chasing this dream? The emotions had enough time to catch up and he struggled a little with the answer; “Since I was 5 years old.”Choking out the follow-up explaining, “It was my Mother that first took me fishing.”
Theo was given a moment and was then asked when he was going to step to the front of the boat? After a short pause, “do you think you will be jumping to the front next year?” A resounding “NO, No Way”, and a sly smile came across his face as he said, “w-e-l-l-“, everyone erupted in laughter. Theo went on to say, “There’s not any way I’m ready to think about jumping to the front; there is too much to learn.” He thanked his Pro Anglers for all their help and went on to thank FLW for remembering and keeping Co’s as part of the program. He was humble and amazed by the ability they all had shown; from running the boats, to making mental changes–he still has no idea why they did one thing or another on the water. Theo stated he has been flipping and punching from a 14 foot johnboat from the time he w s 12 and knew that was his strength but, these guys, “the Pro Anglers”, are just amazing. It’s awesome to watch them work. He went on to talk about how Mark Rose, his Friday Pro-Angler, was watching the graphs and pointing out fish and saying, oh-look there is a good one; make a cast and put that fish in the boat. They are just awesome like that, I still have a lot to learn.
Theo was thanked for his kind words and sharing his story but Theo was on a role and said, “that’s not a story, let me tell you a story.” He continued: “The day started out being in first place, leading the pack and just hoping I wasn’t going to mess up. I set the hook on a good fish right by the boat and just flipped in a four pounder, well I was going crazy, man I was pumped. Mark was flipping and gets a bite and sets the hook and POW he hits me in the head with a one ounce tungsten weight. Mark was like, DUDE Your Bleeding, and I was like you got a towel and some superglue? Dude you’re bleeding says Mark again.” Theo gets a towel and the superglue from Mark and gives the glue back. He said, “look I’m going to wipe my head and you just glue it up. Mark said cool so I was like wiping my head and Mark said that looks good so I wiped it one more time and told him to fill that bastard up.”
By now you know the crowd had just taken a huge liking to this young man. He was more than a little lost on stage day one, bringing in the highest stringer of the day in a white t-shit, all the while being asked if he was a real-estate salesman. Theo said, “Noooooo I’m just an angler…..” Friday it was DUDE YOUR BLEEDING! All-in-all a great story watching this young man win it from start to finish, great stories given by this young man on stage, two days of great fish and I’d say keep an eye out for him in the future because great things will be coming his way.
Congratulations Theo and thank you not only for the laughs but Chasing all of Our Dream.
Fishing Never Felt So Good!
See You On the Water!
Ronald S. “Fogy” Fogelson, MSgt USAF (Ret)
Administrator Ultimatebass.com
Kistler National Pro Staff
Okuma Reels
El Grande Lures
Lead Pro Staffer KaRu Lures Elite Tungsten
