How to Get a Job in the Fishing Industry with Robby Gant of Shimano and Larry Colombo, Outdoor Writer
 Writing to Become a Part of the Fishing Industry with Larry Colombo
Editor’s Note: According to Larry Colombo of Eufaula, Alabama, “I’ve enjoyed living in Eufaula for 29 years and fishing all over the nation and in some foreign countries. Today, I’m still involved in the outdoors as the outdoor editor for the ‘Eufaula Tribune’ newspaper and feature writer for ‘Great Days Outdoors Magazine.’”
I started writing an outdoor column in my local newspaper in Clinton, Indiana, in the late 1960s. Through Jerry McKinnis and Forrest Wood, I met many people in the fishing industry, including professional fisherman, Tom Mann, who invited me to Eufaula to fish. I went to Eufaula in April of 1971 and several other times and then returned to Indiana and wrote articles about Mann’s Bait Company and Lake Eufaula.
In the late summer of 1973, Ray Scott called from B.A.S.S. and offered me a job. I called Tom Mann to tell him the good news and to ask if he would be one of my references. Mann called back and told me he wanted me to come to  Eufaula and go to work for him. In August, 1973, I went to Eufaula and spent 5 years at Mann’s and then 11 years at Humminbird. Next I went to Tracker Marine in 1989, returning to Humminbird in 1991 and retiring in 2002. All my employment in the fishing industry came about because of my newspaper column. If not for that, I’d probably still be working in industry in Hoosierland.
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