Boyd Duckett's Keys to Winning Bass Tournaments
Balancing Family and Business
 Editor’s Note: At the end of August, 2007, the 2007 Bassmaster Classic champion, Boyd Duckett of Demopolis, Alabama, won the B.A.S.S. Legends tournament and $250,000 at Arkansas’ Lake Dardanelle, bringing his total winnings in bass tournaments during 2007 to nearly $1 million. Never before has a tournament bass fisherman won as much money in as short a time on the B.A.S.S. circuit as Duckett. Besides finishing in the top-10 in eight, 2007 B.A.S.S. tournaments, Duckett also won the Ultimate Match Fishing Tournament, earning $76,000, and the Bassmaster Classic, earning $500,000. “I’ve won about another $115,000 this year in Bassmaster Tour Elite events,” Duckett says. At this writing, Duckett has won a total of $961,000 for 2007 and still has one tournament left to fish before the end of the year to possibly break the $1 million mark in one year from tournament winnings. He’s also currently in 10th place for Angler of the Year, which will pay about $20,000.
Question: Are you going to have to make a choice between tournament bass fishing and your company, Southern Tank Leasing?
Duckett: No, I’m going to do them both.
Question: How will you do that?
Duckett: I don’t know, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I’ve asked myself the same question over the last few years, but I’ve gotten much better at doing it. In this day of laptops and cell phones, I can keep up with my business wherever I am, even on a global scale. That’s what I do. When I come in from fishing a tournament, I use my laptop and my cell phone to check on my business and deal with any situations or problems that have come up while I’ve been fishing. I’ve always been a really-busy person. I was in the music business for 10 years and had a song-publishing and artist-management company.
Question: What artists did you manage?
Duckett: Joe Diffie was my first artist, then Ty Herndon of Butler, Alabama, and Tim McGraw, as well as other less-we ll-known musicians. I’ve always been very busy, so being a tournament bass fisherman and running a business at the same time really hasn’t been that much of an overload for my schedule.
Question: Gerald Swindle, the great bass fisherman from Warrior, Alabama, once told me, “Winning and being successful is not about what you get, but about what you’re willing to give up to be successful.” What have you had to give up to be as successful in the fishing and leasing businesses as you’ve been?
Duckett: One of the things that’s been pretty bad is that I’m about 14 months into a divorce.
Question: Is the divorce related to your fishing success?
Duckett: Probably. Any professional athlete in any major sport must dedicate himself to that sport or endeavor to be successful. The same is true for businessmen. To be that successful, you must be extremely selfish with your time. I think that’s probably the biggest sacrifice you have to make – you don’t have much time for anybody or anything else.
Question: How has your family handled your bass-fishing success?
Duckett: Well, like I’ve said, I’m 14 months into a divorce. So, my bass fishing hasn’t really worked out for them.
Tomorrow: Set Future Goals
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