Redlands’ Brent Ehrler is not a big fish eater, which is ironic. He sure does like to catch them as shown by his $3 million-plus in career earnings as a professional angler.
Asked if he enjoys eating fish, Ehrler said, “Not really. I like mostly salt-water fish – yellow tail tuna and some sushi.”
That’s not what he catches as a guy with nine career victories and a Forest Wood Cup title in 2006. His first-year efforts on the Bassmaster Elite Series earned him Rookie of the Year honors and a spot in the 2016 Bassmaster Classic. The year before that also saw him crowned as the champion of the Toyota Texas Bass Classic on the famous Lake Fork in Texas.
He now competes in the Bassmaster Elite Series and Jack Link’s Major League Fishing events. He is currently competing on Stage One of the Bass Pro Tour in West Monroe, Louisiana.
“I’ve always liked the outdoors,” Ehrler, 44, said. “From an early age I lived outside, riding BMX bikes and hiking. I was always outdoors. I like being outside because every day is different.”
And it started at the pond in Redlands’ Ford Park.
The son of Clelan “Butch” Ehrler and Lorraine Ehrler, the future pro got his start by fishing on the bank of Ford Park while his mom ran around the pond.
Later, his parents took him to Lake Havasu or Lake Powell to try his hand, and he also tried fly fishing with relatives near Mt. Shasta.
“When I got older, I started doing tournaments and joined the Bass Club at Riverside City College,” Ehrler said.
The Loma Linda Academy graduate eventually found his way to La Sierra University in Riverside where he majored in business. But he didn’t have a clear direction and wound up “swinging a hammer” (as he put it) as a construction worker with his father-in-law.
He thought he’d do construction to support his fishing on the pro circuit but when the economy took a dive in the early part of the new millennium, but his FLW Cup victory in 2006 was a godsend.
“The market crashed right when my fishing took off,” Ehrler said.
Ehrler now has his own website, has fished in Spain and Japan, has been on television and has a slew of sponsors including Mercury, GoPro, Garmin, Marine, Sunline and Lucky Craft of Costa Mesa, for whom his wife Kelley works.
Asked about the pressure of competing, Ehrler said, “It’s self-induced. It’s a good motivator and gets me up in the morning and maximizing the time spent from sunrise to sunset. The sponsors all want to win, and you want to do right by them and show them they’ve made the right decision to invest in this guy.”
The events around the country run four days. Everyone fishes for the first three and then the top five – determined by cumulative weight – vie on the fourth day.
Ehrler has nine events on the schedule this year. He normally brings along a mountain bike – a pastime which caused him some pain recently on a trail in Dallas.
He was in Texas for an MLF Cup Event and visited a park known for its single-track (narrow trail, with difficult technical features). Ehrler hit a portion with numerous consecutive jumps and took a dive.
“I went over the handlebars and landed funny,” he said. “I broke my ribs and had a partial collapsed lung. It was about four weeks until my ribs felt better.”
Ehrler is healthy now and normally back in Redlands with wife Kelley and 10-year-old son Ollie except for weeks like this one where he is competing.
Quizzed about how long he’ll compete, Ehrler said, “I’m not sure how long I’ll do it. It’s not like baseball or football where you stop when you’re 45.”
John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@redlandscommunitynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @PrepDawg2.”
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