[Guest]

As some of us know, Jared was a good friend of Bryan Kerchal. The BASS American Major has Bryan as it's name sake.

Jared, this one's for you bud. :cheers: :cheers: I know that you will be out on Santee Cooper while this tournament is taking place, but I do hope that we all take a moment to remember the lasting effect that Bryan had on BASS and bass fishing.

http://thebassholes.com/bassin-forums/index.php?topic=626.from1153856686;topicseen#msg2605

Read the link posted above for more information on this Major tournament.

 

[Jared]

Wow thats very cool that they are naming this new trophy after him! :cheers:

 

[b*girl]

I did not know Jared knew Bryan.

I still can't put into words how that entire series of events effected me, so I can't imagine how it effected Jared.

It makes me happy to know that Bryan is still getting the respect he deserves.

 

[b*girl]

http://www.bryankerchalfund.org/

 

[Jared]

I met Bryan in 91 when I joined my first bass club, The Housatonic Valley Bassmasters. Bryan was the president of the club. We were great friends for those few years before he passed and did all sorts of stuff together, from playing video games to fishing. I cant believe it will be 12 years, since he was taken, this December.

 

[Jared]

I believe a couple of you have seen these images.

As many of you know Bryan, had a whistle he carried during the classic and whenever he put a fish in the livewell he blew the whistle. After his passing the whistle was duplicated, mass produced and sold. His parents also had 100 of these whistles gold plated and numbered to give to family and friends. These are a couple pictures of mine.

 

[Jared]

By the way, tighe aka Tim, my buddy who is co-owner of The Bassholes, was also a friend of Bryan's and was in The Housatonic Valley Bassmasters with us.

 

[b*girl]

I saw the whistles for sale back in the day.
Nice you have a special one.

 

[fish4funinfl]

At the Classic this year..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/Fish4FunInFl/DSCN1113.jpg

 

[Guest]

Jared, that's totally cool about the whistle. I would put it up in a glass box and let her stay there.

I don't rightly remember the events that surrounded his passing, when they actually happened, but being such a big bass angler now, I have read the accounts over and over again, and even though I didn't know him, I am still left with a profound sense of great loss, cause a fellow brother in bass angling was taken.

 

[Jared]

The whistle has been sitting in a sealed glass box since the day I received it. The only time its been out was to take those pictures a couple years ago.

I also have one of the normal green whistles that were being sold back in the day. I keep that one in my tackle bag.

 

[b*girl]

What compounded the tragedy . . . was how he accomplished what he did, as a non-boater, making it to the classic two years in a row, the hardest way there is [through the Federation] . . . he showed all the "weekend anglers" that hey, you could do it too, your classic "Cinderella" "Rags to Riches" "Underdog wins all" story . . . and then it was his success that ironically took his life, his trip was one to meet with sponsors. And he was so young, and charismatic, and full of promise, and his story had the potential to really put bass fishing on the map because of how he got there, and he would be an easy to sell spokesperson for the sport.

 

[imonembad]

I will never forget where I was when I learned of Bryans passing. I had just watched the Bassmaster classic on christmas day and Bryan had won it was so awsome and at the end of the show they ran a trailer that said that said that Bryan had passed. I couldn't believe it and it has always been something i'll never forget.

 

[Jared]

I remember where I was too.

I was coming home from somewhere, I believe it was work, and as I approached my front porch my mother opened the door to greet me. She looked like she saw a ghost and she was teary eyed. I was like "whats wrong???" She replied "It's Bryan... his plane crashed and they think he may have been killed."
I couldnt believe what I was hearing. We prayed hard for hours that he would be one of the survivors. When that phone call came in and I knew he was gone my life was forever changed. I quit fishing tournaments and fishing in general for more than a year. I just couldnt find the joy in it, any longer, for the longest time. Since then I have spoken to his mom a bunch and she is a wonderful lady. One conversation in specific stands out where we spoke for more than an hour, several years back, and made me see where I went wrong for quitting fishing because of Bryan's passing. Now when I go fishing, I'm never fishing for just me. I'm fishing for and with my own personal team: my dad, my grandfather and Bryan.