A lot about Bryan Schmitt?

by Dan O’Sullivan

(Editor’s Note: The pictures in this piece were hastily shot in very dark conditions with improper settings, please excuse the grainy finish as they were adjusted for use in this piece)

I don’t know Bryan Schmitt well.

Ashleigh and Dylan Schmitt

I know he is a very talented angler, quite possibly one of the best “grass anglers” on the professional tours.  I know that he has won – a lot – in his career.  At just about every national semi-professional level to the tour levels including BFL, Everstart / Costa / Toyota Series, the former FLW Tour, Bassmaster Opens and the Elite Series – he has won.

15 times he has held trophies aloft, 15 times on bodies of water that confuse many with their vast fields of vegetation.  With those wins and the rest of his events, he’s claimed nearly $1.5-million in combined career earning in the two national organizations, and who knows how much more in local and regional events around his Deale, Md. home.

Knowing statistics that I research on the Internet about a person means that I know data, a collection of facts about his professional career.  I know his style as an angler because I cover the sport. I know his professionalism because I have worked around him and with him at events, but I doesn’t mean I know him.

I know people that do, people who chose to partner with him and that travel with him.  I know people whom I love, respect and trust wholeheartedly who feel the same way

about him, and that fact alone tells me a lot about the man.

The Schmitt’s Pain

I learned more about him in the moments following his second-place finish on Sunday night at the 2023 Bassmaster Classic than I think I could learn in 20 interviews – from his son.

I was pressing the shutter of my Canon, capturing the crowning moment from the floor of the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville as Jeff Gustafson earned the title of a lifetime by pushing Schmitt to second place by a little more than a pound.  During a brief pause in the celebration while Bassmaster emcee Dave Mercer interviewed Gustafson, I glanced to my right to see a young boy hugging his mother.

In a split second, after seeing the jersey and hat he was wearing, matching that of Schmitt, I realized it was his son Dylan and wife Ashleigh (he has a daughter Olivia as well) – I noticed that the young boy was sobbing into his mother’s abdomen.

Fighting back emotion, I turned to continue my task of capturing images of the sparks and confetti for a moment, then turned again to see Schmitt had joined his wife and son in an embrace.  In that moment, I saw dejection, disappointment and pride all in one moment bolstered by the love and strength that only a family can bring.

The Schmitt’s The Love of a Wife

In my life, I’ve learned that sons know their father’s hearts, and they can exude their father’s qualities and frailties and they are often their biggest fans.  Yes, fathers can be

massive disappointments, but to see a son disappointed because he was so invested in his father’s quest to claim the biggest trophy in bass fishing means that man has included his son in his efforts, he has spent time with him enough to have the boy become completely involved in the process.

That’s what I saw from a 10-year-old Dylan Schmitt on the floor of the Bassmaster Classic weigh-in.

As the sparks flew and confetti settled for the man who won, I saw the disappointment of a fan of his dad. I saw pride and I saw the loving embrace of a woman who is equally as invested in the man she chose and the boy she bore.  I saw the desire of a wife, of a mother and a teammate to protect, grieve, comfort, and love her boys through the crushing moment of seeing a dream die for the moment – I saw great pride and the strength to accept and absorb all of the emotions.

I saw LOVE, I saw comforting and I saw a life lesson that while it stung in the moment, is one that brings desire for the next opportunity.  I saw the creation of the security and freedom to dream of the chance to chase it with abandon again because of the family who stands alongside in that pursuit.

In a flash, through tears, it reminded me that I am a son who is intensely proud of my father – the best man I have ever known – and let me tell you that I am fortunate to have known very good men in my life. Men of

Ashleigh’s Pride – No Matter What

faith, character, men of loyalty, dignity, professionalism and decency, and my father is chief among them.

As a son, I imagine that’s what Dylan sees in his father.  I suppose that’s a lot to see in a dozen frames of a shutter – I saw love and pride in the midst of disappointment and pain.

I believe it really says a lot about Schmitt and his family.