California
Pro Discusses His Move the the National
Guard Team
Story
by Pete Robbins - Photo by Mark Jeffreys
Redlands,
Ca. – California's Brent Ehrler has quickly developed into a star on various levels of FLW Outdoors competition. Most notably, he won the 2006 FLW Tour Championship on Logan Martin and pocketed a half million bucks for the victory. That trophy serves as a bookend to the Stren (then EverStart) championship hardware that he won in '04 on Kentucky's Lake Cumberland.
The one constant over the past three years for Ehrler has been his Lucky Craft wrapped boat and truck. It's a plum sponsorship, the crème de la crème of lure companies and one look down LC's pro-staff list reveals that he's walking in tall cotton.
So fishing fans may have been surprised to learn that he's joined the National Guard team for '08, and his boat and truck will be wrapped accordingly.
The news begs the following questions: (1) Did he have a falling out with Lucky Craft; and (2) Was it just a matter of the National Guard offering more money?
The answer to both questions is a resounding "no," he told
the BASS ZONE.
"Lucky Craft is still one of my biggest sponsors. I've always thought it would be great to be on a team, and the National Guard talked to me after I first won the (Tour) championship, but the timing wasn't right. I felt that my current sponsors had gotten me there and I didn't want to be someone who bounced around."
He's convinced that the move will be a win-win-win situation. He'll get the privilege of representing the Guard. The Guard will get the benefit of his enthusiasm and fishing expertise. And he firmly believes that it will also benefit his other sponsors, including Lucky Craft. In fact, the head of Lucky Craft USA, Minoru
Segawa, contributed to the decision.
"After I won the Championship, I walked the show with Minoru," Ehrler said. "He saw big pictures of lots of the other fishermen, but my picture wasn't anywhere. It's just a business fact that they promote the anglers who are on the FLW sponsor teams. Minoru understood that I would get a lot more exposure for all of my sponsors, including Lucky Craft, by getting in FLW magazine, on TV and in their promotions, and I could do that if I got on a team."
He is still amazed by how it all came together. Now that he's seen how the Guard operates, he's even more amazed by their commitment to the sport and to our country.
"I just came back from an orientation about a week and a half ago. I didn't know all that much about them before that, but just being around them, I realized they're an awesome organization. They are working hard to have a great presence and I can't think of a better team to be on."
With the position on the team come new responsibilities, but he considers them more along the lines of opportunities. "I'll be working the Fun Zones after every Tour event," he said. "This way I'll get to meet a lot of people. I'll also get to take out people from local Guard units and take them fishing." Thus, he'll have multiple platforms not only to work for the National Guard, but also to show off the latest products from other sponsors like Lucky Craft and Berkley.
