Every now and then comes a truly remarkable story related to bass fishing in West Virginia and this one is one that I have found not only remarkable but incredible. A story that is compelling yet explains the true meaning of what it’s like being in the moment “when it’s meant to be for you to win”.
Josh Workman and his nephew Devin Fowler from West Virginia recently won the 2023 USA Bassin Bass Cat Silver Cup on Pickwick Lake. A 216-boat field with teams from across the country gathered to participate in the event. While winning the event was the highlight for the duo, the story behind the win is one they will never forget.
To qualify for the USA Bassin Bass Cat Silver Cup you must obtain at least 250 points in the local tournaments held within your local division. Once that is accomplished you qualify for a local regional and as long as you weigh in you qualify for the Bass Cat Silver Cup. Which Workman and Fowler completed back in 2022.
But Workman didn’t start the season off with Fowler in 2022 instead Workman choose to fish with his father, Gary Workman in the USA Bassin’ Series. That was until Gary became sick after the first tournament they had fished.
“Dad and I were standing in the garage and I had all of my state team plaques behind me and Dad just kinda looked at me,” said Workman. “He said ‘I’ve fished with you the last 13 years and I don’t have anything to show for it. I don’t have any plaques, any trophies or any fake checks, I got nothing.’”
That was when Josh decided that it was time for him and his Dad to get that trophy.
“I said, let’s go get you a trophy and we decide to fish everything we knew we could get in that gave away trophies,” said Workman. “April 3rd of 2022 was the first USA Bassin tournament of the year at Sutton. We didn’t have a great day, but it was a day I’ll never forget. It was the last day Dad and I ever spent together on a boat. The very next day Dad got sick.”
Gary spent the next month in the hospital fighting for his life. He would fight his sickness until passing away on May 4th of 2022 in the Hubbard Hospice House.
But what happened after his passing was next to incredible.
“So, while Dad was in the hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, I came back and fished one tournament. I had to ask to see if I could swap partners. I ended up fishing with my nephew Devin Fowler and we saved our points for the season in that one tournament. Immediately after the tournament, I drove back to Cleveland.”
But without fishing that tournament the newly formed duo wouldn’t have qualified.
Fast forward a little less than a year later and Workman and Fowler found themselves qualified for the USA Bassin’ Bass Cat Silver Cup on Pickwick.
“On the first day of practice I didn’t know what I was looking for, I had never been there before,” said Workman of Pickwick Lake. “I looked at the map on my graph and I saw one good-looking creek arm and I cut the boat real hard while driving down the lake. Devin slid out of the seat and said ‘Where are you going?’”
Workman had heard rumblings around the dock that the guys were saying that a lot of the fish were in the postspawn stage and so Workman wanted to check out the mouth of the creek he saw.
“We pulled in there and caught three keepers right off the bat and left it alone the rest of the week.
“On Thursday which was the final day of practice, I woke up at 5 AM and was going to drive an hour upriver to Florence, Alabama. I go outside and I saw I had a flat tire, so I spent the rest of the day trying to get fixed. When we finally got it fixed we ended up just staying pretty close to fish instead of going to Florence and never caught a keeper all day.”
The flat tire while at the time might have seemed like an inconvenience ended up being their saving grace.
“Had we gone up to Florence and caught some, I had it in my mind I was going to go there. Looking back on it now I sure am glad for that flat tire.”
On Friday during the first day of the tournament the duo would return to their creek mouth where they located fish on the first day of practice, but only to find themselves in a bigger disaster right out of the jump.
“First thing that morning I caught a keeper really quick. But I ended up hooking a three-pound largemouth out of a brushpile, got it up to the side of the boat and watched the dropshot hook come right out of its mouth.”
But the worst was yet to come.
“Right after I lost that three-pounder, Devin hooked up with at least a five or six-pound smallmouth that came up and jumped beside the boat and took a hard dive underneath the boat before getting tangled in the trolling motor and breaking off.”
At that point, Workman was thinking they had already blown their chance in the tournament. He sat down in the bottom of the boat, let out his frustration and took a second to chill off.
“I got back up and by 8:30 we ended up catching a limit that went about 14 pounds,” said Workman. “We started running some new water that day and Devin caught two four-pound fish that culled us up another two pounds that landed us in 3rd place after Day 1 with around 16 and a half pounds.”
On Day 2, it proved to be just as tough for the duo who had seven keeper bites the entire day. When returning back to the dock that afternoon they figured that had lost it.
“We came back in and I told Devin it’s going to come down to that big smallmouth you lost yesterday. I wasn’t cutting him any slack at all,” said Workman with a chuckle.
It wasn’t until some chatter around the docks that the duo’s optimism had changed when they heard reports that the leaders and the second-place team didn’t fill a limit.
“I thought oh gosh we actually might win this thing. My wife texted me while I was sitting at the dock and told me that 29 pounds was leading and I figured it up on my phone I had a little over 30 pounds total.”
The duo would end up being the only team from the Top 5 on Day 2 to secure a limit and ultimately after weighing in on the final day would have enough to take home the win. The win included a new Bass Cat Bobcat and 150 horsepower Mercury Outboard.
“I’m still speechless man, it doesn’t feel real,” said Workman. “I have won a few small derbies here and there, but I have never won anything this big. That’s the first tournament I have ever fished out of state and somehow we ended up winning it.”
And while it might have been his first big win out of state, one could only imagine how proud the late Gary Workman is smiling down on the duo’s one-of-a-kind accomplishment. Not only did Josh and Devin win a big trophy and boat but a big part of that trophy and boat would be dedicated to Gary.
