Doing it his way

Anyone who likes a good fishing story is sure to love one that unfolded at the climactic ending of the Major League Fishing Toyota Series bass tournament held recently at Lake Truman in Warsaw, Mo. There, 35-year-old pro angler Hunter Baughman of Judsonia, Ark., whipped the best sticks in the Plains Division and won his first big league event. While the $33,929 payday is by far the richest Baughman has ever reeled in, he says the sense of accomplishment that came with the win packs a value that no amount of money could buy. “What a blessing,” he said. “This has been a long time coming.”

Hunter’s Story

Baughman is an affable angler with a great sense of humor, a compelling life history and a gripping story to tell that is as inspiring as they come. He comes from an outdoors family whose lifestyle has steered him to the woods and water for as long as he can remember. Crappie fishing on the Arkansas River and deer hunting in the tall hills of Conway County are among his fondest memories of a childhood lived out in the face of physical adversity that still follows him around today. Baughman was only nine-months old when he contracted bacterial meningitis and nearly died. He spent three months in the hospital and endured 10 surgeries. The illness resulted in the loss of both legs below the knees, his left hand and partial loss of the fingers on his right hand.

“At one point I had a 113 degree temperature,” Baughman said. “Doctors wanted to turn off my life support — they said I would be brain dead if I did survive. But my parents wouldn’t allow it. It’s a miracle that I survived, but I did. I’m really strong on my faith because of it, too. I know God let me live for a reason.” Baughman says being “limb-challenged” has certainly raised some hurdles in life, but he has never let the disability get him down or stop him from going after the things he loves. If anything, living with the condition has thrown fuel on a fire that feeds a fierce, competitive spirit that spills over into just about everything he does.

Can’t is a word that does not exist in Baughman’s vocabulary. It never has.

“Sitting around feeling sorry for myself has never been an option,” he said. “My parents always treated me normal. Fishing and hunting has always been a way of life for us and I’ve always had to figure out my own ways to do things and make it work. I’ve never known anything different. Everything is a challenge. Where there is a will there is a way.”

Baughman says he wore prosthetic legs early in life, but hated every minute of it because they weren’t comfortable and made him feel unstable. He stopped wearing them when he was about 13 and never put them on again until his wedding day in 2013.

“I got fitted for a set so I could dance with my wife, Andrea, at our wedding reception,” he said. “I took them off after that and haven’t put them back on since. They are standing in the closet and still have a pair of cowboy boots stuck on them that we can’t get off.”

Finding A Way in Fishing

Baughman tried playing sports like basketball and soccer as a youngster but quickly found out he lacked the mobility to be as competitive as he would have liked. That’s when he turned his attention to tournament fishing, a sport he had only watched on television until he was a teenager. Always pretty handy with a rod and reel, Baughman felt like he could be competitive in fishing. He entered his first tournament back in 2000, the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza held on the Arkansas River. Only 13 at the time, he fished the event with is dad, but not before negotiating a deal with a local dealership to loan them a boat for the three-day event. “My folks were meat fishermen and we fished mostly for crappie,” he recalled. “All we had at the time was a little flatbottom with an 8-horsepower motor. We needed something bigger.” The tournament debut didn’t go very well, but it perked Baughman’s competitive juices enough that he stuck with the game and kept on plugging. He actually got his first bass boat before he owned a truck to pull it with. Baughman eventually began entering local team tournaments and weekday jackpots with his cousin, Brad Sherrill. The men have won several local team tournaments and championships since 2008, and Baughman earned the Angler of the Year title the last two years in another local individual circuit. He is also the 2018 Mr. Bass of Arkansas champion.

Additionally, Baughman has competed in more than a dozen MLF Toyota Series events since 2010 and nearly 30 MLF Bass Fishing League events. He joined the National Professional Fishing League in 2021, but missed part of one tournament when he raced home for the birth of his now 16-month old daughter, Kinley. He will finish up the 2022 NPFL season in November on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Florida.

Master of Improvisation

Through it all, Baughman has developed his own fishing style and learned to figure out ways to get stuff done when he needs to. He had to, because fishing comes with its own set of inherent challenges and things are forever changing out there — on the water and off. Baughman likes to think he can handle most problems and chores as good as the next guy, although he may have do things a little differently. He is a master of improvisation.

To wit: Baughman once owned a riding mower modified by a commode plunger he strapped to the power pedal. He used the plunger handle as an extension he could reach with his knee to make the machine accelerate and stop.

“There are millions of things like that people take for granted, but I have to think about,” he said. “I do things it my way.” B a u g h m a n ’ s quick-thinking ability has gotten him out of some jams over the years. One of his closest calls happened when he was fishing alone at Greers Ferry Lake in Arkansas. The February water temperature was in the 40s and the cap of the boat was glazed in ice. Baughman’s crankbait got hung up and he inched close to try to work it loose.

“When I laid down on my belly my hand slipped on the ice and in the water I went,” he said. Baughman can swim, but elected not to try to reach shore in his heavy winter clothing. He swam for the boat’s transom instead, where he wedged his body between the Power Pole and the outboard engine.

“I bear-hugged the motor, raised it with the trim switch and rolled back into the boat,” he said. “I had a change of clothes, so I was able to fish the rest of the day.” It’s logical to assume that getting around in a bass boat might be somewhat difficult, but Baughman says it isn’t so.

“I walk on my knees and I’m shorter than everybody else, but I can get from the front deck to the back deck about as fast as you can if I need to,” he chuckled.

Man with a Message

If it sounds like Baughman doesn’t mind talking casually about his condition, that’s because he doesn’t. He says there is no place in his life for sympathy or special treatment. He just wants to be one of the guys. That’s the message he passes along every chance he gets when attending speaking engagements for churches, youth groups and high school fishing teams.

“Never give up,” he said. “Some people are like me — they face a lot of stuff you can see. Others face a lot of stuff on the inside that you can’t see. Everybody faces something. You just have to grab hold of it and beat it, whatever it is. Live with what you’ve got and make the best out of it. That’s what I try to do.”

It seems to be working pretty well so far.

Matt Williams is a free lance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail, mattwillwrite4u@ yahoo.com.