Check-in Time: Tom Monsoor

What an FLW pro is up to right now

From time to time, FLW checks in with its anglers to find out what they’ve been up to, what they’re listening to, who they’re following and where they’re heading while out on the tournament trail. This week, we caught up with Wisconsin pro Tom Monsoor. 

What are you up to lately?

I’ve been fishing, well, until about two months ago. I quit fishing as soon as November came and it got cold. But I did win a big team tournament solo against some of the best guys around here, so that was a nice way to end the year. Since then I’ve been doing nothing but making jigs. I’ve made about 1,000, I think, so far this year. I try to do a dozen jigs per day, or sometimes two dozen if I can. I make all kinds of jigs, from swim jigs to Arkie heads to football jigs. I even make spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. I like to have the best hook I can, and I found that making my own stuff was the best way to do that.

Where are you headed next?

As soon as my boat is done being worked on I’m going to head to Florida. I’ll probably head down right after Christmas. It’s nice to be able to pre-practice a little on the Harris Chain, but it’s even nicer to go on vacation away from winter. I’ll stay down in Florida until I have to leave for Texas. I don’t usually get to pre-practice much on other lakes, but I try to make it to Florida since that’s where we usually start the season. Trust me, I’d rather be there than here any day.

What do you like to do to pass time in the winter?

I used to go ice fishing, but now I just make lures. I try to make a couple dozen of each color in each lure I think I’m going to need. I’m pretty much done making lures for the year, though. Now I’m making spinnerbaits for Rayburn, and that’ll be about it. I’m starting to get down to where I’m almost out of stuff to make, so that’s when I know it’s time to go fishing.

You have a pretty impressive antique lure collection. Have you added to it recently?

I’ve probably got at least 100 good new ones. It’s ridiculous. The other day a buddy of mine that’s a lure collector posted a picture of a Heddon Game Fisher in the frog scale color that he got. It’s not easy to come across – especially in that color. So, I got online and started looking for one, and I found one. It was the first time I’ve seen one for sale online, and I bought it right away. It wasn’t perfect, and I paid $500 for it, but weird how that happened. Seeing my buddy post about the one he found inspired me to look. There are some things you just don’t find. You can look for 10 years, and then, bang, one shows up.

What’s your favorite bait in the collection?

I have a green [Heddon] Black Sucker that’s really cool. I’ve got, like, four or five of them. But the green color is hard to find. I actually got it from a guy a bought a collection of Heddon Dummy Doubles from. He called me back a while after I bought the collection and told me he had a green Black Sucker and I had to have it. I paid $10,000 for it. I thought I was luckier than hell to get one.

What bait or technique are you trying to master right now?

I just want to fish a jig more. I kind of got away from it, even though I still throw it a lot. But back when I fished with nothing but the jig I was hard to beat. I won on the Potomac with it [in the 2017 Tour event]. Then I won that team championship this fall on it. It works, and it works everywhere. I love a black and blue jig. I just want to go back to the basics. They’ll have to not be eating the jig at all for me to throw something else.