Fishing phenom continues winning ways
Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.
Submitted photos
When Curtis Gossett took his six year-old son Zeke to fish in a local tournament, he noticed something a bit different about his boy and his prowess with a rod and reel.
“I told his mom there was something different about him. Even if she believed me, I don’t think she took it in,” he recalls. “He could do things with a rod and reel at that age that men couldn’t do.”
Curtis was right. At 11, Zeke won his first BASS Junior State Championship and then, another. “His mother came home and said, ‘I understand what you’re talking about now,’” Curtis says with a smile.
From there, Zeke won nine more state championships. All together, he has more than 30 major wins to his credit. In November 2013, the 17-year old junior at Pell City High School and his partner, Hayden Bartee, won the B.A.S.S High School state championship and placed third in the national High School BASSMasters Classic, the Super Bowl of fishing.
His drive to win is evident. He is on the water six days a week. “Sometimes we have to make him stop so his body can rest,” Curtis says. In 2013, he fished 43 out of 52 weekends — 32 were tournaments. And his attitude seems to match his winning ways. “He expects to catch a big fish every time he casts a rod,” his father says.
He is a student of the sport. He studies the internet for insight about lakes he will fish. He looks for varying degrees of water clarity, how deep, how shallow and where. He studies the routes in which they move and their behavior.
“Every fish is different,” Curtis says. They react differently in shallow, deep, cold or warm water. “Like people.”
To illustrate Zeke’s know-how, Curtis recounts a recent fishing trip when Zeke was site fishing and flipped for a fish for more than 30 minutes with a number of baits that was guarding her nest. He finally flipped a jig on her and “You could see her get excited and react to that bait.” The fish hit the jig immediately. Another fish took five flips because their behaviors were different. But, in typical Zeke Gossett style, he patiently figured out the behavior patterns and caught them both.
He listens to mentors, like Randy Howell, another St. Clair Countian who just captured the BASSMasters Classic championship for 2014. When he talks of Howell’s win, the passion in his voice is unmistakable. Perhaps it is because of their friendship that has strengthened since 2008 when he first met him. They go to speaking engagements together at high schools and at Bass Pro Shops.
Or perhaps he sees himself in Howell — the deep religious faith coupled with the heart of a winner.
When Zeke talks about his own love of fishing it is with a quiet confidence that comes with winning. And the winning has brought him a boat load of sponsors on board. He sports sunglasses by Maui Jim. His shirt and boat are filled with big name logos in the fishing world like Pro-Staffs-Strike King Lure Co., Elite Tungsten, Power-Pole and Moment Sportswear.
Fascinated by swim bait, Zeke now has a hand-carved Woodrow Rat Bait Co. lure — about the size and look of its namesake. His father got him for his birthday. Curtis called the San Diego, Cal., company to order it, and when the owner learned who it was for, he shipped it overnight to Zeke to use in a tournament and became a sponsor.
Vicious Fishing may not be Zeke’s biggest sponsor, but it is dear to him because it was his first one — owned by fellow Pell Citians Jeff Martin and his mother, Sylvia Martin.
Sylvia had read about Zeke’s early fishing successes in a local lake magazine, and Vicious became his inaugural sponsor, followed by a litany of others as the trophies mounted.
But the notoriety hasn’t seemed to faze Zeke as he prepares for yet another tournament. There will be plenty of those up ahead, but college will be his next stop after high school. And then, his quest for a spot on the pro circuit will begin.
He credits his even temperament with helping him get so far so fast, he says. He calls it a “waste of time” to get angry when fishing isn’t going his way. “You’ve got to get another bite and make up for it,” he says. “You get even.”
He prepares himself mentally for each round with prayer and determination. “I pray a lot,” he says. “It’s the easiest thing to do, but it’s the most powerful thing to do. You never give up. Even when things are going badly, it’s just another day on the water.”
For more on Zeke and Vicious Fishing, read the April & March 2014 online or printed edition of Discover The Essence of St. Clair.
