Ladson, SC (January 6, 2025) – For a Minnesota native the likes of Bassmaster Opens angler and freshly knighted Z-Man® professional Josh Douglas, a pair of passions have at all times come naturally—ice hockey and bass fishing. Among the many numerous labels hooked up to hockey (snipers, grinders, goons, and many others.), Douglas would possibly finest be described as a playmaker.
In hockey converse, it’s among the highest reward attainable. A playmaker is the competitor who exploits alternatives others miss. It’s a time period reserved for these uncommon athletes who work laborious and play tougher, who assume their means by way of tough circumstances, and who excel and win with a stability of persistence, precision and intelligence. Furthermore, the playmaker goes out of his means to assist others excel of their sport through good-natured steerage.
Douglas, who grew up skating frozen lakes and slapping pucks at nets, ultimately found an excellent deeper expertise for catching bass. “Performed a ton of hockey up by way of highschool, however one thing about bass fishing simply spoke to me on one other degree,” recollects Douglas, whose earliest purpose was to play skilled hockey, ideally as a centerman—aka the staff’s unsung hero and grasp of offense and protection in equal measure.
“My father and stepfather had been bigtime multispecies anglers—bass, walleye, you identify it. However my uncle and grandfather each had a factor for bass, and their ardour for it actually woke up my very own need to chase largemouths and smallmouths for a dwelling.”
Over a decade later, Douglas has excelled on all of the top-level match circuits, with notable success on the Toyota Sequence and Bass Opens starting in 2012-13, Main League Fishing Professional Circuit for six years and two years on the Bassmaster Elite Sequence beginning in 2022. In 2025, Douglas plans to fish as many Bassmaster Opens as humanly attainable.
You would possibly assume a full slate of bass derbies can be sufficient to fill the intrepid angler’s calendar. However when the tourney season ends, Douglas returns to work as maybe the highest trophy smallmouth bass information on his dwelling lake, Mille Lacs, Minnesota.
“At coronary heart, I’m a information and somebody who loves to show individuals about bass fishing,” notes Douglas. “I get as a lot enjoyment watching people hook huge smallmouths as I do catching them myself. I used to be a information earlier than my match profession, and I’ll nonetheless be a information when my competitors days are achieved.”
However when hockey seasons begin and lakes freeze over in late fall, fairly than shuffling out onto the icy floor to moist a line, Douglas and his spouse Bri make a beeline for the Sunshine State. “Battling Minnesota winters and fishing hardwater simply isn’t my factor,” Douglas laughs. “Give me a Florida bass lake, a field of ChatterBait® bladed jigs or a flippin’ stick and I’m a contented camper. I’ll gladly pay attention my Minnesota buddies discuss ice fishing all day, as long as it’s whereas I’m sitting in a bass boat on a 70-degree day on Lake Kissimmee.”
Past bass, Douglas says a robust background within the hospitality trade has served him effectively, opening the precise doorways to top-tier sponsors and key retail companions, similar to Scheels. For a few years, Douglas has served because the influential outside retailer’s high bass authority, conducting worker coaching, participating followers at quite a few in-store occasions and attending Scheels College—all key alternatives to share the Z-Man story.
“I’ve at all times most well-liked to signify and use lures and merchandise by these true pioneer firms,” Douglas explains. “Z-Man was the primary to provide us ElaZtech® TPE baits, the Ned rig, the ChatterBait, and now, the Graph ShadZ™.
“It’s been clear from the beginning that Z-Man operates on a special degree, doing inventive issues with ElaZtech smooth plastics, for instance, whereas others have simply form of adopted alongside.
“Within the water, Z-Man baits do loopy real looking issues different baits can’t,” he says. “When most smooth plastic baits hit backside, they fall over and go lifeless. ElaZtech baits do the alternative; they stand up and spring to life. Even past its famed sturdiness, that’s the actual energy of ElaZtech for bass fishing and the rationale I began throwing stuff just like the Finesse TRD™ years earlier than becoming a member of their professional employees.”
Z-Man pro-staff and promotions supervisor Joey Prochazka appreciates the assertion—a typical trait amongst a lot of the firm’s bass execs. “We’ve had our eyes on Josh for a number of years,” mentioned Prochazka. “We rapidly gained loads of respect for his eager work ethic, pleasant approachability amongst followers and his range of fishing trade expertise—all of which matches his simple expertise for catching huge bass. We’re actually wanting ahead to collaborating with Josh on new baits, too, and tapping his community of followers to develop the legend of Z-Man.”
