Clifford Wiedman fishing for bass in Italy

I’m amazed by Pete’s amount of fishing knowledge, the number of people he knows in the industry and all the different species of fish he has caught (although I’m not too far behind).

However, our friend Clifford Wiedman, who describes himself as the “Forrest Gump of fishing,” may have even more knowledge and know more people – and it seems that he’s caught even more species.

Pete met Clifford in 2007 through an end-of-the-year note he wrote to each of the manufacturers he’d worked with over the past 12 months. Clifford, who worked for Kistler Rods at that time, was the only one who replied. They connected and found they had a lot in common and could help one another out within the industry.

They kept in touch and eventually the Potomac River snakeheads rose to the top of Clifford’s bucket list. He asked Pete to help guide him to one, and Pete invited this random guy I didn’t know to stay with us.

All I could wonder was, “Who is this Clifford Wiedman?”

“If Pete doesn’t put him on fish will he kill us both?”

“Will he kill us both anyway?”

Pete assured that Clifford was harmless and he was right. Clifford is a gentleman and a terrific house guest. He’s been back for Round Two on the Potomac and only COVID kept him from a third trip in 2020. Since that first visit he has introduced me to a lot of people in the industry and some of them have become good friends. He seems to know everyone and everyone knows him.

Here’s his story:

HPFC: How did you end up in the fishing industry?

Clifford: I begged and pleaded to go work for a gentleman who owned a fishing rod company on my off days. I worked as a professional golf caddy Wednesday through Saturday and my ex-wife said, “You can’t go fishing on your off days. You will need to find something else to do.” So I found the gentleman that owned the rod company and volunteered to go work at his place one day a week, basically credits to buy fishing rods. Thank you, Kistler Rods.

HPFC: How did you get interested in fishing in the first place?

Clifford: I think I was born with it. My parents lived outside of Pasadena (Texas) growing up. My dad was an avid bass fisherman. Any chance as a kid I was begging to get out on the water. I’d come home after school and play in the boat and got in trouble all the time for playing with his equipment.

HPFC: Who is your current employer and what do you do for them?

Clifford: My current employer is Hale Lure/Stanley Jigs and I am currently the GM. I oversee everything from production to new baits, marketing to customer service, including pro-staff.

HPFC: For a kid from Livingston, Texas, how did you get to know so many people and how did you develop your love of fishing travel?

Clifford: I get to meet a lot of people because I wanted to meet a lot of people. I grew up as a kid watching all these fishing shows, reading all the fish magazines and all the papers and I just wanted to meet them because when I got out on the water it was just the greatest feeling in the world. I wanted to see all the places that I've read about and now I’ve seen them.

HPFC: Where did you get the idea to catch 100-plus species?

Clifford: When I worked for the rod company I would have to travel all over for business and I learned very quickly that if I was at a business meeting that I needed to take the next day off and go fishing around the area. One day, while on the job, a friend of mine was looking at all the pictures and he asked, “Do you think you caught a hundred different fish?” I had never thought about it, added them up and I had caught 85 different fish. I thought this would be fun to try to catch a hundred. It was just something that sorta just took off from there.

HPFC: What number are you at today?

Clifford: I've caught a hundred and ten different fish on rod and reel so the next will be 111.

HPFC: What are some of the most memorable places you’ve fished?

Clifford: There's quite a few of them but the first one that comes to mind is fishing back, real close to the launch pad at NASA down in Florida on the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River in Florida. Fishing by George Washington's house on the Potomac River. Cabo San Lucas for sailfish and watching the whales breaching in the background. There are many more but these are my most memorable places.

HPFC: Tell me about fishing in front of the castles in Italy.

Clifford: Oh, yes. That was pretty cool. The largest lake in Italy, Lake Garda, at the base of the Alps in Northern Italy. There were actually four castles (Torri del Benaco, Lazise, Malcesine and Sirmione) that date back to the year 15 B.C. and we were able to fish right up to one of them and that was spectacular.

HPFC: What is the most memorable fish you’ve caught in your life?

Clifford: That would be the one I haven't caught yet because there's just so many of them that are absolutely so memorable. But hopefully the most memorable will be a bluefin tuna with my friend from Washington D.C., and hoping to do that this year.

HPFC: Who is this friend you speak of?

Clifford: Well he is a multi-talented writer, fishing guide, travel junkie named Pete Robbins.

HPFC: What species (besides bass) should every bass angler catch at least once?

Clifford: A steelhead or a big Redfish. Steelhead are absolutely hard-fighting and they have no predictability to them. A redfish, you kind of fish for them like a bass, but it's just a hard-fighting fish in a saltwater version.

HPFC: What species have eluded you so far?

Clifford: The sailfish, I didn’t catch one in Cabo San Lucas. I’ve been down to Jupiter, Florida twice and I haven’t caught one there either.

HPFC: What are some of the places that are still on your bucket list?

Clifford: Prince Edward Island for sure for bluefin tuna and I'd like to catch an Arctic char and fish above the Arctic Circle.

HPFC: What's the number one fish on your list right now?

Clifford: A bluefin tuna off Prince Edward Island.

HPFC: What are the three domestic trips you'd recommend to angling travelers?

Clifford: I would definitely recommend fishing the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, absolutely beautiful, not a lot of people there. Sight fishing for Redfish down in southern Florida is pretty cool. And believe it or not people need to stalk snakeheads. It’s a pretty fun stalk to do.

HPFC: If money was no object, what trip are you taking tomorrow?

Clifford: That would probably be a trip to South America to catch peacock bass, redtail catfish, payara, wolf fish and anything else that swims down there.

HPFC: Why cherry pie?

Clifford: [Big giggle] I just love cherry pie. It's just an addiction just like fishing. I just can't get enough of it. Once you get a good cherry pie there's no turning back.

HPFC: Do you have one pie in your life that was most memorable?

Clifford: Yes. I had some friends bring me a dinner date that wasn’t exactly human and a homemade pie -- so the company of that was very memorable and the pie pretty darn good too.

HPFC: What is your favorite bakery?

Clifford: Grand Traverse Pie Company in Traverse City, Michigan. They have an amazing cherry pie typically delivered to me in two days. I don’t eat cherries normally cause you really need the right combination of sugar, a little bit of cream cheese sort of mixed in with it with a little bit of cinnamon, which just sort of amplifies the flavor to it and makes it spectacular.

HPFC: Clifford, you know all of this but you can't cook to save your life.

Clifford: That's right. That's why I have the pie company in Michigan on speed dial and they are quite familiar with my name. I call them, Grand Traverse Pie Company in Michigan, and I get my pie in two days…Happy man.

Clifford is very down to earth will talk to you for hours on end about everything. Although Clifford’s travels may seem exotic and the fish he wants to catch out of reach for most, when you have him over for dinner all he requests is steak, potato and yes, a cherry pie!! That we can deliver. We’ve gone two-for-two on snakeheads, but they’re not quite as reliable.