How'd he do it? With guts, skill, determination and a lot of road miles. And he did it all while holding down a day job as a plumber.

"It was quite a year, to tell you the truth," he said. "It seemed like every couple of months, I was having a big tournament. It was definitely exciting without a doubt."

He's a guy all BassFans can relate to, and his accomplishments are something all BassFans can aspire to.

Tense Tiebreaker

Soley, who calls North Brunswick home, has long been a BASS competitor. He's fished Federation-level events for years through the Bucketmouth club in Chemung, along with the Invitationals and even a short stint in the Top 150s. And this year actually marked his second Classic appearance. His first was in 1999 (he finished 22nd).

"When I do fish BASS events, my ultimate goal is to qualify for the Classic," he said. "But this year, it came as a total surprise."

That's because of a super-stiff divisional battle at the National Championship that came down to a single fish. More on that in a minute. First, a little more about how he got there in the first place.

He qualified via the 2005 Divisional in Maine, which came directly after a BFL Super Tournament. He competed at the BFL Super Tournament, fished the final, then jumped in his truck and scooted up to Maine for the Divisional. He whacked them there too and qualified for the National Championship.

The National Championship was held at the Harris Chain in Florida last January. "That was a good tournament," he said. "When you're fishing the National Championship, or the All-American, everybody in the field's on a level playing ground. I had a great time there, and there are people I met there who still call me two to three times a week to this day."

It was a nail-biter event though, because he fished the Mid-Atlantic division, and with a day to fish, three of the Top 6 in the overall standings were from that division. Only the top angler from each division would make the Classic, and he started day 3 with two Mid-Atlantic guys ahead of him.

"Going into that last day, nobody really paid attention to me," he said. "I caught a good bag the last day, and actually tied a guy in my division to go to the Classic. I beat him on the tiebreaker – I caught one more fish than him.

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Jennifer Simmons Of the three championships he fished this year, Soley noted he liked the BFL All-American the best.

At The Classic

Surprisingly, Soley remains a little jaded about the Classic. Remember this was his second time in the Big Show, so he's got plenty of experience to rely on.

"I'll tell you the honest-to-goodness truth – the Classic is probably the worst tournament out of all three to fish," he said. "I think it's totally overrated. BASS and ESPN have their golden boys, and nobody else really matters. And when you go there, the other guys don't want to talk to you.

"So you just go through the motions. Sure it's a chance for $500,000, and it's the Classic, but I'd rather fish the All-American. I think FLW does a great job with treating the fishermen."

He finished 38th at the Classic, which paid $10,000.

Road to the All-American

Soley dabbled with some BFL events over the years, but to this day has never fished a full season within a division. In 2005, he fished four Northeast events. In those four, he finished 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 22nd. That gave him more than enough points to qualify for the Regional at Kerr Lake.

"I started that season one tournament late," he noted. "I love to fish Kerr and finished 5th there, which brought me to the All-American. Again it was a surprise. I wasn't even expecting it."

The 2006 All-American took place at the Connecticut River in Hartford. Soley, being from nearby Jersey, was one of the pre-tournament favorites, and eventually finished 6th.

"I should have finished 4th, but I had a dead fish the first day that cost me 8 ounces," he noted. "I had one of those tournaments. I lost a lot of fish, and had a lot of mishaps – especially the first day. It was the craziest thing.

"I was one of only a few Northeast anglers fishing it, but that added the pressure on me. I ended the first day in 25th place and had just a horrible day. I threw my rod in the river, lost two or three fish, and broke my line two or three times."

He settled down that night though and climbed to make the Top 10 cut after day 2. On day 3, he just went fishing, which is what he does best.

"That's one thing I've learned about this sport, is that you can never script your day," he said. "I just go fishing. If I see something I like, I stop and fish it. If it doesn't work, I just keep going. Every day, I start somewhere new.

"When I started that last day, I had four or five in the boat in the first 30 minutes. I had a lot of momentum, but I needed a bigger stringer. It was a great experience though – a great time. It was one of the best tournaments I ever fished."

The Next Step?

Soley's attitude about a tour-level career is sort of take it or leave it. He doesn't have any sponsors, and he likes it that way – he's not beholden to any person or product. However, there might be a chance for him to get a full FLW Tour season underwritten. If that comes about, he'll fish the Tour.

"The Federation had the Living the Dream program, where they pay your way for a year on tour," he said. "The highest qualifier at the National Championship gets it. Now that the Federation split, my club went TBF, and that program is supposedly still in place.

"If that happens, it has to happen soon – the FLW season starts in February. If not, I'll just fish Federation and BFL stuff again. It's such a tough sport financially, but the Living the Dream program would be perfect."

Notable

> One reason Soley's able to fish so much throughout the year is because he's got an understanding boss. "I'm a plumber, and my boss is pretty cool about giving me time off to go fish," he said. "And every time I'm in a major tournament, they're usually following it. They get real excited, and when I come back, they always want to hear all the stories."

> He's fished a number of Bassmaster Invitationals, dating back to 1995, and he fished the Bassmaster Top 150s in 1999–2000.