When the Esterlys fish for bass, they flip, sling and pitch bass baits and a long line of jokes and jabs.
The Esterly family shows affection through competition and warm-hearted ribbing.
Who’s the tallest in the family? Who can run the fastest? Who can catch the biggest fish? These are questions upon which the Esterlys fuss and stew.
Here is the family roster:
Darryl Esterly of Fleetwood is married to Bonnie Esterly. Their older son, Kyle of Drexel Hill, Delaware County, is married to Amanda, and they have a son, age 21/2, named Jaxon. Another son is expected in May.
Brandon Esterly lives in Lynchburg, Va., with his girlfriend, Rachael Trupp, who attends Liberty University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine.
The Esterly men are competitive bass anglers, with an emphasis on competitive.
“Darryl is a perfectionist,” said Bonnie, a graduate of the University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Va., and employed at Contegix, Wyomissing, as service desk supervisor. “I have seen Darryl get upset when jobs are not done right.”
The Esterly men are attempting mightily to rise through the ranks of professional bass fishing. The women are their teammates and biggest supporters.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without Bonnie,” said Darryl, who for 17 years has been a lineman for FirstEnergy Corp. “Bonnie handles all of the logistics and comes to the tournaments with us. She’s our rock and helps with everything.”
The Esterlys are members of the Berks Bassmasters Club, affiliated with FLW, the world’s largest tournament fishing organization. The initials FLW originally stood for Forrest L. Wood of Ranger Boats, considered the father of the modern bass boat. Recently, the organization’s name changed to Fishing League Worldwide, denoting the organization’s international rolls.
FLW offers competitive fishing on local, regional and national levels from high school to pro anglers. Grand prize for the top pro angler is a jackpot worth $1 million and the coveted Forrest Wood Cup.
For the past two years, the Esterlys have competed in the FLW weekend Bass Fishing League, or what’s known as the BFL, a national series of regional open tournaments. Each tournament accommodates up to 200 boat owners and 200 riders, or co-anglers.
The Esterlys compete in the Northeast Trail, which will conduct its first tournament of the season April 22 on the Potomac River, followed once a month by tournaments on the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Oneida, Lake Champlain and the Thousand Islands.
Everything
is a competition
Every sport, including tournament bass fishing, draws upon personal drive, concentration, learning, and cooperation, which are behaviors worth striving for anyway. No matter what the sport or endeavor may be, competition is an integral part of human behavior.
“I have always been driven by competition and the learning process,” said NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett, who thrived at the highest level of professional sports.
The Esterly men turned to competitive bass fishing after they outgrew scholastic sports.
“They compete all of the time,” Amanda said. “Everything is a competition. Everything.”
Darryl played soccer, wrestled and ran track at Fleetwood High School and continued playing soccer in the All-Marine soccer team while serving four years as a tank commander at Marine Corps Base Quantico near Triangle, Va.
“I played whenever I could find time,” Darryl said.
Kyle and Brandon attended Muhlenberg High School, and both competed in multiple scholastic sports; Kyle in baseball, football and basketball; Brandon in baseball, soccer and indoor track. While attending DeSales University, Brandon competed in indoor and outdoor track and holds the school’s long jump record.
After his stint in the Marines, Darryl’s itch to fish had a modest start.
“I always loved fishing, so I fished in waders from the banks at Lake Ontelaunee for a couple of years,” he said. “Then I bought a jet boat so I could fish the Susquehanna River and area lakes.”
“When we were young, Dad would take all of us to Blue Marsh Lake in the jet boat,” Kyle said. “He would beach the boat in a large cove, and we would fish from shore and have a picnic.”
Darryl bought his first bass boat in 1997 and his second in 2004, shortly before joining the Berks Bassmasters Club. The boys joined the club a couple of years later and, between the three of them, shared the jet boat and the bass boat for club tournaments and local open-buddy bass tournaments.
All of them credit club experiences for improving their fishing skills and taking them to new bass waters.
“Being in a bass club absolutely makes you a better fisherman,” said Bob Entler, current president of the Berks Bassmasters Club. “Competition makes you want to get better.”
Finessing the fish
For more than 10 years, the Esterlys competed in small club tournaments on many of the same waters now fished by the BFL competitors on the Northeast Trail, and in larger open-buddy tournaments at Blue Marsh.
Their list of victories is impressive. In club tournaments, Darryl has won six angler of the year awards, six Club Classics, more than 30 club wins and more than 40 top three finishes, and he holds the club record for the heaviest largemouth bass caught, 7.5 pounds, and the heaviest smallmouth, 6.11 pounds.
Kyle has one Club Classic win, more than 10 club wins and more than 20 top three finishes.
Brandon has won three club tournaments, more than 30 top 10 finishes and one district tournament win.
As for open-buddy tournaments at Blue Lake, when up to 140 anglers compete at once, Brandon and Kyle each have won three buddy tournaments fishing alongside their dad. Kyle won a fourth tournament fishing with another angler.
For the most part, the Esterlys finesse fish, meaning that they commonly use small artificial lures fished slowly around structure, or habitat, and along lake bottoms. All three consider tube lures and drop-shot rigs among their go-to lures, but all are proficient with power fishing in which they cast hard metal, plastic and wooden lures that cover lots of water at different depths.
“Conditions tell me what to fish,” Brandon said. “Weeds, points, current. I try all types of lures until I find one the bass like.”
Fishing with their father for so many years, Kyle and Brandon have developed an unusual skill: They are both really good at fishing from the back of the boat, something most anglers consider a handicap.
When two anglers share a bass boat, the owner usually mans the trolling motor at the bow, and the co-angler fishes from the rear platform. The owner controls where the boat goes and usually gets first cast at potential hot spots.
Co-anglers typically get the second cast to hot spots, but by adjusting their approach they can make the most out of a challenging situation. They can use different lures than the owner, so fish see a fresh presentation. They can fish a different side of a structure, cast further out or closer to a spot which the owner already tried.
Success with the Berks Bassmasters in local and regional tournaments prompted the Esterlys to move up the competition ladder to the Northeast BFL. In 2015, Darryl and Brandon tested the waters by fishing three BFL tournaments, Darryl as a boat owner and Brandon as a co-angler.
The following year, Darryl and Brandon competed in all five Northeast competitions, Darryl as a boat owner and Brandon as co-angler. When the season ended, Darryl finished sixth out of more 200 anglers. Brandon won the angler of the year award as a co-angler in the Northeast Trail.
His back-of-the-boat experience with his father, was a real advantage, he said.
To date, Darryl has won $1,157 and Brandon $2,236 in prize money on the Northeast Trail.
Money for something
Competing in the ranks of regional and national FLW tournaments takes the hobby of fishing and turns it into a business. The expenses are high, and so are the odds of making a profit.
Fully rigged, high-end bass boats can run $50,000, and don’t forget the trucks to pull them.
Tackle and other gear easily can cost thousands. There are travel and lodging costs to consider, and then you have tournament entry fees. The higher up the ladder an angler competes, the more expensive are the entry fees. The professional FLW tour charges boat owners $31,500 for entry into seven tournaments leading to the Forrest Wood Cup and prizes worth $1 million.
Entry fees per tournament for the weekend BFL are $230 for boat owners and $115 for co-anglers.
First place prize money for the BFL, based on the number of anglers per tournament, ranges from about $5,000 for the top boat owner and $2,200 for the first place co-angler.
This year Brandon will fish the BFL tournaments as a boat owner; his brother Kyle, entering his first year in the BFL competition, will do so as a co-angler.
Darryl plans to compete as a boat owner in the BFL and as a co-angler in three FLW Costa series tournaments, which are the next rung up the pro ladder.
Entry fee for co-anglers in the Costa circuit is $550 per tournament.
The business of professional fishing also requires considerable self-promotion. The more fans and followers anglers have, the more attractive they are to sponsors who may provide them with lure samples, tackle, accessories, clothing, boats, bonus payments, entry fees, tour expenses and speaking fees.
“Support from sponsors, no matter how great or small, helps reduce our costs, and we’re happy to wear their logos and use their gear,” Darryl said.
Brandon is on the pro staff of Woo! Tungsten Weights. Darryl is on the pro staff of soft bait manufacturer Keitech USA, and also Livingston Lures, Rayjus Jerseys, Liquid Mayhem scented fishing lures, Swagger Tackle tungsten weights, Cinnetic Reels and Nichol’s Lures.
Building a fan base
Social media help the Esterlys reach fans. Each has a Facebook page under their own name. Instagram pages are easterly_fishing for Darryl, brandoneasterly_fishing for Brandon, and Bronzeback1987 for Kyle.
The Esterlys have produced six YouTube videos covering practice days fishing at Lake Oneida, Blue Marsh Lake, Potomac River and Lake Anna.
Brandon produced a YouTube video describing the baits he used to win the 2016 Northeast BFL co-angler angler of the year award.
Brandon is nearly done building seven new bass rods for the coming season, and if you see the wall of baits Darryl has stored at home, you’ll know he’s ready for battle this season, too.
Competition drives the Esterlys, and planning for the 2017 season is well underway. Bonnie has the arrangements in hand. The anglers are studying topo maps, prepping their boats, searching for insights and fine-tuning their tackle.
When April 22 rolls around, the Esterlys will challenge the Potomac River, and another year of competition will be underway.
Contact Roger Mallon: country@readingeagle.com.
