His job is on the line: Dustin Wilks makes a living doing what some consider loafing in one of America's fastest growing pro sports.

• Author: Goldberg, Steve
• Position: FEATURE - Biography

There are two schools of thought when it comes to professional bass fishing--those who can't stop thinking about it and those who don't think about it at all. If you are in the latter camp, consider this: There are more anglers in the United States than golfers and tennis players combined. With 28 million men, women and children dropping a line, freshwater fishing is a $21.3 billion-a-year business. But only a handful make their living doing it competitively. Here's how one Tar Heel got hooked.

More than 15,000 have come to watch the final weigh-in for the 2004 Citgo Bassmaster Classic, filling the lower bowl of the Charlotte Coliseum and nine sections of the upper deck. One by one, the 25 finalists emerge from behind the raised stage. Each sits, somewhat incongruously, in a bass boat being towed by a Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Every angler in turn is introduced in a blast of cheers, smoke, lights and music.

Dustin Wilks, competing in his fourth Classic, has requested country music. Others have been more specific. Davy Hite comes into view as Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine booms through the hall. Lee Bailey enters to the brassy James Bond movie theme. All-time BASS money leader Denny Brauer emerges to the strains of Whiskey for My Men, Beer for My Horses, while Takahiro Omori, who is about to be crowned the tournament's king and land the $200,000 winner's purse, rides in to the 1970s hit Kung Fu Fighting.

The final standings won't be known until the last catch is weighed on this Sunday, Aug. 1, so all finalists arrive like conquering heroes on waves of deafening applause. Their chariots are the boats they have flung around 12,455-acre Lake Wylie for three days in frantic search of big fish--a procession of identical Tritons outfitted with new 250-horsepower Mercury Verado engines, Lowrance depth finders and MotorGuide trolling motors. The day's catch sloshes gently in the live well of each boat. Catch-and-release is a tenet of the 34-year-old event. It's in the best interests of both fish and fisherman: The tournament imposes a weight penalty for dead fish, and who knows, that big one might be even bigger the next time it's hooked.

Fifty-three contestants qualified for the Classic on the Bassmaster Tournament Trail, blazed in 1968 by Alabama entrepreneur Ray Scott. Initially the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, BASS has more than a half-million members and franchises more than 20,000 tournaments worldwide. It's the world's largest fishing...