Norman, OK - Just when you thought he was out, Roger Boler fished his way back into the Elite Series through the BASS Central Opens.

Just five years ago, the Louisiana pro was a shining new star on the pre-Elite Series BASS Tour. On the strength of seven consecutive finishes in the top 27, including a 2nd at Okeechobee and a 3rd at the California Delta, Boler finished 4th in the 2003 Angler of the Year race and qualified for the Bassmaster Classic on the Louisiana Delta.

Although some pundits declared Boler a pre-tournament favorite in that Classic (which was won by Mike Iaconelli), he finished a dismal 48th. But that was nothing compared to the tragedy that befell the entire region two years later when Hurricane Katrina hit.

He had resigned from his job of 19 years with the power company in December of 2002 to fish full-time but could not resist the need to return to work post-Katrina to restore electrical power throughout a large portion of his home state. 

“I had gotten the invite (to fish the first season of the Elite Series) three weeks after Katrina hit,” he remembered. “I talked with Trip (Weldon) about it for a long time and he understood why I chose not to come back.” Boler does not regret his choice to walk away from a berth at what is arguably bass fishing’s highest level of competition to serve his family, his community and the public good – but the itch to compete never went away.

Last year, with his work under control, he fished two of the three Central Opens with poor results, finishing 126th at Texoma and 116th at the Red River.

Asked why he wasn’t able to pick up where he’d left off, he replied that “It’s not like riding a bike to me. My fishing suffered a bit and I couldn’t fish the last event.”

“I just made a lot of the wrong decisions,” he added. “I didn’t really focus enough in ’07 and I realized halfway through that I had to rededicate myself and take it seriously again. All those guys can fish.” With that in mind, he entered 2008 hungry again, and the resulting refocus allowed him to finish in 9th place finish in the Central Open points, thereby earning him a spot in the 2008 Elites, should he choose to accept it. 

He said that he accomplished his top ten standing by “setting mini goals” throughout the year, but his primary goal was to finish in the top three and make the Classic. He was crushed that he failed to achieve that desired result. 

“The Elites wasn’t on my mind,” he said. “The Classic was. It kills me not to be fishing there (on the Red River) in February.”

As of Monday, he hadn’t made a formal decision to enter the 2009 Elite Series and didn’t know quite when he’d have to make a first payment should he decide to go that route. “I heard we had a month,” he said.

Ultimately, that decision will come down to the amount of sponsor money that he can generate in the intervening days. 

“I’m going to need some help,” he said matter-of-factly. “Exactly how much, I’m not sure, but if I decide to do it I want to be able to do it right. I’m not going to put my family at risk. I’ve seen too many guys, good guys, who didn’t make it. If it doesn’t happen, there’s always the Opens next year and with Toledo Bend, Sam Rayburn and Atchafalaya that sounds pretty good too.”

He noted that the vast majority of his sponsors – companies like Skeeter, Yamaha, Shakespeare, Pflueger, SPRO and Power Pro – generally stuck with him as he stepped away from tour-level fishing. “I haven’t been able to do as much as I should have for them,” he said, gratefully.

But now he’s hoping that they, or perhaps a new sponsor, will be able to help him to get back to the show. He said he misses the camaraderie, misses the competition and even if he doesn’t go back in 2009, he’s “not going to stop striving for it. That’s what it’s all about.”

When he does return, the basic rules will be the same, but the landscape will have changed somewhat. Longtime friend and former road roommate Chad Morgenthaler has moved to the FLW side. And he’s sure that the competition, tough as it may have been a few years back, will be tougher. “They just get better and better,” he said. “Hell yeah, they’re way better than they were and they keep going to better venues.”

Asked if he thinks about that magical year of 2003 often, before Katrina came and changed everyone’s plans, he didn’t hesitate for a moment: “I think about it a lot. I think about that Classic, too. I don’t regret my decisions there. I would probably do it all the same way again; I just had the wrong tides. But that’s what put me on the map.”

And after a few years spent outside the map’s rigid borders, Boler is on the verge of stepping back into the center of the bass fishing world.