His angle: inspiration
Dyer has been cast as 'American hero'
By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff | October 1, 2008
First in an occasional series on courageous athletes.
DETROIT - Clay Dyer is a professional angler by trade and a profile in courage in heart.
Dyer was born with no limbs except a partial right arm. He casts his fishing line by placing his rod under his neck - like Isaac Stern playing the violin at Carnegie Hall - and whips his body seaward. It looks like a golf swing. When he scores, he reels in the line and removes the fish with his teeth, thanking the Lord.
To make up for his limitations, Dyer possesses other skills. Standing 40 inches tall and weighing 86 pounds sopping wet, he can sweet-talk a bass like a Casanova at closing time. He can cast a lure into a bucket 60 feet away with better control than Josh Beckett.
Nothing fazes him. During a recent fishing tournament, his boat engine exploded. Unfazed, he kept right on fishing, drifting with the current. He has battled 6-foot waves in a boat on Lake Erie, giggling like a kid on a roller coaster.
"My message to the world is: If I can, you can," says the sunburned pride of Hamilton, Ala.
He uses no special equipment - none - and steers the boat himself at 70 miles per hour using the well-callused stub where his right elbow should be. He ties his lures with his teeth and his tongue. It is a tedious process. Sometimes the boat rocks and the barbed hook snares his tongue or sinks into his lips. No matter; he calmly pops it out and keeps on fishing. Blood or no blood.
"It's not fun till you get it out," says Dyer. That's as close as he gets to complaining.
Don't try to help him, either. He doesn't expect it. He doesn't want it. Other anglers have tried.
"They always tell me, 'Let me do that for you,' especially when tying on lures," he says. "But when you're competing for that much money, if I were to lose a fish, I would want it to be my fault."
Dyer is in town with 400 other anglers for the $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour Chevy Open on the Detroit River. Everybody knows who he is.
Ish Monroe, an angler on the rival Bassmasters Elite Angler Tour, says Dyer is an American hero.
"He is the most unbelievable human being I've ever met," says Monroe, shaking his head. "He's a real inspiration."
Dyer, 30, has never let anything stop him since he landed a catfish on his grandfather's pond at the age of 3. He somehow played baseball in junior high school and still helps coach the Hamilton Aggies, his local high school football team. He started fishing in earnest at 18 and has won more than 25 state and local tournaments, though none on the elite professional tours.
His goals are lofty.
"I want to win a tournament and someday become Angler of the Year," says Dyer, who is wearing a T-shirt and camouflage "Desert Storm" cutoffs that are deliberately too long and double as shoes. "This is where my heart is."
Fishermen on the tour marvel at Dyer's fortitude. They say it is harder for him to set the hook because of his size and range and that the crafty bass sometimes wriggle free because of that.
Last year in Detroit, he finished in a tie for 101st place, less than an ounce from qualifying for the second day, which guarantees a $10,000 check. He has yet to make the first-day cut.
"I lost three fish," he says, shaking his head. "A lot of people would've thought it would make me feel down and out, but honestly, I knew I did the best I could do. I gave it 100 percent effort."
On a scale of 1 to 10, he rates himself a 6 as a professional fisherman.
"When I'm performing at my best, I can beat any of these guys out here," he says.
Chad Parks, an angler from Olive Branch, Miss., says Dyer, his roommate on the road and fishing partner, is fearless. As he goes 70 m.p.h., his clothes flapping in the wind, the boat bouncing in waves, it doesn't take much imagination to picture him airborne, like a pillowcase flying off a clothesline.
"Most people would be too scared to do what he does, out there on Lake Erie jumping waves," says Parks. "It's dangerous, but we have more fun. I love him like he's my brother."
Dyer gives motivational speeches around the country when he's not fishing, and he sees a lot of runny mascara from women in the audience.
"That's my calling, to tell people to get the most out of life," he says. "I want to show people that, no matter what the situation they may be facing, if you put your mind and your heart to it, if you have enough determination and perseverance, you can overcome anything."
Positive attitude
Doctors don't know why Dyer was born without limbs, and he refuses to dwell on it.
"I'm human, and I've had struggles like everyone else," he says. "But as far as being mad at God or wondering why it is and why it had to happen to me, I've never asked that question. I just try to get the most out of life."
With his good looks and a charming Southern drawl, Dyer is popular on the tour. He's also smart as a fox.
"He can manipulate a situation without them ever thinking he's getting people to do stuff," says Parks. "It's part of his charm."
Dyer has more than a dozen sponsors, and that allows him to pursue his dreams. When he needs something, he finds a way to get it. He always has. For example, when he was 12 years old, he guilt-tripped his parents into buying him the fishing equipment he coveted.
"There was this one rod and reel in the Bass pro shop that was in the neighborhood of $300," he says. "I told my family and they said, 'You've got 10 or 12 of these. Why do you need more?' So I'm pleading my case, but they wasn't buying into it. Finally, I broke down and told my family, 'Think of all the money that you've saved by not buying me shoes.' They didn't have an argument, and I wound up getting my way."
Dyer talks to the fish the way Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark Fidrych used to talk to the ball.
"I try to sweet-talk them into biting," he says. "I'm like, 'Come on, sweetheart, talk to me, give me some love.' I say, 'Get in this Ranger boat. I'll put you in this comfortable live well and turn the pump up. It's like laying in a Jacuzzi.'
"I keep them comfortable all day, even give them a shot of Gatorade. We'll go see the weigh-in and then I'll let them smile for the camera and then turn them all loose."
Spreading the word
Attitude is everything, Dyer says.
"There's been a couple guys out here that have rather foul attitudes, for whatever reasons," he says. "I try to be an influence and talk to them. They would grouse and complain and make their day as miserable as they could. I take all the positives in life."
Dyer is used to people staring at him wherever he goes.
"Seven out of 10 people see me and think I'm a wounded war veteran," he says. "When I tell them I'm a professional angler, they look at me like I'm crazy. What I do on my own just freaks them out.
"I want them to look at me and think, 'This guy does anything he wants to do. He doesn't let his apparent physical limitations hold him back in life.' "
And that takes courage, Dyer believes.
"My definition of courage would be, in spite of what happens, no matter how negative things can be, you can never give up," he says.
Dyer says he's never, ever cried or become frustrated with his situation.
"Life is full of adversity," he says. "Unfortunately, even when you're not trying to put yourself in the path of it, it tends to happen from time to time."
People surrender their dreams too easily, Dyer says.
"A little something happens and they get down and they think, 'Well, maybe it's not meant to be for me to do this,' " he says. "If you have a dream and you never get to experience what it's like, then you've failed.
"If I'm not successful at this, at least I can say I know what it's like. I could've gotten halfway there and said, 'That's too hard, I don't want to do this' - to go against the best in the world - but I didn't."
Teaching people to have courage is a delicate task, Dyer says.
"I try to do it so I'm not scolding them," he says. "I tell them to suck it up. It could be a lot worse. I don't have hands. I just use what I got."
With his 16-inch right arm, he starts the boat's ignition, puts it in gear, and cranks it up to 70 m.p.h. The breeze on a hot day feels good, and Clay Dyer feels lucky. There are fish to catch.
"Hey, I'm living my dream," he says. "I would love people to look at me and say, 'That guy is a champion of life.' "
Stan Grossfeld can be reached at grossfeld@globe.com
© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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