Let’s face it almost any major league baseball player has or can buy anything they want, making coming up with something worthy of the perfect game no easy job. At the Celebration of Roy’s feat the Phillies announcer put it best, “No gift can fully express the Phillies appreciation for your incredible accomplishment.” The Phillies knew of Roy’s passion for fishing and set him up with a fishing trip with 2007 Bassmaster Angler of the year and 2009 Bassmaster Classic champion Skeet Reese on Clear Lake in California. To see Skeet’s presentation to Roy visit MLB.com here.

Fish on!

Tackle Tour went along for the ride as Skeet, Roy and his two boys went fishing on Clear Lake November, 28th and then interviewed Skeet about the trip. For Roy ’s perspective on the trip please visit Bassmaster.

Here’s Skeet’s perspective of the trip in his own words:

Going into the trip I didn’t really know what to expect, I hadn’t actually spoken directly with Roy we both communicated with a P.R. person who scheduled everything between us and when I met Roy for the first time was the night before the fishing. I met up with Roy, his wife and two boys at Ceago winery on the East shore of Clear Lake . We took a tour of the winery and then sat down for dinner and some wine.

It didn’t take but a few minutes before I realized that Roy was just a normal everday guy that is passionate about what he does. He doesn’t live like a rock star or even like the limelight. He’s just a good guy, a great baseball player and he loves to fish.

Skeet hooks into a fish with a little finesse

The conversation over dinner covered everything from his kids, to baseball and lots of fishing talk. Roy back in 2003 and 2004 got into bass fishing pretty heavily and even goes fishing many times after “work” during spring training. Lately, he hasn’t been fishing as much because his kids are now into sports and keep him busy, but you can hear it when he talks, he loves to fish. He told me he reads watches every Bassmaster on TV and reads every Bassmaster magazine.

Mother nature threw us a Roy Halladay two seam cut fast ball on the lower outside corner. In other words, it was tough: bluebird skies, post frontal conditions with the water temperature around 49 degrees. Add to that I hadn’t spent any time on Clear Lake since March and we were in for a tough day.

Roy works on his "pitching" form on Clear Lake with Skeet

Although the fishing was tough Roy was able to hook a couple on an LV500 ripping it up off the bottom and letting it fall. I hooked a few as well on a Stacey 100 in the new Light Hitch color. The boys fished with minnows throughout the day and had a lot of fun putting their new Skeet Reese kids combos to the test.

Skeet helps land a fish for Roy

Pretty much from the time we ordered dinner I felt liked we’d been friends for year and I know Roy and I will be friends for a long time to come. We’ve already pretty much already started setting the plans on another trip next year for some peacock bass fishing in South America.

During the day fishing we discussed how a person can fish until the late stages in life and baseball has such a short life span. Roy definitely plans to fish after baseball and even plans to compete. I know if he works as hard at fishing as he does at baseball he’ll be successful at fishing too. Who knows in 15 years maybe a perfect game pitcher will get a fishing trip with Roy!

Skeet Reese and Roy Halladay - Two of the best in their respective sports

Conclusion: It was great to be a fly on the wall for this meeting of two sports figures that are both at the top of their game. There are a lot of parallels between Skeet and Roy and both approach their particular sport with the same competitive drive and passion. It is no secret that "Doc" Halladay can throw a mean two-seam sinking fastball but anglers have yet another reason to be a fan of Roy after discovering that this ace pitcher loves to toss a lure just as much as he likes striking out opposing batters.

Thanks to Skeet and Roy for having us along for the ride and good luck to both in the coming season.