Story by Hunter Baughman | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
As I was scrolling Facebook last week, one of my “memories” popped up. It was June 3, 2021 and the first day of the NPFL event on the Harris Chain in Florida had just ended. I was on a plane headed to Arkansas to meet my wife.
She was in labor.
Several of you diehard NPFL fans may know this story, but I’d say a lot of you haven’t heard it or at least don’t know the crazy details. I’ll start from the beginning.
It took Andrea and I seven years to have a baby. This was something we wanted so bad but ultimately it came according to God’s timing and not ours. Likewise, I had worked most of my adult life towards fishing professionally. In late summer of 2020—months after I had signed my 2021 NPFL contract—we found out Andrea was pregnant. Looking at the schedule, her due date would overlap the third event of the year on the Harris Chain.
We considered different ways it could play out. I offered to contact the League and see if there was an option to bow out of the inaugural season and return the following year. Andrea immediately told me that wasn’t an option. She said this is something I had worked for my whole life, and I was going to fish! In the end we decided to move forward and pray she was a week early or a week late.
After what seemed like an eternity it was time to hit the road for the Harris Chain. I was coming off decent finishes in the first two events and was in okay shape in the points. I offered to stay home but was met quickly with “not a chance.” So, I headed out hoping she could make it through the week.
I had the best practice I’ve ever had for an NPFL event … even to this day. I was pumped! Before take-off on Day 1 my phone rang just as Big Al was announcing “15 minutes until blast off.” It was Andrea. She informed me she believed she was in labor and was headed to the hospital. Shortly after take-off she called again to confirm they were admitting her. This set off a chain of events.
I contacted the League to make them aware. A flight was booked, and I fished until the last second before I had I to leave for the airport. When returning to the ramp about 9 o’clock, I weighed the 3 fish I had caught and left my boat and truck in the parking lot. Big Al drove me to the airport, and I almost missed my flight because guess what? There are two airports in Orlando!
Fortunately, I made it to Little Rock where I was picked up and drove an hour to the hospital. When I arrived, she was still in labor. Kinley was born the next morning.
It was one of the best days of my life.
But the madness had just began! My truck and boat were still in Florida, and there was a tournament to fish!
I immediately started looking for flights back to Orlando. There weren’t any that would get me there before the end of the tournament. Finally in a friend-of-a-friend connection, I was able to board a small private plane and fly all night back to Florida to fish Day 3. As we were preparing to land in Leesburg on the morning of Day 3, I remember flying across Lake Harris and seeing all the boat navigating lights in the dark preparing for take-off.
We landed even though the airport was closed. We got out of the plane and crossed a runway to find a gate to leave—where a fireman threatened to have us arrested for crossing the runway on foot. In the end, an NPFL worker picked me up and took me back to my rental house where my truck and boat had been taken. I went in and changed clothes, hopped in the truck and headed to take off. After nearly zero sleep in 48 hours, I took off to fish Day 3 a few minutes after everyone else was gone. But for a fumbled 8 pounder at the side of the boat that day, I would have weighed over 20 pounds and rocketed way up the leaderboard.
That will always be my “what could have been” week from a fishing aspect. But from the aspect of family and life in general, I wouldn’t change a thing. We were blessed with a healthy baby girl and from that point forward Andrea and Kinley—plus Kassidy 18 months later—have traveled with me to every NPFL event.
I’m a blessed man.
Thanks for traveling down memory lane with me. I’ll check back in next week from practice at Lake Eufaula!
Hunter Baughman – Angler Profile
