What happened to Byron Velvick?.......

[SKTR 20i]

I saw that he isn't in the BASS Elite's this season. He should have done well enough last season to qualify.

John.

[Brian D.]

He had major surgery and is out for the year.

http://www.bassfan.com/news_article.asp?id=3812

[Rich hamilton]

I had heard health problems. best of luck to him and a speedy recovery. P.S. read on bassfan.com that mark tyler is out of the elites and fishing 15 local events. going to wait until the economy improves. RR

[jazzwannabe]

His neck and back are all messed up. He said in Bassmaster magazine it's from years of driving on rough water.

[TomL]

Or you can check out Byron's blog - http://www.advancedangler.com/VelvickBlog.asp
and get it straight from BV himself.

[Jim V.]

"his fiance Belinda?..." Guess Mary Delgado's drinking problem got to be too much.

[mark poulson]

Sounds like he's well down the road to recovery.
Medicine has come a long way in the 30 years since I messed up my neck. At that time, fusion was the only option, other than nothing. I chose nothing, and am doing okay, but I have to be careful.
Hopefully, whatever Byron had done lets him make a full recovery, and a return to professional fishing.

[DDawg]

If you ever rode with Byron you'd understand why his back & neck are jacked........... I told him I was going to report him for doing flyovers on tourney day, because we were out of the water more than in!

[Andy Lippert]

Maybe in his down time he can work on perfecting the art of turning a foul-hooked fish into a mouth-hooked fish, while the cameraman is in his boat.

Andy

[littlebailey]

lets all get on and talk @#$% about Byron today! Does it end people?

[Andy Lippert]

It never ceases to amaze me how some people view 'telling the truth' as "talkin' sh*t." No doubt Mr. Velvick is a stick, but he made some pretty poor decisions on keeping a couple of those fish last year on Clear Lake. I watched it with my own two eyes, paused it rewinded it, replayed it, slow motion, rewinded, watched again, and again and again. It blew my mind. I even called my wife into the room to watch and tell me what she saw, so that I didn't think I was crazy. Life isn't always smiles and sunshine Mr. littlebailey. Sometimes the truth is a b*tch, but it still needs to be told.

Andy Lippert

[Oldschool]

Byron's neck injury is more than likely spondylosis and degenerative spine problem where the damaged disks dissolve and the vertebrae wear bone to bone, very painful. From what was posted on Bass Fan; it's the C6-C7 vertebra's that were fused together.
This is an unlikely result of driving a bass boat, that type of injury tends to be the lumbar area or lower back.
Byron is getting a medical leave and can return to the Elites next season, as I understand.
Tom

[TomL]

I am not going to try and defend Byron, but I have a question...

What would you like him to have done?

He called the TD, explained it fairly and accurately. He could have handled it a lot differently if he was trying to hide something. I think that's about as much as you can ask of a guy.

[Scott Robertson]

I have fished with Byron on Mead and no doubt he has a tendancy to jump a few (shall we say large wakes) it definately an E ticket ride, but none the less a great stick and dedicated fisherman to the sport. Hope he heals well and is ready to come back soon. Scott