For years, Scott Burns has been leaving smoke on the water with his pro-fishing career, but now he’s also heating up the airwaves.

The Lufkin-area native was just a small-town kid growing up on the stock ponds of Angelina County and it was never a question as to where he was on any given day.

“There were so many stock ponds and during the summer, mom already knew from daylight to dark I was in a pond fishing,” he said.
Although most days you’ll still find him fishing, he’s moved on to something a little bigger than stock ponds.

He’s been everywhere—“from Conroe to Colorado and from the Angelina to Amistad, Mexico—he’s covered a lot of water,” he said.

But his favorite place is still right here in East Texas, both on the waters of Sam Rayburn, and on the air—on the radio that is—somewhere he never expected to be.

Beginning July 8, 2014, Burns began hosting his own call-in radio show on Fish Bait Radio.

“Every angler’s goal is to be at the top and right now I feel like I’ve reached my peak and maybe I’m not so much an angler, but a spokesperson for fishing,” he said.

Fishbaitradio.com is a nationally syndicated internet radio station with more than 10,000 listeners.

With nothing more than a laptop and a cell phone in his own home, Burns finds different radio guest each week to do what he loves best—talk fishing.
He’s still just “getting his feet wet” and trying to “hook” more listeners, he joked, but he seems to have it all in line.

His first guest was Lynn Atkinson, a local fishing guide on Sam Rayburn Lake. Other upcoming guests include Denise Sustaita, a local up-and-coming angler, Michelle McGuire, assistant director of professional staff for “Pink Fishing” for breast cancer awareness, Lonnie Standley, and even Troy Broussard from the hit TV show Swamp People.

Burns jumped at the chance to host his own radio show just this year. He was already sponsored by the Fish Bait Radio Pro Team, and one day, when talking to his sponsor, the opportunity just presented itself, and he took the bait.

“He needed my help and I wanted to be a part of it and to me that’s worth all the money in the world. I’ve always wanted to be a part of something and have a voice in fishing---mentoring, teaching kids, getting involved in bass clubs— and I think this is a real blessing,” he said about the opportunity his sponsor provided.

And now, Burns get to do all of this and more.

Even more than being a voice for fishing in general, he also has a goal to be a voice for women in fishing.

Burns said that one of the biggest things he hopes to do right now is to “open his radio show up to the female audience and discuss lady anglers and their careers and how they are and can get into the industry.”

“It’s not just a male-dominated sport or show anymore. They fight just as hard out there on the water as we do,” he continued.

Two of his upcoming radio guests, Denise Sustaita and Michelle McGuire will certainly be able to tell listeners more on this topic.

Another major goal of Burns is to support and expand opportunities for young anglers, especially at the high school and college level.

He remembers his first experience in fishing and it was during those formative years as a youngster that he became hooked on the sport.

On his 7th birthday, he begged his dad to take him fishing for the first time. He had seen his dad’s fishing trophies and he really looked up to that and the chance to do what he knew his dad enjoyed.

“I remember I lost some of his bait and that I was reaching for more donuts than fish, but I got my first fish that day and that moment was the trigger for me to get into it,” he said.

Burns does what he can to inspire that next generation, from serving as a boat captain during youth fishing tournaments, to simply talking to and teaching young anglers at meetings and at tournaments.

And to him, being involved with the youth is the best part of fishing. “Their thirst for it is amazing,” he said.

“With fishing being my passion and fellowship being my commitment, I look forward to helping promote fishing in every way possible. As such, I am very involved in the Texas Bass Federation, FLW High School Division and the FLW College Division. I am honored to be a mentor to these young people who are the next generation of pro-anglers,” Burns said.

As a pro-angler himself since 2001, Burns still feels honored to be looked up to as a pro.

“In the last few years I used to get tickled because if there was a guy who had just won a tournament, I’d like to pick their brain and talk to them and now I have people asking me and it’s so unexpected,” he said.

And even though he’s certainly making a name for himself, he’s still humble.
“I’m just a small fish in a big pond, and I’m just thrilled to be in the pond at all, but it’s nice to know when you get comments and hear people say ‘we’ve heard about you’ and so forth and it makes me feel I finally started reaching that point in the industry to be a name and just getting acknowledged,” he said.

And even though really he’s a “bigger fish in the pond” that he will ever admit, Burns still honors his small-town roots in how he supports his sponsors.

“I have been truly blessed in my fishing career by being involved in the fishing community and learning and growing as an angler. I am honored to have the sponsorships I have and devote my time and efforts in promoting my companies with the respect and professionalism that they deserve,” Burns said.

Although he has been sponsored by big name corporations, the stress of meeting those demands took away the fun of fishing, and Burns realized that his love and passion for the people and places he fishes, not the fame and fortune, is where his heart truly is.

So, without trepidation, he resigned from the “big names” of sponsorship and instead found a new love for the smaller family-owned sponsors, who are just trying to get by and enjoy life—much like himself.

Burns said the day he resigned from the big sponsors, he was out fishing and caught a monster fish. “I looked up to the sky and said ‘I’m listening,’ and the next day, the radio thing happened,” he said.

And being attuned to God, nature, family, and friends, is really what it’s all about for Burns anyway.

“From my perspective, being in nature every morning that you get to watch the sun come up, it’s a different landscape that God’s painted and none are ever the same and you never get to see them again and I guess the passion for it is there,” he said.

And just like no sunrise is ever the same, for Burns, his career will never again be the same.

From a small-town kid fishing on the water to a big-time voice on the airwaves, surely there’s much more to come in his fishing future.

“I guess the biggest thing is everyone wants to leave a legacy and a history and anyone who met or knows me, on my last day, the common factor that I would want everyone to agree on is that ‘Scott Burns likes fishing,’” he said.

Tune in every Tuesday at 6 p.m. on www.blogtalkradio.com/fishbaitradio to hear Burns heat up the airwaves for some “reel” talk on his love for fishing.