PVA Buckeye Chapter member Paul Mann wins NVWG Fishing Tourney
Never in his life had Paul Mann had this kind of day fishing.
The 53-year-old Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) Buckeye Chapter member and his boat captain Robert Beaman kept reeling in fish after fish after fish during the National Veterans Wheelchair Games’ (NVWG) Bass Fishing Team Tournament at Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota.
Now, they can call him the Bass Mann.
“It was awesome,” Mann says.
Mann and Beaman caught five fish on a sunny, low-90-degree Monday afternoon, totaling 15.54 pounds, to take the 2025 NVWG Bass Fishing Team Tournament title. They finished nearly 2 pounds ahead of PVA Wisconsin Chapter member Angela Walker and boat captain Larry Hanson (who caught five fish totaling 13.84 pounds), while PVA Nevada Chapter member Alan Marsh and boat captain Steve Pieri placed third (five fish totaling 13.48 pounds). Each of the top three finishers, along with the Big Fish winner, received a medal and a new fishing pole.
Mann credited Beaman with finding some out-of-the-way hot spots and using the right bait, a frog bait, for his wild success.
“Well, I had a real good boat captain that took me to some real good spots. He had scouted it out, and one of them was really plentiful,” Mann says. “We caught over 30 fish today, no exaggeration whatsoever. He found a spot that had moss covered over it, and he put in a frog bait, and he was just skipping the frog bait over it … I was watching it — one time, two times and he hit a third time and he’d snag it. Every once in a while, he’d catch it the first time, but usually it was the third catch, and I was getting pictures. I got videos of these fish jumping out of the water. This was like a National Geographic moment to me. It was awesome. I mean, I’ve never fished for five or six hours and caught over 30 fish, and we were throwing them back consistently.”
Twenty-five anglers competed at the NVWG’s second annual bass fishing tournament.
In last year’s inaugural fishing event in New Orleans, Mann’s grand total was one fish at 1.73 pounds. This year, he finished with the top weight total.
An Army veteran, Mann served from 1989-1993 as military police. Seven years later, he sustained a level C6-C7 incomplete spinal cord injury after a car accident as a passenger in a car with his father. Oddly enough, he remembers the last time he won any sort of fishing title when he was in Cub Scouts — netting the most fish and biggest fish — when he was with his dad as a kid.
“I had a few years in between, but I’m back,” he joked.
Meanwhile, Walker, a wheelchair user who also sang the national anthem, conquered her fear of fishing from a boat. During last year’s tournament, she chose to fish from the bank — staying off the boat and away from alligators in the water. This time, there were no alligators and the Navy veteran decided she was fishing from inside a boat no matter what. Having a patient, kind and veteran boat captain in Hanson helped, too, she says.
“And, you know, he taught me a lot about fishing that I didn’t know. And it was the old-fashioned fishing, you know, not the big boat with all the fancy equipment, but just good fishing techniques. How to throw that rod, get the fishing rod out there properly, and how to do the wrist action. When I was bringing the fish in, all those things were really helpful,” Walker says. “And then pacing, you know, because he was familiar with the lake. That made me feel more confident. And I put all my trust in him. We had a team, the two of us. You know, we created a bond. And I think of what a beautiful bond between us. And I’ll remember it for the rest of my life because, you know, I caught a lot of fish. We caught a lot of fish. And it wasn’t all about him doing all the work. It was more about me learning to handle the fishing reel and, you know, just how to cast. That’s what you call it, how to cast the rod. It was an excellent experience. I would do it again and again and again.”
Marsh and Pieri managed to win the other title up for grabs — the Biggest Fish — with a 4.29-pound catch. They just edged out Hanson and Walker (4.27 pounds) and PVA Northwest Chapter member Kevin Ferguson and boat captain Jack Kiffe (3.69 pounds) for that honor.
Marsh and Pieri actually led the tournament for most of the afternoon. They were one of the first handful of boats to come in before Walker and Mann each finished in the last handful.
A Marine Corps, Army and Coast Guard veteran, Marsh retired in 2009 and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2010. He didn’t compete in the fishing event last year, but he decided to try it this year at the urging of some other PVA Nevada Chapter members.
Both he and Pieri agreed that location was key.
Pieri had never fished at Lake Minnetonka before and focused on fishing in spots where other people weren’t fishing. It helped.
“It was location, definitely,” Marsh says. “We caught all the fish in that one location.”
Marsh had a blast. Although Pieri couldn’t attend the nighttime awards banquet at the Hyatt Regency hotel, they video chatted as Marsh received the award.
“I had a great captain. The water was nice. It started getting choppy later on, but it was just perfect,” Marsh says. “It was the perfect day to go fishing.”
