It’s January, and a cold front is passing through Arizona. On Roosevelt Lake, about 100 miles east of Phoenix, winds whistle as white-capped waves crash on the dock.
One boat emerges carefully, yet quickly, seeking cover in a cove. There’s precious cargo to protect. Twenty-four carat gold. And a fisherman better known as the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
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Al Noraker had been so sure his friend and fishing partner Travis Hunter would win the 2024 Heisman Trophy that he crafted a congratulatory gift for him well before Thanksgiving. Stored in Noraker’s office in Loveland, Colo., for nearly two months sat a gold fishing reel equipped with the newest technology in the industry.
Finding time on the schedule of college football’s latest sensation isn’t easy. It’s nothing like 2023, when Hunter first came to Colorado and was texting Noraker, the former president of fishing equipment company KastKing, on nearly every off day from football, eager to get out on the fishing boat.
“What I realized that day was not only is this guy a top-notch talent in college football, he’s just a heck of a good kid,” Noraker recalls of first meeting Hunter. “Him and I couldn’t be any more different. I’m this old White guy from the ‘burbs, and here’s this world-class athlete, young Black guy from the South.
“But when we get on the boat, it’s like we’ve been doing it all our lives, and that’s all we care about. It’s just really fun.”
At long last, on a cool January day, Noraker presented Hunter with a silver briefcase bearing his name, No. 12 and a Buffaloes helmet on a bronze plaque, an ode to the Heisman Trophy. Inside was a fishing reel better fit for a trophy case.
“I thought he was going to fall out of the boat,” Noraker remembers. “His mouth dropped open.”
“As soon as we closed it and turned the camera off, Travis was like, ‘All right, can we go fishing now?’” said A.J. Gore, who was along for the trip with KastKing. “It was funny as can be because he just received this gold, fully functional, most advanced fishing reel on the market, and he was more excited to go fishing.”
There isn’t Hunter the two-way football star (and likely top-five NFL Draft pick), without Hunter the fisherman. Scoring touchdowns or picking off passes? Hunter dreams of neither, as he told ESPN on the day of December’s Heisman Trophy ceremony.
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“When I dream at night, I’m fishing on a boat,” he said.
The 21-year-old details his fishing outings on YouTube, including competitions against Colorado coach Deion Sanders. A Season 2 episode of Amazon Prime’s “Coach Prime” series opens with Hunter and Noraker on a boat, with Hunter saying, “All I’ve pretty much known since I was little is to go fish or to play football.” He signed name, image and likeness deals with fishing companies in college, KastKing included. And at last month’s NFL Scouting Combine, when asked by ESPN’s Laura Rutledge how he handles the pressure of the upcoming NFL Draft, Hunter shrugged.
“I just look at fishing all day,” he replied.
But it’s unfair to call fishing a hobby for Hunter.
“When Travis talks about fishing, he’s deadly serious,” Noraker said. “I mean, that’s all he really wants to do other than be the best football player on the planet.”
This is the side of Hunter most people don’t see. On a fishing boat, football takes a back seat. The Athletic spoke with six people who have fished with Hunter in recent years, and each of them said he doesn’t talk much — or at all — about the gridiron. In the tight-knit fishing community, some didn’t even know who he was when they first met.
“I thought he was kind of tall and lanky for a football player, but I’m like, whatever,” said professional angler Max Hernandez, who first met Hunter fishing in Colorado in the summer of 2023. “After I left that night … I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I wonder who this Travis Hunter guy is for real?’
“I Googled him, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, he’s a big (deal).”
As familiar as Hunter’s skills on the football field have become, he isn’t your “average fisherman,” either, professional bass angler Matt Becker says. In May 2024, Becker met Hunter at a lake outside Orlando for a few quick hours of fishing. Upon arrival, Hunter jumped out of the car and headed straight to the water, studying it.
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“I could just pick up on his passion for fishing instantly. I can sniff that out in someone pretty quick,” Becker said.
On the water, it’s peaceful. No music or podcasts. Nature is the background noise, mixed with some competitive flair, of course.
“There was a lot of smack talk going on, back and forth trying to out-fish the other one,” Becker said. “Travis did catch the first fish, so I heard an earful about that one.”
Jokes, high energy and healthy competition are guaranteed on a fishing trip with Hunter. The stakes vary.
One day, Noraker presented Hunter with a bet. The fisherman with the greatest total length of fish caught that day would win. If Hunter won, he’d get a new rod and reel. If Noraker won, he’d get tickets to the next Colorado football home game, which happened to be the 2023 sold-out opener against rival Nebraska.
“My wife and I got to enjoy a very good game with great seats,” Noraker said.
Competition aside, fishing can be an escape from reality, even when trips don’t go as planned. In a recent outing at Valley Lake Ranch in North Texas, Hunter’s boat motor blew up while on the water with Cooper Thor of 6th Sense Fishing. A stressful situation at first, Thor reflects back and laughs. They didn’t let it derail the day, hopping on a friend’s boat to finish.
“He’s just one of the boys,” Thor said of Hunter. “He likes to catch fish. He will sit there and hang with us. He will fish for as long as you can, from sun up to sun down, with absolutely zero complaints.”
Fishing is a chance for Hunter to step away from the limelight of a high-stakes football career. After all, he wouldn’t be the first to reel in the opportunity.
In 2007, future Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive tackle Joe Thomas famously skipped the NFL Draft for a fishing day with his father on Lake Michigan. He took a call from the Cleveland Browns, who selected him at No. 3, from the boat.
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Thomas never expected the decision to make headlines, he says now. Saturdays were always spent fishing with his dad. And those moments away from the “fishbowl” of NFL life were vital to his career.
“You spend 99 percent of your waking hours playing football, going to meetings, training your body, having your body recover, watching film,” said Thomas, who hasn’t talked to Hunter about fishing but bonded with many former teammates over the hobby. “You’re spending that time on a very, very high-intensity, stressful job with super high stakes. It’s huge to be able to recharge the batteries.”
The ideal recharge for Hunter ends with a familiar tradition: barbecue. On the day Hunter received his golden reel, the group arranged an outing to Salinas’s Smoke Street in Globe, Ariz., for dinner. The restaurant’s grand opening wasn’t until the next day. But dining with the Heisman Trophy winner tends to pull a few strings.
“I don’t know if people know this,” Gore said. “He likes football. He loves fishing. And he loves good barbecue.”
Even as life around Hunter grows more crowded, fishing remains a constant. A simple pleasure. A mental escape. A dream.
“If he wasn’t Travis Hunter the Heisman Trophy winner, I would almost guarantee that he would either be a huge social media fishing star or fishing at the highest levels,” said Jose Cinco, who has appeared on Hunter’s podcast “The Travis Hunter Show” to discuss fishing. “He’s just that passionate about it.”
When Hunter’s name is called in April at the NFL Draft in Green Bay, Wis., his future team will already know it’s adding a dual-threat player — a savvy wide receiver and lockdown cornerback whom teams see playing both ways. But how about a two-sport athlete?
There’s a split verdict among the community of fishermen who have seen him do both on what Hunter is more skilled at — catching footballs or fish. It turns out, Hunter might have a clearer answer for that.
“He was in the middle of landing a fish, and I joke around a lot, so I said, ‘Are you better at offense, defense or bass fishing?’” remembers Chuck Pippin, who fished with Hunter twice on the Butler Chain of Lakes outside of Orlando.
“He quickly answered bass fishing. That’s his passion.”
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images, Al Noraker)
Jayna Bardahl is a staff writer for The Athletic. She has worked as an editor and reporter covering Big Ten football and men’s basketball, and was an intern at The Boston Globe, where she covered the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. Follow Jayna on Twitter @Jaynabardahl
