ROCKWALL, Texas (ABP) — Clay Dyer has a dream job. He believes without a doubt God called him to become a professional fisherman — and not just the “fisher of men” variety.
Making his living with a rod, reel and tricked-out bass boat — complete with a fancy paint job paid for by a sponsor — Dyer's life is the kind many men would envy, except for one detail. He was born with no legs and no left arm. His right arm stops above the elbow.
Doctors performed numerous tests on Dyer when he was an infant, but they never determined the cause of his disability.
So Dyer determined early in his life to “take lemons and make lemonade,” he said. At the age of 4 or 5, he began to realize other children could run and do things he couldn't. But that didn't stop him from playing their games.
“I'd find the balls they were playing with and figure out how to make them work for me,” Dyer recalled. “I tried to be independent in everything I did.”
He even played T-ball and basketball, always using the same equipment as everyone else because he didn't want any special allowances.
The same is the case of the pro fishing tour. His reels, lures and boat are just like anyone else's, with no special equipment or tailoring.
Dyer started fishing for catfish and bream at age 5 and began fishing in tournaments at about 14.
“I've tried not to ever let adversity get me down but [to] push through the adversity,” he said. “There came a time when I realized either I can choose to be independent or I can be co-dependent and have someone else meet all my needs. I decided I wanted to be independent and show people that I could do things.”
One of the things he did was go to church with his family. But like many young men, he said, he went through a period in his teen years when he did things he now regrets.
“During my teenage years, I got sidetracked and got involved in things I shouldn't be doing, but thankfully never drugs or anything like that. Mostly, I was running with the wrong people,” Dyer recalled.
In June following his high-school graduation, Dyer was invited to a youth rally where he made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
He recalls that day vividly, remembering that he felt unnaturally nervous and apprehensive. Throughout the rally, he said, the feelings only got more severe.
“I just couldn't get comfortable, and when they had the prayer at the end … I looked up and I was all by myself, everyone else was at the altar,” he said.
He followed. At the altar, a man he had known for most of his life greeted him.
“How's life going?” he asked.
Dyer replied, “It's going good.”
“No, it's not,” the man responded.
“I had never had anyone talk that boldly to me before,” Dyer recalled. He made a profession of faith that night and has never looked back.
“When you feel that much power, that much peace, there's no words to describe it to let anyone know how I felt,” he said.
Dyer describes the last 10 years as “the most incredible ride” imaginable. Soon after his conversion, he asked God how God wanted to use him. He vividly remembers a dream in which he saw himself in a shirt with sponsor patches all over it.
“The only two types of people who I had ever seen wearing those kind of shirts were professional fishermen and NASCAR drivers, and I had a feeling it wasn't NASCAR,” he said with a grin.
But there was an obstacle.
“Pro bass fishing takes two things, one of which I did not have. It takes a whole lot of commitment and it takes a big-time sponsor, because it takes a whole lot of money,” he said.
That year, he took all the money he had and competed in the Alabama state championship bass tournament. After the tournament, some companies contacted Dyer to see if he would represent them, and since they were reputable companies, he said yes.
“It's not about the national exposure for Clay Dyer but a means of drawing people to Christ,” he said. “People ask me why I fish, and I tell them, ‘It's my witnessing field, my platform for testifying about what God has done in my life and what he can do in other people's lives.'”
While he loves fishing, he says it's more important to know he is in the center of God's will for his life. “I ask God each day, ‘God, is this your will for my life?' And over and over, he has confirmed it for me,” Dyer said.
Not only has God allowed Dyer to be a witness on the weigh-in stand but also in the boats with his fellow competitors, many of whom are not Christian.
Dyer has fished primarily in the Strand fishing series, but he has also competed in big-time Wal-Mart FLW events as well.
He's had 25 first-place finishes and another 25-to-30 top-10 finishes during his career — quite an accomplishment for a guy who ties lures many times each day using only his lips and tongue.
Dyer describes that process whenever he speaks to churches.
“I hook myself almost every time I re-tie, so that I can be on the weigh-in stand and be a witness for Christ. I sometimes then ask what kind of effort they are willing to go through so that they can testify to the power of Christ,” he said.
One question Dyer often gets asked is whether he was ever angry at God for the body he was given. Dyer said he honestly has never been angry.
“I don't like drawing attention to myself, but I've often felt like God has made me this way so he could use me the way he wanted. If I had been born differently, I probably wouldn't have the opportunities I've had,” Dyer said.
– Photo available from Associated Baptist Press.
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