But on April 8 and 9, on Lake Pleasant, Ariz., his winning, two-day, 10-bass catch weighed in at a combined 32.83 pounds.

“When I got into the scales, I knew what was winning and I knew I had it,” Nollar said. “(Bass fishing is) not always like that. It’s kind of like going to Vegas.”

Nollar should know.

The son of a longtime professional bass fisherman in southern Califor-nia, Nollar spent his youth catching those little green predatory fish.

In 1991, he moved to Alaska, searching for bigger fish to fry, and spent the next nine years slaying salmon and halibut as a sport and commercial fisherman.

In that time, he also worked for a Homer charter company for six years, and started his own charter business a couple of years ago.

Along the way, the tournament bug caught up with Nolan. Six years ago he flopped down some money for a speedy bass boat and started entering tournaments.

This season he entered the WON Bass circuit, one of the many tournaments that have sprung up in recent years in the Lower 48.

He finished eighth in Arizona in February and 33rd in March in Nevada. April’s win was his first.

“People are in awe that an Alaskan can come down there and compete,” Nollar said. “These are the best bass fishermen on the West Coast.”

But he takes it seriously, fishing for bass 10 hours a day, seven days a week during the winter.

“I’m cramming a whole year’s worth of fishing in three months,” he said.

His preparation paid off on Lake Pleasant, where he found a secret bass-rich spot away from the crowd of competitors several days before the event.

He caught 13.85 pounds of bass during the first day, good enough to tie for fourth place. On Sunday, he caught five fish that weighed nearly 20 pounds combined. That was enough to vault him to the top of the 66-angler field.

Nollar’s wife, Jane, is a nurse at South Peninsula Hospital in Homer, and said her co-workers didn’t know what to make of her husband’s win at first.

Likewise, his Lower 48 competitors still scratch their head when they hear Nollar is from Homer.

But the notoriety has begun to spill over to his other job as a charter captain, Nollar said.

“It’s great for business. I meet hundreds and hundreds of fishermen and they always ask ‘You’re from Alaska, and you are bass fishing?’ And I give them my card.”

Each season about 10 to 15 professional bass fishermen come up to halibut fish with Nollar. And they are quick to discover there’s a big difference between catching five-pound bass and 100-plus pound halibut, Nollar said.

“Bass fishermen are pretty bad halibut fishermen,” he said. They tend to try to feel the bottom and set the hook, instead of letting the fish do the work, he said. But a nice summer day on the water, and the chance to catch bigger fish than they’ve ever seen keeps them coming back, he said.

Bass fishing tournaments have become “as big as golf” in the Lower 48, Nollar said, and with sponsorship dollars and TV contracts continuing to grow, so has the prize money.

Part of the sport’s appeal is its speed.

Anglers shoot across the lakes to get to their favorite spots first in high-tech bass boats that can reach 85 miles per hour.

Nollar’s boat, powered by a 225-horse power outboard, goes about 78.

“It’s kind of frustrating to be flying at 78 and get passed,” he said. “But I’m not going to go 85.”

Anglers can only weigh their top five fattest bass, so there is plenty of strategy involved in knowing when to keep fish or throw them back.

And a multi-million dollar industry has grown up around lures and lines designed to fool big bass into strikes.

Nollar is already sponsored by a few of these companies, but he has yet to reach the level of success needed to be able to make a living as a pro.

With more wins, that might change, however. He’s planning on joining the FLW bass circuit next winter, one of the largest in the country.

A win or two there, and Nollar’s sponsorship appeal would likely grow. A successful pro angler can earn a decent salary for catching bass these days, he said.

Until then, Nollar and his wife seem content to travel from lake to lake, camping out in motorhomes and entering as many contests as they can when their northern neighbors are slogging through snow.

“It’s a good way to get away in the winter,” Nollar said.