▶Crew File · 5:29
Bailey Happy Happy!
Crew File for Bailey: tournament stories, family fishing history and another essential witness to the Crook’d Hook’r incident report.
Crew File · baileyDrop the needle →
CREW FILE 0005
Original tournament-partner evidence photo. Varsity eligibility remains under appeal.
Crook’d Hook’r Crew File 0005
Bailey
CALL SIGN “Bailey”
The Uncle Dan Dan Prodigy
Original Tournament Partner · Gallatin Fishing-Team Original · Owners Tournament Constant · Former Boat Supplier
Original tournament partner, founding Gallatin High School fishing-team member and veteran of every Minn Kota Owners Tournament the crew attended.
Official Soundtrack
Follow on Suno ↗The Bailey years soundtrack
▶Officially unofficial biography
Acts like Corlew. Sounds like Corlew. Thinks like Corlew—which is apparently the scary part.
Matt has known Bailey since Bailey was four or five years old. Bailey is the nephew of Matt’s best friend, Allen Daniel ‘Danny’ Corlew—Uncle Dan Dan—an outdoorsman who hunted, fished, camped, cooked outside, paddled and creek-fished whenever pavement was no longer required.
Danny helped raise Bailey in that outdoor life. Calling Bailey the Uncle Dan Dan prodigy is not a loose comparison. Matt says Bailey acts, sounds, speaks, stands and thinks like Ole Corlew. The thinking part is apparently the scary one.
The year Danny died, Matt asked Bailey to fish the Cystic Fibrosis tournament with him. One event became years of Thursday nights at Flipper’s, charity tournaments, road trips and every Minn Kota Owners Tournament the crew attended.
Scouting report
Numbers, findings and disputed evidence.
Born2000
Known by Matt sinceAge four or five
Crew designationUncle Dan Dan prodigy
Gallatin fishing-team statusOriginal
Varsity eligibilityUnder appeal
Owners trips missedZero
Boats suppliedOne
Thursday-night statusRetired from active duty
Current commuteAbout 45 minutes
Adult responsibilitiesLocated him
Why the crew keeps calling.
- Carries Danny Corlew’s outdoor instincts and delivery forward.
- Helped start Gallatin High School’s first fishing team.
- Showed up for every Minn Kota Owners Tournament the crew attended.
- Supplied the boat during the early Matt-and-Bailey tournament years.
- Was present for the original Crooked Hooker naming conversation at Pickwick in 2023.
Items still under review.
- May still believe high-school varsity eligibility can be restored.
- A house, fiancée and longer drive have interfered with Thursday nights.
- Acts enough like Corlew to make Matt briefly question the timeline.
- Adult responsibilities have demonstrated effective patterning.
Personnel file
Uncle Dan Dan
Danny Corlew was Matt’s best friend, Bailey’s uncle and a true outdoorsman. He taught Bailey patience, gratitude, that if something is there it will be there, and that somebody somewhere always has it worse.
Danny died December 1, 2021, at age 48 in Gallatin. His place in this story is not polished memorial copy. He was Uncle Dan Dan, an outdoorsman and a true friend whose influence is still visible every time Bailey sounds, stands or thinks like him.
Personnel file
Always with me
Matt carries Danny Corlew’s ashes in the silver memorial pendant he wears. ‘ALWAYS WITH ME’ is literal. The pendant is treated as memorial evidence and never as the setup for a joke.
Personnel file
The tournament that started it
In 2021, the year Danny died, Matt planned to fish the Cystic Fibrosis tournament. Granddaddy was paired with Moo, so Matt asked Bailey to fish with him. Bailey had a boat, and they entered together.
One tournament became several years of Flipper’s Thursday nights, charity events, road trips and every Minn Kota Owners Tournament attended by the crew. Crook’d Hook’r was not manufactured to create the partnership. It grew out of it.
Personnel file
The boat years
Matt and Bailey originally fished from Bailey’s boat. Bailey later sold it and the crew shifted to Matt’s boat. Bailey was also sitting with Matt and Moo at Pickwick in 2023 when the Crooked Hooker roadside joke became a possible boat name.
Personnel file
Forever varsity
Bailey helped start Gallatin High School’s first fishing team. That is a real accomplishment.
It is also possible nobody explained that high-school fishing ended after high school. Somewhere inside him is still a teenage tournament star waiting for the coach to call. Unfortunately, the adult responsibilities have located him.
Personnel file
The current chapter
Bailey has a fiancée, a house, a different city and a longer drive. He still works in Gallatin, but Thursday-night fishing has slowed to a stop. That does not erase the boat years, tournament miles, Danny’s influence or Bailey’s place in the original Crooked Hooker conversation. It just means the crew file now includes a mortgage.
The boat changed, Thursday nights slowed down and adult life showed up. Bailey’s place in the crew never changed.OPEN THE BAILEY YEARSDanny’s memory and the ALWAYS WITH ME pendant are handled with respect. The varsity jokes are aimed at Bailey’s tournament personality, not Danny’s loss.
Officially unofficial eligibility campaign
Reinstate Bailey’s Varsity Eligibility.
Support tournament entry, travel, tackle and the effort to get the original partner back on the water between work, the house, the fiancée and the disputed expiration of his Gallatin fishing career.
$10.00 → Eligibility Appeal
Secure hosted checkout. Support funds Crook’d Hook’r operations and is not a tax-deductible charitable donation.