If anybody has the right to say bass fishing is in their blood, it’s Texas angler Cory Rambo.
Raised on Lake Sam Rayburn, the tackle store owner and highly accomplished tournament angler now cuts across East Texas waves in a smooth-riding Vexus® VX20 from Jorgensen Marine; however, his first boat was a far smaller vessel his grandfather, pro angler Bill Gregory, helped him acquire through the young Rambo’s grass mowing efforts.
“My grandma, Eudora, competed in Bass’n Gals events. Grandpa was a member of the famous Piney Woods Bass Club and competed in Ray Scott’s early Bassmaster events, so bass fishing was just a way of life for me as a kid,” reflects Rambo.
Now age 47, Cory Rambo’s life moves much faster than it did on the shores of Sam Rayburn in the 1980s. He works two jobs: one as the owner of the highly successful Rambo Outdoors tackle store in Orange, Texas, and the other as a hospitality liaison for Richard Construction. Both jobs allow him to utilize his gift for connecting with folks to make their lives a little more fun.
“Being an independent tackle store owner is not easy in a world full of huge retailers, but we’ve been super successful since we opened seven years ago because we work hard to stay on top of what the fish are biting in this area. And we make sure we have an unmatched selection of tackle and lures to connect our customers to the fish, whether they’re headed to Rayburn, Toledo, the Sabine River, or the Gulf of Mexico,” says Rambo.
One secret to Rambo’s retail success is hiring highly knowledgeable college anglers from nearby Lamar State. They’re young, passionate, and super educated on hot lure trends. Couple that youthful energy with Rambo’s in-depth knowledge gained from years of on-the-water experience, and it quickly becomes a formula that’s hard to rival.
In a region of America that's home to so many hard-core anglers, Rambo and longtime partner Rusty Clark have won 19 boats and 17 Angler of the Year titles, including four Bass Champs AOY titles, their latest coming just last year. If you know anything about bass fishing on the Texas-Louisiana border, you know that’s a wildly impressive resume.
“Rusty’s about ten years older than me. I’ll admit that I’m the lightning rod; thank heavens, he’s the ground wire. It’s a relationship that works on the water extremely well,” grins Rambo.
An angler of Rambo’s caliber can choose to run just about any brand of boat that floats, so why does he run a Vexus?
“In one word—trust. I can trust people like Randy Hopper and Keith Daffron, who lead the Vexus brand in Flippin, Arkansas. These guys are lifetime boat builders, and in my opinion, their commitment to building an innovative, strong, and performance-driven boat is simply the best in the business,” says Rambo.
That’s a profound statement from a highly successful human who says with a smile, “My job is to make people happy.” To learn more about the VX20 fiberglass rig that Rambo loves and the complete offering of Vexus® Boats, please visit vexusboats.com.
