Then and now with Elite pros

<p>Many Elite Series pros have had long and storied bass fishing careers; others are just getting their start. In this gallery, we'll take a look back at how far they've come.</p>

Many Elite Series pros have had long and storied bass fishing careers; others are just getting their start. In this gallery, we’ll take a look back at how far they’ve come.

Aaron Martens was still living in California and part of the Crown Royal team (yes, they had a bass fishing pro staff!) when this was taken — the early days of “fear the beard.”

Here’s AMart as a grizzled veteran with a couple of AOYs on his resume.

Alton Jones has been fishing professionally since 1990.

Nearly a quarter of a century later (makes you feel old doesn’t it?), he’s one of the most successful and consistent anglers in the sport.

That’s 13-year-old Bradley Roy on the right, accepting the trophy and check for winning the 2004 Junior Bassmaster World Championship.

Here’s Roy with the 2010 Bassmaster Rookie of the Year award. If he still looks young, that’s because he’s just 19 in this photo.

And here’s Bradley Roy today at the ripe old age of 23.

Brent Chapman won his first B.A.S.S. event in 2000 on the Red River.

Fourteen years later, Chapman has added three more B.A.S.S. victories and an AOY title to the resume of an impressive career.

Davy Hite took his first AOY in 1997 and another in 2002.

In between, he won the 1999 Bassmaster Classic. Here are Natalie and Davy Hite with the Classic trophy.

Hite has eight career B.A.S.S. wins and 14 Classic appearances in a career that goes back to 1989.

Dean Rojas is in the middle of a stellar career, but this image captures one of his iconic accomplishments. He’s lifting the trophy after winning the 2001 Florida Bassmaster Top 150 on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. On the first day of that event, his five-bass limit weighed 45 pounds, 2 ounces — a record that still stands.

Here he is at a more recent tournament. His four B.A.S.S. wins and 14 Classic appearances go nicely with his status as the world’s greatest frog fisherman.

Gary Klein notched his first B.A.S.S. victory in 1979 on Arizona’s Lake Powell. He almost edged out the legendary Roland Martin for AOY that year.

That’s Klein and B.A.S.S. founder Ray Scott with a couple of the fish that won for him on Lake Powell in 1979. Back then, all Klein carried were Fenwick Flippin’ Stiks.

Today, Klein is considered one of the most versatile anglers on tour. Though he missed AOY as a rookie in 1979, he did claim the title in 1989 and 1993.

Here’s Gerald Swindle in 2004, moments after winning the Bassmaster Angler of the Year title in a tight race with Greg Hackney.

And here’s the G-Man showing one of his fish from a recent Bassmaster Classic.

Swindle is making another run at AOY in 2014.

Here’s a very young Kevin VanDam at about the time he notched his first of seven AOY titles in 1992.

The always slim KVD looks positively rail-thin 20 years ago.

Here’s today’s KVD — the best of all-time, winner of four Bassmaster Classics and seven AOYs.

This is what Mike Iaconelli looked like in 2002, after winning the Bassmaster Tour event on Lake Seminole — about a year and a half before winning the 2003 Classic and becoming a bass fishing superstar.

And here’s Ike shortly before winning that 2003 Classic. “Never give up!” became the catch phrase that he uses to this day.

The current Iaconelli look is definitely much, much cooler. He’s lost the eyeglasses, picked up an interesting ‘stache and forgotten how to bend the brim of his cap.

B.A.S.S. founder Ray Scott used to joke that Paul Elias was the model for the Smith Brothers cough drop packaging.

Today, Elias still has the beard. It’s just a little sleeker … and a little grayer.

Pete Ponds was rockin’ the beard in 2004 when he won the Southern Open on Lake Eufaula.

Here’s Ponds a decade later — still catching ’em, but with a little more gray … just like Elias.

Yes, that’s 2014 Bassmaster Classic champion Randy Howell about 20 years ago — when you put your patches on your vest and wore it on top of everything, including pink shirts.

Blue is now the dominant color in Howell’s tournament wardrobe. It looks good with big bass and with his Classic trophy.

Here’s Rick Clunn on the first day of the 1977 Bassmaster Classic (which he won two days later).

New hat, new jersey, new beard, but still one of the greatest anglers ever to make a cast. Clunn has gone from unknown to star to legend in the world of bass fishing. No one has fished more B.A.S.S. events.

Lake Powell wasn’t just the site of Gary Klein’s first B.A.S.S. win. It’s also where Skeet Reese broke through in 2000.

Here’s Reese 14 years, multiple wins, an AOY, a Classic championship and innumerable hairstyles later.

Terry Scroggins hasn’t always been “Big Show.” Years ago he was just another young, aspiring pro.

This is Big Show!

Tommy Biffle’s been at this game nearly 30 years, with little sign of slowing down.

Biffle has always been one of the best flippers and pitchers in the business. His prowess with a jig is unquestioned.

Zell Rowland was the youngest angler ever to fish a B.A.S.S. event — just 14 back in 1971. Here he is a few years after that.

Generally regarded as the best topwater bass fisherman of all-time, Rowland has won B.A.S.S. events fishing on top, on the bottom and in-between.

And he’s still at it, more than 40 years after his first national tournament.