I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Derek Hudnall since he began fishing the Opens in 2015. The Baton Rouge, La., angler has already accepted his invitation to join the Bassmaster Elite Series, and with good reason. Hudnall has a respectable, and unusual, primary sponsor in Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, renowned for its pediatric healthcare in Louisiana.
“Nearly all of the hospital is operated by fundraising,” he sad. “If a child needs major brain or heart surgery they can have the procedure done at the hospital without the need to leave town. Seventy percent of our patients also don’t have the ability to pay for treatment, so the fund-raising is so important.”