Oklahoman Austin Cranford qualified for the 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series by finishing fourth in the overall Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers standings last year. With the first Elite event of the season at Alabama’s Lake Guntersville fast approaching, he’s struggling to complete the tournament preparation required of a professional bass angler.
That includes rigging a boat, getting it wrapped, negotiating with sponsors, designing a new jersey, organizing tackle, making travel arrangements and dealing with everyday home life. The latter includes maintaining his job at McRay Roofing & Exteriors and helping his wife, Shyan, attend to the needs of their 6-month-old daughter, Kollyns.
“I’ve been busy,” Cranford said. “I’ve fished the Opens for quite some time and have traveled all over the county, but the Elites are something else.”
Learning from ponds
“Grandpa” Henry Day initiated Cranford’s love for fishing when he was 4 years old and living in Lubbock, Texas. They dunked live bait in ponds — mainly for catfish.
At age 6, his family moved to New Mexico where his father, Clay, took him fishing with live crawlers for trout in ponds and rivers. Two years later, his family relocated to Oklahoma, where he and his father began fishing ponds from the bank for bass.
“We had a family friend who had a big ranch in central Oklahoma,” Cranford said. “There were 30 ponds on the ranch, and they all had bass in them. I would go down there two days a week until I was about 15.”
He caught thousands of bass from those ponds while paddling around in a small two-man boat. His biggest bass, a 7-pound, 6-ounce largemouth, engulfed a Hula Popper when he was 12.
There were also two ponds a mile from his home in Norman. At age 15, he would get up early three or four times a week, don a backpack, snatch two rods and walk to one of the ponds to cast for bass.
Given that the ponds held stained water, which is typical in Oklahoma, Cranford picked off bass with spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, squarebill crankbaits, a Stanely Ribbit Frog, as well as jigs and Texas rigged worms.
Baseball to bass boat
Cranford also found time to play baseball in high school and to learn welding skills at Moore Norman Technology Center. He continued playing baseball and fishing ponds while enrolled at Connors State.
“I played baseball for one year in college,” he said. “Then I decided I loved fishing more than baseball. I dropped out of college and got a job as a welder for Kat Industries in Oklahoma City.”
By age 19, he had saved enough money to buy a used bass boat for $10,000, which allowed him to begin fishing local tournaments. That same year he also started his own company, Whitetail Construction, which welded metal buildings.
A year later, he took the job with McRay Roofing. He started out as an installer and moved up the chain to become a salesman. About six years, ago he bought a full-blown bass tournament rig and began fishing more earnestly. He continued to compete in local jackpot derbies and jumped into a few BFLs.
Nation to Opens
“What really set me off is when I started fishing B.A.S.S. Nation tournaments,” Cranford said. “I won the very first B.A.S.S. Nation tournament I ever fished at Lake Sardis six or seven years ago. I sacked 22 pounds flipping bushes.”
The victory qualified him to compete in a B.A.S.S. Nation regional on Toledo Bend in 2020. He led after the first day but blanked on Day 2. That same year he took on the Bassmaster Opens for the first time “to see where I stacked up.”
He stacked up well, finishing 45th at the Arkansas River, 32nd at Neely Henry and 12th at Lake Lewisville. Had it not been for a 96th-place bomb at Sam Rayburn Reservoir, he may have qualified for the Elite Series in his first attempt.
His next year fishing the Opens had highs and lows. The lows were mainly due to the dramatic impact forward-facing sonar (FFS) was having.
“I was literally a river rat,” Cranford said. “In practice, I always invested one day fishing for shallow, resident bass. I hit every bush, laydown and piece of wood.”
Over the next two years of fishing the Opens, Cranford took on the challenge of learning the intricacies of FFS. By 2025, his fifth year of fishing the Opens, this technology helped him qualify for the Elite Series.
“Now I’m a hybrid,” he said. “I’ve gotten good at scope but still have the river rat in my back pocket. I think that might play to my advantage with the new Elite format in 2026.”
Cranford’s sponsors include US Fleet Tracking (GPS tracking products), McRay Roofing, Indaco Metals, Bass Tanks, Pro Guide Batteries, F5 Rods, Beatdown Outdoors, Power-Pole, Sunline, Willie Pete’s Custom Baits, Lucky Lure Tackle, Waterland Sunglasses, Skeeter and Yamaha.
