Daily Limit: Fans asked to vote on all-time greatest B.A.S.S. events

MISSION: Determine the all-time greatest Bassmaster tournaments

METHODOLGY: No idea

END PLAN/COPOUT: Put it to a fan vote

When tasked with an article on the all-time greatest B.A.S.S. events, The Daily Limit pondered the proposition — how does one even go about doing this?

Certainly, there are standout events etched into our collective memories, but narrowing down the 850 Bassmaster events to the best 10 is a formidable undertaking.

Initial research discovered a 2016 photo gallery on the Top 22 greatest Bassmaster events. That’s dated but a good baseline, so let’s add the important happenings and make a list to present to fans – the Greatest All-Time Bassmaster Events Ballot.

Also, let’s dig into the minds of some authorities at B.A.S.S. for perspective. Among those asked their thoughts were four-time Classic champ Rick Clunn, Classic and AOY winner Davy Hite, and longtime media stalwart Craig Lamb.

Each of those Bass Fishing Hall of Famers will provide some context then we’ll have fans decide on the GOAT list below.

Two shakes of Lamb tales

Starting as a “starstruck teenager,” Lamb is closing in on 40 years of “fandom and full-timedon” in B.A.S.S. tournament and media roles.

While everybody enjoys seeing big bass, it isn’t always about monster fish, Lamb said. Winning the Bassmaster Classic also looms large, but there are extenuating circumstances that ingrain an event in our gathered consciousness.

“To me, what makes a great tournament is something out of the ordinary,” Lamb said, “such as Bryan Kerchal winning the Classic. He was an amateur, a hamburger line cook. It was a great storyline for everyone.

“One, it was inspirational. Two, it gathered a lot of attention outside of our sphere.”

Kerchal’s tragic death six months after winning cemented his ever-endearing saga.

Another highly memorable tournament was Clunn’s 1984 Classic win in Pine Bluff, Ark. Two future presidents, George Bush and Bill Clinton, were on stage when Clunn blew away the field and delivered an inspiring speech.

“That’s out of the ordinary,” Lamb said. “You have a vice president and governor, both who became presidents, on the stage with Clunn giving his patriotic, little green fish speech.

“Both of those are great nuggets. They’re very rare. It’s not like we’ve had another amateur win since then, or two presidents on the weigh-in stage.”

Jim Bitter’s heart-breaking loss in the 1989 Classic looms large in the B.A.S.S. annals. Famously on camera, Bitter landed what would have been his fifth and winning fish. While unhooking it, he dropped it then watched in horror as it bounced off his tackle box and back into the James River. He never caught another and lost to Hank Parker by 2 ounces.

Incredible barely describes Clunn’s resurrection at the St. Johns River in 2016. Winless since 2002, Clunn enthralled the bass fishing world with his 15th B.A.S.S. title, spawning the mantra — “Never accept your best moments are in the past.” He lived it again, rallying with two 10-pound class bass to win there again in 2019, at 72 increasing his record as oldest winner.

“Clunn made the sport ageless,” Lamb said. “It was complete inspiration. We have stories of people who go up to and tell him they had some kind of health issue or were too old, and said he  was the reason they persevered.

“There are other storylines that resonate across all genders and all ages, and even outside the fishing sphere. To me, occurrences like that humanize fishing in a great way.”

The most recent of which is Easton Fothergill. While in college, Fothergill suffered a brain abscess requiring surgery. He was diligent to recover in time fish and win the 2023 College Bracket, qualifying for the Classic.

It also paved the way for him to compete in the 2024 Opens, where he won twice to qualify for the 2025 Classic and the Elites. With a record-setting Classic win in March on Texas’ Lake Ray Roberts, Fothergill completed a dream run from near death.

“Great storyline, another out-of-the-ordinary story there,” Lamb said. “That attracted a lot in social media, reaching outside the fishing audience. Bassmaster LIVE was on main FOX, which resonated.”

With a clutch late 8-pounder, Fothergill totaled 76 pounds, 15 ounces to break the all-time Classic weight mark. Lamb said it was fitting Fothergill’s big bass on the big stage fulfilled his big dream.

“That’s fundamentally who we are,” he said.

Comparing lists

Clunn and Hite were handed sheets with about 40 tournaments in chronological order and asked to pick which they believe are the 10 greatest. Each said there are a number of things to factor, and No. 1 was the event’s significance for the sport.

There were similarities, along with subjectivity, in their Top 10. Hite’s first checkmark was for Ray Scott’s first event, the 1967 All-American Bass Tournament in Arkansas.

“My No. 1 is 1967 Beaver Lake, because it is No. 1,” he said. “You have to have it to make this whole organization, the B.A.S.S. shield, be so strong.”

Clunn first circled the 1971 Bassmaster Classic, the first world’s championship where he would later make his name. Scott put 25 anglers on an airplane headed for the mystery local of Lake Mead, which Bobby Murray won.

Both Clunn and Hite recognized the significance of the 1984 Classic.

“That was just monumental for the sport,” Hite said.

“It was my third, something nobody else had done,” said Clunn, who broke the tie with Bobby Murray. “This was the first drive-in tournament. With the big-name media outlets, we became a bona fide sport. It showed we aren’t just a bunch of redneck hillbillies.”

Bitter’s loss — the images most can replay in their minds — was on their lists, as was the tragedy of Kerchal, who died in a plane crash six months after his Classic title.

“Kerchal was the only Nation winner and his tragic death just months later is something everybody knows,” Hite said. “He gave the dream to so many other guys.”

Each marked down their own Classic titles, Clunn for the James River in 1990 and Hite for the Louisiana Delta in 1999.

“That was my fourth one,” Clunn said. “Anytime you accomplish something like that, you just cut a little path through the jungle and now they have to try to follow it, and Kevin (VanDam) did.”

Hite noted the New Orleans weigh-in venue began a precedent.

“There’s a lot more to that than Davy Hite won it,” he said. “It was in the SuperDome, probably the biggest venue at that point. It was a whole different level for our sport.

“No. 2, Denny Brauer finished second, kept him from being back-to-back champ. No. 3, it broke the all-time five-fish limit period and still stands as the best in a summertime Classic.”

The 2001 Florida Top 150 on Lake Toho made Clunn’s list. Dean Rojas set the all-time single-day weight with 45-2 in becoming the first Century Club member on 20 fish. Rojas had two of the 21 10-pounders caught in the event.

Another big fish bonanza and one for the ages was the 2008 Falcon Elite, which both Hite and Clunn selected.

“Paul Elias winning with the all-time heaviest weight, I think is huge, huge, huge, certainly one of the most memorable tournaments,” said Hite, saying from top to bottom it was the best catching-wise tournament ever.

“Some people just want to see fish catches,” Clunn said. “To a lot of our fans, that what’s makes a tournament more important than others. All-time weights, those all-time records, if you’re a fan and keep up with the sport, they mean a whole, whole lot.”

Clunn checked his hugely popular 2016 St. Johns win while Hite passed it for the 2019 rendition, when Clunn rallied from eighth with 34-14 on Day 4 to win with 98-14.

“I like the 2019 Clunn monster day, catching basically two 10-pounders coming from so far back, and him being Rick Clunn,” Hite said. “Most people, honestly, including myself, thought we’d never see him win another tournament.”

Clunn said his win was important for B.A.S.S, coming after 68 anglers left the Elites for MLF.

“There couldn’t have been a better tournament winner than me,” he said. “If anybody else would have won that, they would have said, ‘They don’t have the talent.’ When it took more weight to beat our young guys, they couldn’t say I was fishing against a weaker field.”

Jay Przekurat winning at the St. Lawrence Elite in 2022 was significant to Clunn. While becoming the youngest Elite champ, Przekurat was the first to top 100 pounds on smallmouth.

“I won the very first one that was all smallmouth on the St. Lawrence,” he said. “I weighed 15 pounds a day, which would have been in 90th.

“We live in a dynamic universe. Everything is changing, the fish are changing. The environment is changing. We’re changing. This was a good wakeup to smallmouth.”

Both marked off the 2024 Lake Fork Elite, when the all-time weight record was nearly topped. Trey McKinney, who led the Top 10 into the Century Club, became the youngest Elite champ at 19 years, 1 week, and Justin Hamner caught an 11-7, the largest ever seen on LIVE.

“Events like Falcon and Fork, those are just historical catches,” Clunn said, “and what that does, it lights a fire in the industry. It’s a catalyst. The tackle industry without tournaments would be totally dead. It would be just little tackle stores like it was before.

“The fans are doing the same thing. Every tournament, to some degree, gets things fired up.”

(Note: Clunn and Hite made their picks before Fothergill’s Classic win and Kyle Welcher’s win at the Pasquotank River, where he set the largest margin of victory.)

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