A northern invasion of Alabama

Cory Johnston and Seth Feider at Lake St. Clair at the AOY Championship in 2019.

Will the North rise again?

The 2020 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk, held in the indisputably southern state of Alabama, may present the best chance in recent history for a competitor who lives north of the Mason-Dixon line to claim the winner’s trophy, which would mark the first time that’s happened since Kevin VanDam claimed his third and fourth titles in 2010 and 2011.

The 2020 field will feature three Canadians, plus nine true northerners in the form of Seth Feider (Minnesota), Chad Pipkens (Michigan), Caleb Kuphall (Wisconsin), Bob Downey (Wisconsin), Cam Sterritt (New Hampshire), Paul Mueller (Connecticut), Greg DiPalma (New Jersey), Grae Buck (Pennsylvania) and Jamie Hartman, who currently resides in Arkansas but is most closely associated with New York.

Paul Mueller at Lainer in early 2019.

Add in Whitney Stephens and Hunter Shryock of Ohio, plus Bill Lowen of Indiana, two Rust Belt states.

Then there are westerners, in the form of Cliff Pirch (Arizona), Chris Zaldain, who currently calls Texas home, but is distinctively Californian, and B.A.S.S. Nation qualifiers Cody Hollen and Taylor Smith of Oregon and Washington, respectively. The last western angler to win the Classic was Skeet Reese in 2009.

That’s 17 of 54 contestants from outside the historical “Bass Belt” that stretches from Florida up to southern Virginia and over to Oklahoma. Oddly enough, that’s not historically atypical. The 2019 Classic included 21 such anglers if you’re willing to include two California-to-Alabama transplants in the form of Aaron Martens and Mark Daniels Jr. and Italian qualifier Jacopo Gallelli. In 2018 there were 15. The 2017 field featured 19 of them if you’ll stretch the bass diaspora to include Texan-by-way-of-Japan Takahiro Omori.

Greg DiPalma at St. Lawrence River in 2019.

A generation earlier the percentages were much lower. When Rick Clunn earned his fourth Classic trophy on Virginia’s James River, the field of 41 included two anglers from the Pacific Northwest, one from Connecticut, one from Michigan and a lone Canadian named Hank Gibson.

No northerner claimed the Classic title until B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier Bryan Kerchal won on North Carolina’s High Rock Lake in 1994, and while the last eight years have been barren for this group, the 11 years or so before that was surprisingly fertile ground for Classic qualifiers from “non-traditional “ bass states. Between 2001 and 2011, Boyd Duckett and Alton Jones, of Alabama and Texas, respectively, were the only native southern winners. Jay Yelas, who won in 2002, was living in Texas at the time, but before and since has called Oregon home. Meanwhile, Kevin VanDam of Michigan won four times, westerners Luke Clausen and Skeet Reese won in 2006 and 2009, respectively, New Jersey pro Mike Iaconelli won in 2003, and Omori won in South Carolina in 2004.

Jeff Gustafson at Cayuga in 2019.
Chad Pipkens at Lake Fork in 2019.

Much of the dearth of northern or western winners in the early years of B.A.S.S. can be attributed to a variety of factors. Ray Scott recruited heavily in familiar fishing hotbeds like Memphis and Tulsa and built his early tournament schedules around southern and central Chambers of Commerce who already knew the value of fishing tourism. While there were occasionally standalone tournaments in their regions, commitment to the tour generally meant exceptionally long drives for those from outside that narrow band, and especially for those in the west. There were no dedicated Western Opens until the late 1990s, and B.A.S.S. didn’t visit uber-popular Lake Champlain until 1997.

Chris Johnston at St. Johns River in 2019.

When the Classic moved the championship to the North for the first time in 1980, Louisianan Bo Dowden took the trophy back to Louisiana. There isn’t a large enough recent sample size to determine whether northern Classics favor northern anglers – a Virginian won in Chicago and a Michigander won in Pittsburgh – but so long as B.A.S.S. continues to hold the event in March it seems highly unlikely that there will ever be a world championship north of the Mason-Dixon Line again. That means for the North to reclaim the title, they’re going to have to do it in “hostile” territory.

Most if not all of the qualifiers have fished Guntersville before. After all, it’s one of the most storied lakes in fishing history and for good reason. Indeed, when the Elites visited last June it was Hartman who came out on top, with Zaldain, Pikens and Feider all in the top 11. Still, there can only be one Bassmaster Classic winner, and if it doesn’t happen this time around it’ll be at least a decade between northern victories on the sport’s biggest stage.