Michael Harlin of Osage Beach, Mo., fished the Upper Mississippi River for the first time in 2015 while competing with the University of Missouri’s bass team. He didn’t fare well at that event but returned and got redemption by winning a Turtlebox Bassmaster Open presented by Battery Tender in 2026 with a frog.
The victory earned Harlin a birth to the 2027 Bassmaster Classic. It also pulled him up to 40th in the Angler of the Year standings in Division 2 of the Opens. This qualifies him for the Bassmaster EQs and an opportunity to become a Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series angler.
“To qualify for the Classic is exciting stuff,” Harlin said. “It would be an absolute dream scenario to qualify for the Elite Series, too.”
Ozarks beginnings
Harlin was an active kid who enjoyed fishing, swimming, tubing and other outdoor pastimes. Much of these activities took place at Lake of the Ozarks, where his grandparents, Dave and Jan Hall, have a lake house. He fished mainly from the bank or his grandparents’ dock for crappie and bluegill.
His introduction to bass tournaments came about during high school when he worked at Bryant’s Osage Outdoors, a local tackle shop. The Midlake Bass Club fished their events on Lake of the Ozarks and often hung out at the tackle shop to “shoot the bull.”
Intrigued by their tournament accounts, Harlin joined the Midlake club during his senior year in high school after buying a used 17-foot Procraft powered by a 115 horsepower Mariner outboard. The craft afforded his first opportunity to fish from a boat. He later towed the boat to the University of Missouri where he competed in college tournaments with it.
“I never had a bass fishing mentor,” Harlin said. “Most everything I learned came from internet research, Bassmaster and my own experiences.”
Spreading out
The club tournaments on Lake of the Ozarks exposed Harlin to a variety of fishing conditions. The upper lake has stained water, while the lower lake is essentially a clear, highland reservoir. The first techniques that brought him success were skipping jigs and wacky worms under shallow docks and coaxing bites with Colorado-bladed spinnerbaits.
During the two years he attended the University of Missouri, he worked at Bass Pro Shops and competed on a variety of bass waters. These included the Upper Mississippi, Kentucky Lake, Table Rock and Illinois’s Carlyle Lake. These events taught him how to find and catch bass on different fisheries and exposed him to large tournaments that drew 200 boats.
After college, he took a job at Fitz Fishing in his hometown of Osage Beach, Mo., and began competing regularly in local tournaments. More than 100 of those events were with MLF. In 2019, he won his first “big tournament,” a BFL on Lake of the Ozarks. He invested part of his winnings in forward-facing sonar.
Forward-facing sonar
The following year, he employed FFS to help him win a Toyota tournament on Lake of the Ozarks. Since he grew up with “old School” bass fishing, he is comfortable fishing Open tournaments that allow FFS and those that do not. He has fared better in the non-FFS events.
This is his second season fishing the Bassmaster Opens, and he says he’s loving it.
He and Jada “my better half” currently run Sunset Beach Resort at Lake of the Ozarks. Harlin also guides on the lake when not fishing a tournament.
His primary sponsor is Piros Signs Inc., based in St. Louis. He struck up a friendship with David Brand, the company’s president, while they were both competing in the Opens. His other sponsors include Sunset Beach Resort, Crock-O-Gator Bait Company, Fish Extreme Rods, Powerhouse Lithium and Fitz Fishing.
