Pro bass anglers under 30 on the Elite Series for tournament bass fishing

Is competitive bass fishing for the younger pro anglers or the experienced veteran fishermen

Winter 2018

27-year-old Dustin Connell took the 2017 Rookie honors Credit: B.A.S.S./ James Overstreet

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Then you get to this season, where for the first time all three titles were earned by anglers in their twenties – Jordan Lee claimed the Classic at 25, Brandon Palaniuk won the AOY trophy just two months shy of his 30th birthday, and 27-year-old Dustin Connell took Rookie honors.

But, those are just three pros. If you look down the list, everything seems to be skewing younger.

There are still forty somethings like Jason Christie, Edwin Evers and Greg Hackney among the leaders; however, three of the top five in the AOY standings were under 30, and five of the top seven are 33 or less. They’ll continue to slowly get older; but absent some loss of interest, they’re not going anywhere, an time soon. The likes of Jacob Wheeler and Ott DeFoe, along with the others mentioned above, have titles on their minds.

In the late ‘70s, Gary Klein went on tour straight out of high school, the first pro to do so, and for a long time there weren’t many like him.

Even Rick Clunn, Shaw Grigsby and other superstars worked “conventional” jobs before going full-time. Now, with college angling an option and increasing in popularity, young anglers can get seasoned off the water without risking their own cash, all while studying topics like business or communications that will help them in a fishing career. It’s not coincidental that both Lee (and his brother Matt) and Connell are products of the college fishing programs.

On top of that, the applicability of technology to the sport

In the late ‘70s, a California angler, Gary Klein went on tour straight out of high school, the first pro to do so, and for a long time there weren’t many like him.

has advanced the learning curve tenfold, and provided a decided advantage to those who can implement it in a forward looking fashion. It may not matter in every event, but its advantages are evident over the long haul, and those who master not only their onboard tools, but also programs like Google Earth are playing chess, while everyone else is playing checkers.

There’s also the element of physical fitness. Look at some of the 50 and 60-year-old pros like Gary Klein or Bernie Schultz, and they’re still fit and spry, but years of long drives and pounding boat rides across big waters take their toll.

For every Larry Nixon who remains competitive after several surgeries, there’s at least one Denny Brauer for whom it isn’t worth it anymore. While there are still some overweight and undermuscled pros on tour, the importance of physical fitness – which is not necessarily exclusive to youth, but often facilitated by it – has become increasingly well-understood.

So, will our sport become a latter-day version of Logan’s Run, an ageist society where anglers over a certain age are forced out? Hardly.

We will always have the Clunns and Nixons who continue to compete not only for personal reasons, but also because they can remain competitive well into their senior years.

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