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Final Practice Day
Matt Arey checks in on the final day of practice for the 50th Bassmaster Classic, conditions are changing and Guntersville is setting up to be a slugfest.
From Counting Quarters, to the Classic
It’s good to be Carhartt Bassmaster College Series competitor Cody Huff right now.
Back in August of 2019, Huff won the College Series Classic Bracket on Watts Bar and earned a ticket to compete in the 50th Bassmaster Classic on historic Lake Guntersville this week. Along with a Classic qualification Huff’s win secured a fully rigged, brand new Nitro Z20 bass boat and 2020 Toyota Tundra that are both wrapped in his Alma Mater’s colors.
“Man I can’t tell you how much of a blessing this past 6 months has been,” Huff said humbly. “Bass fishing in general, but specifically college fishing has 100% changed my life. It’s opened so many doors and given me opportunities I could have never dreamed of.”
Huff has had an incredible college fishing career, studying Business at Bethel University in northwest Tennessee while simultaneously chasing bass around the country at an impressively high level. And it’s safe to say the start of Huff’s 2020 season has raised the bar a notch or two.
This 22-year-old aspiring professional angler has competed in three major tournaments in 2020 and has yet to finish below third place. Huff posted a wire-to-wire victory in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series event on Toledo Bend in January, and immediately followed it up with another win in the FLW Toyota Series on the same fishery. He then added a 3rd place finish on Lake Seminole in an FLW College Fishing regional last month.
It’s safe to say Cody Huff is one heck of a fisherman with some serious momentum. But don’t let reading all these accomplishments give you the idea Huff has had his opportunities handed over on a silver platter. This humble young man from Ava, Missouri won’t come right out and tell you, but he has scratched and clawed his way up the proverbial bass fishing ladder.
“Financial struggles is something I’ve always dealt with when it comes to bass fishing,” Huff said honestly. “My parents are extremely supportive and help whenever they can, but funding my fishing dream has always meant work. I’d mow neighbors’ lawns or work on my great Uncle’s farm bailing hay, brush hogging, and anything else that needed done to make a little money. Whatever I scrounged up would go towards fishing in one way or another.
“I can remember my buddy Dalton and I literally scraping up quarters in our trucks so we’d have enough money to pay an entry fee one time. We realized when we got to the lake we didn’t know if we’d have enough gas to get home, but we got lucky and won it! Fishing has definitely helped me make my way, too. Seems like I was always able to find a way to have just enough cash to fish the next weekend, which was all I really cared about.”
Huff’s recent on the water success has afforded him the ability to not be so concerned with his finances, but his mental state remains the same. He is calm and he is hungry, which is a dangerous combination. While the rest of the world may not have some college kid high on their list of favorites, Huff is absolutely fishing this tournament to win.
There has been one Carhartt College B.A.S.S. angler given the opportunity to compete in the Bassmaster Classic since 2012, and the best finish ever posted by a college fisherman was sixth place. That was back in 2014 by some kid named Jordan Lee, coincidentally also on Lake Guntersville.
Records are made to be broken and Huff has as good a chance as any of his predecessors; but whether he comes in first place or last place Huff is already a success story and deserving of all the good fortune that comes his way. #OutWorkThemAll #OutFishThemAll
Lester and Arey Talk Treble Hooks, $300K, and Classic Memories
Q: What are you most excited about going into this Classic?
Lester: It’s close to home, so I’ll have a ton of family and friends here. I want to do well for them, even more than for myself.
Arey: It’s my first Classic! It’s my childhood dream come true!
Q: What’s your biggest concern going into this Classic?
Lester: We’re in the center of the bass fishing universe, local fishing pressure and boat traffic will impact the outcome of this tournament.
Arey: I hate to say it – but local fishing pressure.
Q: B.A.S.S. is calling this “The Year of the Fan.” We’re all fans at heart. What’s your favorite Classic memory prior to becoming a competitor in this great event.
Lester: Ironically, the last Classic they had at Guntersville. It was 2014, witnessing that first-hand as a fan lit the fire in me, and the next year, I qualified to compete in it.
Arey: The 2004 Classic on Lake Wylie. I was about 22 years old, and my buddy and I followed the competitors on the water.
Q: What’s most likely to be playing on your Tundra’s speakers on your way to the ramp Friday morning, on Day 1 of competition?
Lester: Probably Blackberry Smoke or Cross Canadian Ragweed.
Arey: LANCO’s song “Rival.”
Q: What percentage of the bass you weigh-in this week will be caught on lures featuring treble hooks?
Lester: 60%
Arey: 30%
Q: What might you buy first if you win the $300,000 first place prize?
Lester: I’d love to buy land to hunt on, and build our forever home on it too.
Arey: I’d invest it in my retirement funds.
Gleasons Catch a Pre-Classic Miracle
Two years ago, Toyota Bonus Bucks member, Darold Gleason was a successful full-time fishing guide on Toledo Bend, competing in Bassmaster Open events, chasing dreams of a pro career, and more than anything, refusing to accept the claims of medical experts, who said the love of his life might not live past her early 40s.
The often-comical Gleason – who refers to big bass as “ocean ponies” – wasn’t being naïve or living in a dream world – he’s just never been willing to accept what the textbooks had to say. He refused to ever adopt a mindset that Cystic Fibrosis — the most common fatal genetic disease in the United States – would steal his and Randi’s dreams, by stepping on her lung function.
Instead, he and Randi have chosen to achieve every goal they’ve shared since high school with a tenacious firepower that would make the spark plugs in his 250 horsepower Yamaha proud.
So just prior to the 2018 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell, when the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation asked Randi to be a spokesperson for their “Until It’s Done” campaign, Darold reached out to his fishing friends to help raise money and awareness by selling gray bracelets.
His closest friend, Caleb Sumrall spearheaded the effort. Others like Brandon Palaniuk and Casey Ashley joined in, and even eventual Classic champ, Jordan Lee wore one while hoisting the trophy. Sponsors, fishing guide clients, and many other generous souls also bought and wore the bracelets to raise money for research in Randi’s honor, which eventually totaled more than $10,000.
Still, after 2018’s admirable research fundraiser, just like so many annual fundraisers each year before, Randi then age 34, still had no promise of life much past 40.
“My mom has been doing CF fundraisers every year of my life, and my greatest fear was that all the people who gave their hard-earned money might never get to see it make a true difference,” says Randi, a highly successful Mary Kay cosmetics senior sales director, with six hard earned pink Cadillacs to her credit, despite a lifetime of daily breathing treatments, and more than 25 hospital stays.
Then came 2019, and honestly, there are no adequate words to describe the manner in which miracles both big and small began to take place in Team Gleason’s universe.
In February, Darold won a weather-challenged Bassmaster Central Open on Toledo Bend, and punched a ticket to this week’s Bassmaster Classic – a dream so many can relate to – and one he had carried in his heart since roaming the court as a meekly paid junior high school basketball coach and teacher.
Then, in the months that followed his dream-come-true win, came whispers of a possible life changing ‘miracle drug’ for Cystic Fibrosis patients. Finally on October 21, 2019, those whispers turned into joyous shouts of reality when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Trikafta – the first triple combination pharmaceutical to treat lifetime patients like Randi.
“Six days after I started taking Trikafta, I slept through the night without coughing, and didn’t wake up desperate for a breathing treatment for the first time in my entire life,” says Randi.
Still, twice daily are the chest physical therapy treatments in which Darold takes his hands best known for cranking up “ocean ponies” — to instead pound on Randi’s upper torso in an effort to dislodge the mucus attempting to drown her lungs.
The same medical community that once doubted CF patients could make it to age 45, is now warning folks like Randi to thicken their retirement funds, as Trikafta promises in miraculous fashion to extend their lives for decades.
“Sharing the miracle of Trikafta with so many people, including those in the fishing community, who gave their money in hopes of making a difference, is my biggest joy,” says a deeply grateful Randi. “And I’ll also tell you, I take those two pills each morning, and one each night, in honor of all those that had CF, but never lived long enough to know the miracle of this drug,” she adds.
Hours before he makes his first cast at the Classic’s $300,000 first place prize, Darold clearly has life in perfect perspective. “This is the biggest tournament in bass fishing, and performing great this week would be a powerful career changer,” he says. “But nothing that happens this week, or in any fishing tournament for that matter, will ever be greater than the value of simply having Randi with me.”
Powroznik Reels in $100K
Major League Fishing pro Jacob Powroznik notched his second win in just his eleventh Bass Pro Tour event this week thanks to some afternoon heroics on a Lake Okeechobee spawning flat that was full of bass and nostalgia.
The easy going Virginia pro used a high speed Quantum Smoke S3 PT (8:1:1 ratio) reel to quickly swim a worm over eelgrass and spawning beds to catch 49-pounds and 11-ounces in the Championship Round of Stage Two of MLF competition.
J-Pow’s winning equipment:
Reel: Smoke S3 PT (8:1:1 ratio)
Rod: 7’6” medium heavy Quantum rod
Terminal tackle: 65-pound HI-SEAS braid, 3/16-ounce Elite Tungsten weight, and a 6/0 Mustad Grip Pin wide-gap hook
Baits: Powroznik used 5-6 different worms throughout the Championship Round, saying the exact type of worm didn’t matter as long as the color was Junebug.
“I was fishing an expansive flat, so long casts and a fast retrieve was extremely important in triggering those fish to bite,” Powroznik said. “Using such a high speed reel not only helped me cover water quickly, but it also gave me the ability to pick up slack in my line and catch up with those fish once they got the bait.”
The spawning flat Powroznik targeted was less than two feet deep, and the bass were extremely aggressive. Powroznik explained the fish seemed to come out of nowhere, and in such shallow water they’d swim away like they were shot out of a cannon. The bass were fast but fortunately for Powroznik his Smoke S3 was faster, allowing him to keep pace with the fish to ensure an efficient hook set.
“Everything just lined up for it to be a magical afternoon,” Powroznik admitted. “The right equipment, a fresh group of fish, and a truly special spot all lead to this win. That same Lake Okeechobee spawning flat is the last place I got to fish with my dad before he passed in 2017. It was back in 2015, and we were sight fishing, but it was a day I’ll never forget. To win a major event on that same spot years later… what can I say? I know he was in the boat with me again.”