TULSA, Okla. – Bryan Kerchal’s legacy lives on as “The Dream.”
In 1994, the 23-year-old amateur stunned the bass fishing world by winning the Bassmaster Classic. Thirty years later, on the eve of the 54th Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, Kerchal remains the only B.A.S.S. Nation angler to win the coveted title.
Sadly, Kerchal died five months after his win in a plane crash. His well-known story is considered the greatest tragedy in the sport. While personally heart-wrenching for Gary Guidice, he prefers to remember the incredible wake his friend left.
“I think if you look at what angler had the biggest impact on bass fishing in general, of all of them, it was probably Bryan,” said Guidice, who’s worked in the industry for decades and helped the young angler. “You look at Bryan, and it’s more, ‘Damn, he gave us a dream!’
“If Bryan Kerchal can do this, anybody can do this. The odds are against it — a fry cook out of Connecticut won the Bassmaster Classic though the Federation. So guys now think maybe someday I’ll have a chance.”
Nation qualifiers have never been considered a threat to the seasoned pros. Wendall Mann became the first Nation angler to fish a Classic in 1973. He finished last. Qualifying remained mostly a badge of honor for the Nation , token berths for grassroots anglers. Until Kerchal.
“The Federation became the place of dreams,” said Guidice (Ju-dis-ee), the owner of Blue Heron Communications in Norman, Okla. “It’s where anybody, anybody, can dream about winning the Classic.
“The thought of winning the Classic had been so foreign. Now all the sudden, it pumped up all of them. It gave them something to dream about. Prior to that, they never thought they ever had a prayer.”
That dream was almost realized again by Dalton Bobo, who came oh-so-close just three years after Kerchal won. The Nation qualifier lost the 1997 Classic to Dion Hibdon by an ounce after suffering a 4-ounce dead fish penalty. In 2014, Nation champ Paul Mueller, also from Connecticut, posted the biggest bag in Classic history, 32-3, but finished second on Lake Guntersville, one fish and one pound shy of the title.
An everlasting reach
Include this week’s Nation dreamers as Kerchal disciples. Two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year Brandon Palaniuk might be the most devout. He has long placed Kerchal’s feat among the greatest in Bassmaster history.
“It’s a bit of a David vs. Goliath story,” Palaniuk said. “You take a guy whose odds are low, he’s not supposed to win, and he has a dream week. But he never got to defend the title. His circumstances are different, but his legacy lives on through all of us who fished the Nation.”
Palaniuk said he thinks much like Guidice, that the Kerchal story has tremendous legs.
“The crazy thing was his win carried power far beyond just the year he won it. A lot of guys, their win partially gets erased by the following year’s winner. Kerchal’s is one of the only ones whose never gets erased, because he’s still to this day the only B.A.S.S. Nation national champion to win the title.”
Palaniuk was 6 in 1994, but because his route out of Idaho was through the Nation, he soon learned all about Kerchal. What he discovered amazed him — Kerchal finished last the previous year and turned around a poor practice after finding a worm floating in High Rock Lake.
Palaniuk, fishing his 13th Classic, honored Kerchal in his first Classic after taking the 2010 Nation title. On stage during his fourth-place finish in 2011, Palaniuk blew a replica fish whistle just as Kerchal trumpeted his catches. He keeps one on his boat as a lucky charm.
His admiration of Kerchal remains evident.
“Even though I qualify as an Elite angler, I still consider myself a Nation guy,” the winner of six B.A.S.S. tournaments said. “If I won this week, I would still consider it a partial Nation win, technically, in my heart.”
Nation of dreamers
Two-time B.A.S.S. Nation champion Will Davis Jr. of Sylacauga, Ala., said if he pairs a Classic title with his Elite win from his 2023 rookie season, it would be for “all the Nation guys,” with special credit to Kerchal.
“I never got to see Bryan fish,” he said. “I was born in 1992, but I always watched the Classic videos and saw him win from the Federation. It was such a tragedy to this sport that he passed away.
“He showed a working man like me can fish for a living and make the Classic. I’m very fortunate and blessed to do this for a living. Bryan gave me that hope to make it.”
Pat Schlapper said he feels connected to Kerchal through the Nation, and especially his winning bait. Fishing wasn’t even on Schlapper’s radar in 1994 as an 11-year-old, but he learned to fish with the same worms.
“It’s really memorable to me. He won it on a red shad Culprit worm. That’s what I started bass fishing with,” he said. “I had the little kit, 4-inch, 6-inch, all the red shad worms. I still have the box.”
The Eleva, Wis., pro was 36 in 2020 when he pulled the trigger to go all in. He won the Nation title and double qualified for the Elites from the Eastern Opens.
“Him being the only Nation champion, it means a lot because I made it through the Opens and the Nation, but I still hold the Nation high in my heart,” Schlapper said. “It’s just a cool story. The year before, he took dead last then comes back and wins? Anybody who likes history, not just Nation history, but bass fishing history, it’s a very important part of it.”
Despite 30 years passing, Schlapper said he still believes Kerchal provides great inspiration.
“He gives the guys who are fishing in a club tournament setting, working their way up through the Nation, that feeling of ‘Holy crap, I can do it. I can make it to the Classic.’”
The two other Nation qualifiers fishing this year’s Classic are Josh Wiesner of Fond du Lac, Wis., and Tom Dube of Nashua, N.H. Both were given 100-to-1 odds to win, with only Team Champion Aaron Yavorsky, the youngest ever to compete in a Classic at 18, lower at 150-to-1.
Wiesner, 45, is a longtime tournament walleye angler, mixing in bass tournaments just recently. Yet he’s well aware Kerchal is the only champ from the grassroots level.
“Maybe we’ll change that this week,” he said.
Is it looking good?
“No,” he said abruptly. “But you never know. You just got to run into them” like Kerchal did.
Dube quit his job at a sporting goods store to accept the Nation invite to fish the Elites this year. From Kerchal, he learned “anyone in the Nation can go and compete at the top level.”
While Dube is a little older at 30, he hails from the northeast, just like Kerchal. And just like Kerchal, he believes the Classic title is within reach.
“It’s got me hoping a little bit, absolutely,” he said. “If it works out that way, I would be honored to be in that same category as him.”
Winning too soon, dying too early
Guidice said it didn’t seem possible that Kerchal passed 30 years ago. He first met Kerchal passing out coolers to Nation competitors in 1993, and they soon became “real tight.” Guidice took the Ground Round burger flipper under his wing and helped guide him into the bass world.
“He was a hell of a guy. I remember he was so shy,” Guidice said. “I got him hooked up in a public speaking course. Came out a pretty good speaker. He had long hair. I said, ‘Cut your damn hair. Bag the earring, Bryan. I know that’s your deal, but it gets in the way of your career.’ He spruced up some and got over the ‘aw shucks.’
“I got him a boat and got him some gear because he didn’t have anything. He had an old rickety johnboat, drove an old beat-up pickup. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good fisherman, but he wasn’t as developed as the other guys were.”
The pros didn’t consider Kerchal a threat in his second Classic. Not until he was one. Kerchal took the lead after two days, and the veterans freaked. As the closest pursuer, Guido Hibdon was told by other anglers he “better catch them tomorrow. You’re our only chance.” Hearing that sentiment ruffled Guidice’s feathers.
After Day 3’s fishing, Guidice remembers one of his employees calling him from the boatyard.
“’You better get down here. Bryan is about to pass out. He can’t even stand up.’ I went running out there. Sure enough, he was in bad shape,” said Guidice, who got a doctor there pronto. “He was just dehydrated. Filled him up with Gatorade, he was just fine. He did a good job (with Ray Scott on the weigh-in stage). Said all the right things. He was the people’s champ.”
The limelight intimidated Kerchal, Guidice said, and he just couldn’t fathom what winning the Classic really meant. On their ride to the winner’s press conference, Kerchal posed a question to Guidice.
“He said, ‘Gary, you think I could quit my job?’ I says, ‘Bryan, you can quit your job. You just won the Bassmasters Classic. Don’t worry about being a fry cook anymore.’”
In subsequent tournaments, Kerchal worried about catching fish and called Guidice nightly for pep talks. Kerchal often wondered if he might have won too quickly. While he drew crowds of people who looked at him as their hero, his victory was not popular with the veteran anglers, who brushed it off by claiming the three-day Classic is among the easiest tournaments to win.
“They were all saying that. Some Federation kid comes up and kicks our ass,” Guidice said. “They were not happy with it. I can’t speak for all of them, but the more vocal ones were not happy. (Rick) Clunn, I think was happy.”
Clunn, the four-time Classic champ who was Kerchal’s inspiration, gave the eulogy at Kerchal’s funeral. At the 1995 Classic, Kerchal’s empty boat circled the arena. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
After his death, Kerchal’s family received big insurance payouts, and his mother sent some to Guidice for all his assistance.
“She told me to take my daughter fishing somewhere, so I did,” he said.
Guidice was later contacted by a Hollywood production company considering a movie on Kerchal. They wanted his help flushing out details, telling him he’d be in the movie. Well, an actor would portray him.
“I said I’ll help you out as long as Danny DeVito plays me,” Guidice said. “It went on and on. Finally, the whole project died after they spent a fortune, which is a shame. That would have been a big hit to our industry as well.”
Still, Kerchal’s improbable win is vivid in many minds. His rags-to-riches story is incredible, an unassuming fry cook from Connecticut climbing to the sport’s pinnacle, and it remains an inspiration for countless anglers, even 30 years later.
“Giving people that dream did more for the fishing industry than anybody else winning the Classic,” Guidice said. “A lot of that had to do with who he was. If he had been some boisterous guy that would brag, I think it wouldn’t have impacted as much as he did.
“I was so impressed with that kid. I too felt like he won the Classic a little too soon. But when I look back at it, I was wrong. He won it at the perfect time.”
