There were primal screams of utter frustration. There were almost tears.
Jeff Gustafson had a nightmare ride back to Knoxville for check-in at the 53rd Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota. Leading on the Tennessee River the first two days of competition, Gussy was understandably upset, believing he had blown his chance to win the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing.
Despite only two fish on Championship Sunday, Gussy held on to become the first Canadian and the 42nd man to win a Classic. He was beyond thrilled to make history, especially after a harrowing final day.
“For this one to go the way it did, it was pretty special,” Gustafson said. “A lot of things collided to go my way. I feel pretty lucky.”
Repeating his smallmouth program from 2021’s wire-to-wire Elite win on the Tennessee River, Gustafson appeared on his way to another runaway. On the final day, the fish had other plans.
“To only catch two, I honestly, 100%, did not think I had a chance,” Gustafson said. “Somebody is always the hero. I knew it was a tough day, and I knew I wasn’t going to finish 12th, but I did not think I had a chance.”
Better get back to Tennessee
Gussy had high hopes ever since the Feb. 2022 announcement that the Classic was returning to Knoxville, where he moped up 20 smallmouth from the canal between Fort Loudoun and Tellico lakes to win by 7 pounds.
His phone blew up that day, with folks informing him of the location and telling him he would win. He didn’t want to hear any of that, but he admits there was a psychological advantage to going somewhere he had already won.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I knew the smallmouth program existed. I got to see it last time. I had that in my favor. Most of the guys in the field hadn’t got to experience that and know what the potential was.”
Yet he had made the canal, along with his technique perfected growing up near Lake of the Woods, quite popular. Local tournaments were won there, and Gussy wondered if there’d be any fish left.
Within 30 seconds of dropping his bait on his first Classic practice, Gussy discovered they were still there. Lots of them. Even with traffic, he figured he would learn the area better than everyone else and have a shot if he could grind out limits.
The second practice day changed his outlook. It was Saturday, with a local tournament going on. A touch late getting out, Gussy said it was difficult finding a parking spot at the ramp. The canal was just as crowded.
“You could hardly idle through there with our guys and all these locals,” Gustafson said. “At that point, nobody is winning the tournament in this canal.”
T for Tellico, T for Tennessee
After looking for largemouth, Gustafson confirmed he couldn’t win doing that either, so for Sunday’s practice he aimed the boat toward Tellico’s smallmouth. He idled, scanning his Humminbird MEGA Live electronics. He’d try the bank every so often with no luck.
“Around lunchtime I’m just going along a ledge, and I see some rocks. It was not that obvious,” he said. “I turn the boat around, drop bait in 30 feet. At 20 feet, here they come. I see 12 racing for my bait. Please be bass.”
A 17-inch smallmouth bit. His second catch was a 4-pounder, well above the required 18 inches.
“Reeling it back up, all the way from the top to the bottom, there’s fish. I don’t know how many were there … dozens and dozens of them,” he said. “I’m pretty much, ‘OK. There’s a spot.’ Leave. Idling around a bunch more.”
Around supper time, he found another subtle spot that he would utilize. Gustafson’s main concern now was whether the schools would be there five days later when the competition started.
“A few nights during the week, I did not sleep good,” he said. “I was committed. If I catch 15 smallmouth, I’d be in a good place.”
The weather was critical, as cold during practice and through much of the week kept the smallmouth grouped up. Gussy noted a few days later and he would have been out of luck.
“On the other side, a few days earlier, I probably would have caught 20 pounds every day,” he said. “That made it a hard week too.”
Program going as planned
Gustafson took the Day 1 lead at 9:48 a.m. with 14 pounds and culled to 18-8. It took a bit longer to get his 17-3 limit on Day 2.
“The first day was perfect. It went easy. I probably could have fished another 20 minutes and caught 20 pounds,” he said. “There were a lot of them, they were biting, and they were easy to catch.
“Day 2, it looked easy, but it was a lot harder. I was fairly efficient to get my five, but I knew Sunday was going to be hard.”
It was late Saturday night when the Gustafson family sat down for supper in the lobby of the anglers’ hotel. Well-wishers stopped by to offer premature congratulations.
“Everyone is coming up to me, ‘It’s over. You’re going to win.’ I knew there’s still a long way to go,” he said. “I had a big lead, but it wasn’t like a 19-pound lead, and I could just not go catch fish.”
John Cox was 5-12 back, and Bryan Schmitt 2 ounces behind him. Several others were within striking distance, including Drew Benton (7-5 back) and Scott Canterbury (7-11). Warming temperatures were improving the largemouth bite while splintering Gussy’s smallmouth schools.
“When I first found the spots, you couldn’t even get your bait to the bottom, you’d have one on,” Gustafson said. “There were a lot less of them on both places. They were starting to break up and were harder to catch.”
Going out with Day 3 Classic lead
Anglers like defending Classic champ Jason Christie say they don’t want to lead starting the final day of the Classic. It’s already a pressure-cooker and tons of fans follow the leader. The screws tighten. It’s painful to even contemplate losing a lead, let alone a decent one.
Gussy, one of the most even-keeled pros on tour, felt the enormity of the moment. Before blasting off, he sought some peace in the presence of Christie, whose fiancé, Shana, hit it off with his wife, Shelby, awhile back.
“The takeoff is crazy,” he said. “Canada flags everywhere, Robbie Floyd in the boat with me. At one point, 40 minutes before actual go time, I jumped in Christie’s boat and just hung out.”
It served as a nice getaway — time to relax and calm the nerves. Christie didn’t really offer any words of wisdom; Gussy said he’s just easy to be around and “his success and demeanor kind of rubs off on people.”
As Gustafson blasted off for a 45-minute ride, he said he was raring to go. The affable Canadian, who’s known as the nicest guy on tour, is among the more optimistic pro anglers.
“You’re cranked up,” he said. “Let’s go get this job done today, catch five of them as fast as we can and get the boat back to Knoxville. Seal it up. Get your limit and it’s over … Didn’t go quite as planned.”
Knowing the bluebird skies would make fishing tougher, Gustafson wanted to give the deep canal another shot for a fish or two. That plan was thwarted as Benton was on the rock he hoped to fish. Gussy was magnanimous enough to clear things up about his friend.
“I know he kind of got blasted by people a bit, but that was people not knowing what was going on,” he said. “He’d been fishing in there. He wasn’t fishing on the exact spot I was fishing on last time. That was fine. We’re friends.”
Gustafson tried nearby but soon left for his spots in Tellico. It was another hour until he put his first fish in the livewell.
“There’s a few around but not getting keepers. This is going to be hard,” he said. “I kind of had the shakes going for a while. I’ve led some of these tournaments before and been in plenty of high-pressure situations, but not like that.”
Gotta stick with the plan
Although Gussy had thoughts of tying on a wacky rig and whipping it around docks, he stayed the course knowing it was his best shot. He just needed to drop his bait in front of a fish that hadn’t seen it yet.
“Hopefully, it will just charge up and eat it,” he said. “Fortunately, a couple of them did. It was hard.”
At 12:27 p.m., Gustafson landed his second fish, pulling a pack of about 10 up with it. The catch went straight in the livewell, and he rushed to get the bait back down there, hoping to fire up the school. They never did, and the clock ticked faster. He had less than two hours of fishing left.
“When you’re having a tough day, the time just flies,” he said. “All the sudden, it’s 10:30. Then 11:30. Then 12:30. Now time is a problem. I don’t know how I’m going to put it together.
“I figured if I got three, I had a chance. Four, guys would have to catch a pretty big bag.”
Back in the canal until the last second, Gustafson left for Knoxville feeling defeated. He knew somebody made up the difference. He knew his shot to win the Classic was dead.
“The ride back was horrible,” Gussy said. Cameraman Brian Eavey “filmed for maybe a mile. When he turned the camera off, I yelled a couple bad words. For most of us, that opportunity is never going to happen. It sucked to think I just blew it … someone else was going to be the hero today, not me.”
Gussy’s positive outlook took over as he told Eavey he had a pretty good run at it. But one can only imagine the emotional letdown Gustafson went through.
“The whole way back, I didn’t cry, but I probably wasn’t far from crying,” he said, “just not wanting to let people down. It was just a lot.
“This was my shot. I failed today. I couldn’t get it done. At the same time, I’ve had lot of tournaments where you didn’t get it done. I wish I would have done this or did that different, but I really didn’t have any regrets how I fished the tournament.”
Learning there is hope
After checking in and before he looked at BassTrakk estimates, Gussy turned to Eavey, who all day hadn’t offered any clues to the day of fishing.
“‘What’s the damage?’ He just said to me, ‘You won’t believe it, but it’s going to be close. You have a chance, probably the best chance,’” said Gustafson, who was incredulous but relieved.
There was still almost two hours of nail-biting before Gustafson would know. Sitting in the boatyard, time passed slowly for Gustafson. Gerald Swindle helped eat some of it.
“Swindle came over 10 minutes and just got me laughing. It was one of things I’ll remember most about the whole weekend,” Gustafson said. “He’s a special guy, and it was pretty funny. He got me not thinking about it for 10 minutes, and that was good.”
Gussy knew he had more than 6 pounds, and he pondered how low the BassTrakk weights could be for Schmitt and Canterbury, who were kept separated in the boatyard and during Super Six instructions.
“The Super Six experience, you just dream of getting to do that,” Gustafson said. “I’ve watched every one for the last 10 years, but I was so stressed out I don’t remember any of that.
“All I could think about is I want to see how this shakes out. I want this to be over one way or the other.”
When Canterbury and Schmitt couldn’t top 42 pounds, Gussy said he finally felt good. The stress subsided. A minute later his weight of 6-12 gave him 42-7 and the win by 1-9.
“It turned into like, ‘Wow! This is really happening.’ On stage, it’s so loud and bright,” Gustafson said. “Christie came out and gave me a hug. I know we said things to each other, but I have no idea, no recollection of what we said.
“Then Shelby came out. All I can remember, just looking at each other, ‘We did it.’ I wish I would have taken a minute to absorb it all and look around more. It just happened so fast. It was pretty crazy.”
Canada celebrates Gustafson
The Ray Scott Trophy crossed the border into Canada around 9 p.m. on March 28 as the Gustafsons drove home to Kenora with friends. Gustafson became only the second international winner of the Classic, and Canada has taken notice with numerous media outlets extolling his feat.
Members of Canada’s House of Commons have congratulated Gustafson from the floor of Parliament, and most recently, the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL honored him in the middle of a game.
“We have a lot of people in Canada who love bass fishing,” Gustafson said. “I’m very lucky I got a shot to be on that stage. It’s hard to make it there. I think this will probably influence a few more people, ‘Hey, somebody from up here can make it.’”
You betcha.
