When Takahiro Omori won the Bassmaster Classic in 2004, some American fans took umbrage at the fact that he displayed a Japanese flag during his arena victory lap. When Jeff Gustafson won in 2023, however, despite the enhanced megaphone of social media, there was little or no griping about an angler departing with the trophy and depositing it over a foreign border.
While non-U.S.-born anglers have competed at the highest level of the sport for decades, few have made a run at angling immortality like Omori and Gustafson. There’s never been a non-U.S. Bassmaster Angler of the Year, for example, and the nearly 19 years between Classic wins make them seem more like anomalies than predictors of future success.
After winning the Classic on Lake Wylie, Omori competed in nine more, finishing in the top 10 twice more — 10th in 2010 and third in 2015. That seemed to be par for the course for the two or three Japanese pros who filled out the field each season. Kota Kiriyama finished seventh in 2008 and 16th in 2010, Omori finished 15th in 2012, and Takumi Ito finished seventh in 2022, but none of them made a true run at the title.
Around the globe
Surprisingly, multiple-time Classic qualifiers from outside the U.S. were not just from Japan. Africa’s Gerry Jooste led the 1997 Classic on Logan Martin before ultimately falling to 15th, and he fished four other Classics over the long haul between 1994 and 2013. The B.A.S.S. Nation made that route possible, although in fairness to some otherwise-qualified competitors the high cost of paying for trips to the U.S. for additional qualifying rounds made it a pipe dream at best.
Of course, Classic prognosticating and after-the-fact analysis is an inexact science. Because there are no points involved, a 30th- or 40th-place finisher may have actually been closer to winning than someone in the Top 10. He took a risk on a perceived big fish strategy and fell substantially short.
Nevertheless, if Classic week is stressful for any qualifier — and particularly for first-timers — then it must be that much more daunting for those who don’t speak the local language fluently or fully understand other aspects of American culture. That may apply less to the Australians — Carl Jocumsen will fish his second Classic this year, and Kim Bain-Moore qualified for the 2009 Classic on the Red River — and certainly for the Canadians, but it might put Japanese qualifiers at a disadvantage. Several of them have also been trailed by extensive entourages and television crews.
In the years post Omori’s victory, there were usually one or two non-American Classic qualifiers, falling to none in 2018, and rising to three in 2014 and 2015. Omori and popular countryman Morizo Shimizu fished in both of those Classics, and Yusuke Miyazaki and Shinichi Fukae qualified for one apiece. There was also the occasional qualifier from elsewhere. For example, Jacopo Gallelli became the first Italian pro to qualify in 2019 – he finished 49th. There was a smattering of Canadians along the way, staring with Han Gibson in 1990, and continuing with the likes of Charles Sim in 2016.
A shift in competition
But then in 2019, a significant number of longtime pros left the Bassmaster Elite Series for other opportunities. That made room for anglers including three Canadians – Gustafson and both Chris and Cory Johnston. They certainly weren’t charity cases. All three had solid track records on other tours and were dominant on their home waters.
Before Gustafson’s Classic win on the Tennessee River, he won an Elite Series event on the same water, doing something distinctive, which made him an early favorite among both fans and pundits. That same year, Cory Johnston won a Bassmaster Open on the 1000 Islands, and a year earlier his brother Chris sacked 97 pounds of smallmouth on the way to an Elite Series win. Last year the trio, all of whom will be fishing their fifth straight Classic this year, was made into a quartet by the addition of Cooper Gallant, who’d won a 2022 Open on Cherokee Lake. He will fish his second consecutive Classic this March.
In terms of Japanese anglers, Takahiro and Shinichi Fukae left after the 2019 Classic, but they’ve been replaced by a cohort of Japanese stars, like Taku Ito, Kyoya Fujita and Kenta Kimura.
In 2021 and 2022 there were a then-record five Canadian and/or Japanese anglers in the Classic field. Last year there were six, plus Australian Carl Jocumsen and that number will repeat this year. From a pure odds standpoint, that shifts things toward a foreign-born champ. They still comprise a minority of the field, but all of them have been there before. Perhaps most impressively, all seven of them have won at some level of Bassmaster competition. Indeed, their past wins, and ongoing consistency, may be better indicators of the likelihood of a foreign-born champ than anything else.
That’s because contemporaneously with the “split” among professional tours there was a juicing of the anglers’ support system and information opportunities. Whether they have a 23-hour drive to Toledo Bend like Gustafson, or a long flight across the ocean like the Japanese pros, it’s possible to gain an unprecedented level of expertise before leaving the house. Between YouTube, computerized mapping and the rise of forward-facing sonar, it’s possible to cut the learning curve substantially from abroad and then cut it again upon arrival. That applies to any angler, not just those from other countries, and it’s why this year’s Elite rookie class skews unusually young.
It’s very possible that we won’t have another foreign-born or foreign-residing pro win a Classic for another 20 years, but it feels like we’re on the precipice of something big. A generation ago, the NBA was nearly entirely American, with the occasional outlier. Then came the Yao Mings and Dirk Nowitzkis and Giannis Antetokounmpos.
Obviously, basketball players have an easier time traveling overseas — you can’t put a bass boat in the overhead compartment of a plane — but Gussy’s big win and the continuing success of Japanese, Canadian and Australian pros reflect the increasing popularity of bass fishing globally. None of us will be surprised if another one of them wins a Classic or two.
