SECRET SUCCESS THE OF HIS

FISHING PHENOM JEFF GUSTAFSON REVEALS HOW HE BECAME THE FIRST CANADIAN TO WIN THE PRESTIGIOUS BASSMASTER CLASSIC, THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF BASS FISHING

JJEFF “GUSSY” GUSTAFSON has dreamed about winning the Bassmaster Classic since he was a little kid. I can attest to that because I’ve known him for more than 30 years. I remember him as a skinny eight-year-old with glasses and an infectious smile, arriving at my house in Kenora, Ontario, after school to take piano lessons from my daughter. He would stay for dinner, help me feed the bass, walleye and crappies I kept in an aquarium in my basement, then rummage through my tackleboxes well into the evening.

It wasn’t long before we began fishing together and I started calling him Roland, after U.S. bassfishing legend Roland Martin, because he insisted on flipping every fish he caught into the boat, just like the pros he watched on television. When he dropped by my house many years later to tell me he was embarking on a pro fishing career in the U.S., I never doubted that one day he would become the Bassmaster Classic Champion.

So, imagine how I felt when I heard a knock at my back door early this past April and saw him smiling through the window, holding aloft the Bassmaster Classic’s coveted Ray Scott Trophy, the grandest prize in all of competitive bass fishing. Just a week earlier in Knoxville, Tennessee, he’d bested the Classic’s field of 55 anglers, catching 42 pounds seven ounces of fish over three days on the Tennessee River— one pound nine ounces ahead of second-place Bryan Schmitt.

Along with the prized trophy, the massive win earned him $300,000, plus $7,000 for weighing the tournament’s heaviest one-day bag of fish. After Japan’s Takahiro Omori, who took home the Classic trophy in 2004, Jeff is now only the second non-American to win the televised event since it began in 1971. In his own words, here’s how he did it.

GORD: WINNING A TOURNAMENT IS NEVER EASY, LET ALONE THE BASSMASTER CLASSIC, SO TELL US ABOUT WHAT LED UP TO THIS IMPRESSIVE WIN ON THE TENNESSEE RIVER.

JEFF: When I won an Elite tournament there in 2021, I caught all my fish in the canal between Fort Loudoun and Tellico, the two lakes that make up that section of the Tennessee River. For our regular league events, we get three days to practise before the tournament starts. It’s a pretty quick week, and I like that because anything you find is still going to be relevant a couple of days later.

With the Classic it’s a bit different. We practise on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday the week before the tournament. We’re off Monday and Tuesday, then get an official day of practice on Wednesday, when they do a mock take-off and check in. It’s kind of a shorter day. Then we’re off the water Thursday, and the tournament starts Friday. So, it’s a long week. There’s a lot of activities, a lot of distractions.

Anyway, on my first day of practice, I went back to the canal where I caught all my fish the last time. Obviously, that’s my starting point, and there’s still lots of fish. But after a day or two, it was getting a lot of pressure, and not only from our guys. There was also a local tournament on the Saturday, our second day of practice, with a dozen boats fishing in there. At that point, I realized I might be able to take a couple of fish, but no one’s going to win the tournament where I caught them all last time. They were just too hard to catch. There was too much pressure. So, I started searching farther down into Tellico. It’s known to have a good smallmouth population, but you don’t hear about people catching them very often. It’s not a wellknown thing.

GORD: DID YOU THINK AT THAT POINT ABOUT GOING TO THE BANK AND CATCHING THE MORE PLENTIFUL LARGEMOUTH, OR WAS IT SMALLMOUTH OR BUST?

JEFF: If it had been a regular Elite event, I probably would have gone for largemouths, which is traditionally what most anglers are catching there. It’s cliche to say it, but you fish the Classic to win. I just knew from the last time that the smallmouth thing existed, and there were a lot more bigger ones than most people thought. There was a population that likes to be in deep water and I had the bait they like, a jerk shad, and the moping technique (see “The winning technique”).

On the third day of practice, I started working my way down into Tellico, a lot of the time just idling around. There’s not a lot of rock or structure out there, and I went a few hours and didn’t find anything. I stood up and fished a couple of times, then I’d go up near the bank for half an hour and not catch anything up there. Then I’d say to myself, you got to get back out there to find one school, or something unique, that you can go back to and catch fish.

Around lunch, I was idling around a chunk of main-river ledge and I saw a little bit of rock on my side-imaging. I hadn’t fished in an hour or so. I threw a waypoint down where I saw the rock, turned the boat around, went up to the front, dropped the trolling motor, grabbed my bait and started dropping it down. I was in about 28 feet of water. When my bait got to 20 feet, the bottom just erupted. It was like a volcano of fish.

I stopped my bait and caught a 17-incher. The smallmouth have to be 18 inches to keep in East Tennessee—that’s a rule they have on a lot of different waterbodies there. So, it wasn’t a keeper. I dropped my bait back down and it’s the same thing—I couldn’t have gotten it to the bottom if I’d wanted to. I caught a big beautiful four-pounder. The rock extended for about 30 yards and I went to where it stopped, dropped my bait down again and the same thing. It was another big school, and they weren’t even the same fish. I caught another big one, then thought, why did I even drop my bait down there again? So I left.

GORD: YOU HAD TO BE SUPEREXCITED AT THAT POINT, NO?

JEFF: I called [my wife] Shelby—we check in once or twice a day—and said, “I think I just found something special.” But the tournament’s not for five days and you just never know »

The Winning Technique

SO, WHAT EXACTLY is moping, the tactic that helped Jeff Gustafson win the 2023 Bassmaster Classic? Named by legendary Minnesota angler Ron Lindner, moping is when you hang a soft-plastic jerk shad on a jig head two or three feet above the fish, causing them to swim up for it. You don’t work the bait, you just let it sit there, or mope. In the southern U.S., anglers refer to this set-up as a Damiki rig. The key, Gustafon says, is to closely watch your sonar to see how the fish react. It’s also important to ensure the bait remains completely horizontal. For the record, Gustafson’s winning moping rig was a four-inch Scented Jerk Shadz from Z-Man, pinned to 3⁄8ounce Canadian-made Smeltinator jig (above).

if the fish are still going to be there. But, okay, I have a chance now. And I just kept doing it and doing it, and about three or four hours later I found a second spot. It was very similar—a lot of fish, easy to catch, and big ones.

Then on Wednesday, the last day of practice, I just continued to do that. I didn’t find any big schools, but I caught a few fish. I found a couple of places with a little bit of rock that had maybe the potential to kick out a few fish. But that was it, I had just the two main spots. From Sunday to Friday, the whole week went by so fast and there were lots of fun events and activities. But I didn’t sleep that well on a couple of nights. I was excited for the tournament to start.

GORD: THEN THE CLASSIC BEGINS AND YOU QUICKLY DISCOVER THE SMALLMOUTHS HAVE

STAYED ON YOUR FIRST SPOT. THAT MUST HAVE GIVEN YOU PLENTY OF CONFIDENCE.

JEFF: Within half an hour of arriving at the first place I’d found, I had five keeper smallmouths. It was a dream start to the Classic. That ended up being the biggest bag limit of the tournament. On the second day, I caught five of them again, but I had to use both of my main spots. I could also tell they were getting harder to catch, and I knew that the third day was going to be tough. I had other places where I could maybe catch one, and as it turned out, I didn’t take any keepers off any of those other spots. I really only had those two highend places.

The other thing was that if it were a regular tournament, you don’t have as many spectators. But there were a lot of people out there watching. The first day, I didn’t have to go to the second spot. But on the second day, I had to go there. A lot of these spectators have good intentions—they just want to watch and cheer you on. But I have to leave at 1:30 to weigh in, so there was a lot of time for some of these guys wanting to go check the place out. That was the sensitive thing that I had. Once you catch a few of these fish out of the schools, it breaks them up. They smarten up and get a lot harder to catch. And so they were a lot harder to catch on the final day.

GORD: EARLIER, YOU SAID YOU FELT YOU HAD THE JERK SHAD THE FISH WANTED, AS WELL AS THE MOPING TECHNIQUE, TO WIN THE CLASSIC. SO, WHAT’S THE KEY TO MOPING?

JEFF: There are two things that are very important with this tech- nique. You always want to keep the bait hanging above the fish. It’s tempting when you see them on your sonar to just drop your bait right in their face. But if you can keep it above them, make them look up, make them swim up and work for it, it seems to be a big trigger to make more of them bite.

The other thing is that every time my bait comes out of the water, I’m looking to see where the knot is. I want that knot to be 90 degrees off the eye of the jig. That’s going to help it stay horizontal and natural-looking in the water.

I’ve used a lot of different jerk shads over the years—every jerk shad that’s out there—and I like the Z-Man baits with the buoyant ElaZtech material. I really think that helps keep the bait hanging horizontally in the water. It’s not sitting pointing up or down. Adding a dab of superglue on the bait is mandatory with any of the ElaZtech stuff. When you do that, unless a fish bites your line or you snag, you never lose a bait. I

The Canadian Contingent

didn’t have to change my baits at all on the days of the tournament. I’d rig up five or six new ones every morning, just so they had a little bit of fresh scent on them. That material, for a lot of finesse tactics, is the best.

GORD: YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT HOW USING THE RIGHT ROD, REEL AND LINE ALLOWS YOU TO MOPE PROPERLY. GIVE US THE DETAILS.

JEFF: You want a mediumaction spinning rod—something that’s not too stiff—because a lot of the bites happen fairly close to the boat. I use a 7' 3" mediumaction G. Loomis NRX+ 872. I’m spoiled because I get to use the best equipment you can for this technique. I’ve used a Shimano Stella reel and 10-pound Power Pro for years. It’s a bulletproof braided line. I was also using a 10-pound fluorocarbon leader. Shimano has some new fluorocarbon coming out this summer called Mastiff, and I got some samples at the start of the year.

It’s been really good, passing all my tests.

GORD: IT’S EXTREMELY RARE TO WIN ANY TOURNAMENT WITH JUST ONE PRESENTATION, BUT YOU’VE MOPED YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS TWICE NOW, ONCE ON THE ELITE CIRCUIT, THEN AT THE BASSMASTER CLASSIC. THAT HAS TO BE PRETTY SPECIAL.

JEFF: Yeah, that’s two events that all of my fish have been caught on one presentation. It is hard to believe. I said earlier about how it was hard from Sunday to Friday. You just didn’t know if those fish would be there, because it was cold when we started practice, then a big heat wave came through in the tournament. It got warm. It’s just the time of year those fish were getting ready to leave. So, if the tournament had been a few days later, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do what I was going to do. On the other side of that, if it was a few days earlier, I probably

JEFF GUSTAFSON WAS not the only Canadian pro angler who made the highly competitive cut to compete in this year’s Bassmaster Classic, often referred to as the “Superbowl of Bass Fishing.” Peterborough, Ontario’s Chris Johnston finished in 11th place, a very respectable showing that earned him a purse of $15,000. He qualified via his performance in the 2022 Bassmaster Elite Series, as did his brother, Cory, of Cavan, Ontario. He ended up in 31st place, garnering a cheque for $10,000. Also taking home $10,000 was Bowmanville, Ontario’s Cooper Gallant, who placed 52nd. He qualified by winning the 2022 St. Croix Bassmaster Southern Open at Cherokee Lake, Tennessee.

Adding a further Canadian dimension to this year’s Classic in Knoxville, Tennessee, was the weigh-in ceremony’s energetic emcee, long-time Bassmaster tournament fixture and TV’s Facts of Fishing host Dave Mercer, of Oshawa, Ontario. As well, popular Ontario fishing personality “Big” Jim McLaughlin was honoured during the Classic’s sponsor reception party, when he was awarded the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame’s special Meritorious Service Award.

The first Canadian to receive the honour, McLaughlin himself has a storied history as a competitive bass angler, with 28 tournament wins to his credit, including two CFT Canadian Classic Championships. He also produces the free fishing publication Just Fishing, emcees fishing industry events and tournaments, and promotes sportfishing across Ontario, particularly among youth.

When the honour was first announced, the president of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame board of directors, John Mazurkiewicz, was effusive in his praise. “We can’t thank Big Jim enough for what he has done for bass fishing and the tournament scene throughout Ontario over the years,” he said. “It’s a pleasure recognizing him for what he does to celebrate, promote and preserve the sport of bass fishing.” would have caught 20 pounds every day. That’s how many fish were on my two main spots.

Moping is a technique I have the ultimate confidence in. I have caught thousands of fish with it, so it’s easy for me. We’re not allowed to use nets on the tour, and I don’t like messing around or babying fish. The longer you play and fight with them, bad things are going to happen. That’s the reason I like that Smeltinator jig so much. It has a 604 Gamakatsu hook in it. It’s 2X heavier gauge wire, so you’re not going to open that up with 10-pound braid. If you’re using a lesser-quality hook that’s softer, you can’t pull on it as much.

On the third day, when things got really tough, I later had a lot of people ask me, “Did you think about trying this or that?” I had 20 rods in my rod locker with a variety of different things tied on, and I did try a few of them. But in my limited experience on that body of water, even when I was around really big fish that were biting really good, I never found another bait they liked even remotely close to that jerk shad. So, I just felt that if I could keep it in the water on the third day, especially when it got really tough, I might put it on top of a fish that hadn’t seen it yet—a fish that didn’t know my boat was there. That was my best chance to do what I needed to do.

GORD : WHEN YOU WON THE ELITE EVENT LAST YEAR BY MOPING ON THE TENNESSEE RIVER, YOU DID IT WITH TRADITIONAL 2D SONAR. THIS TIME AT THE CLASSIC, YOU HAD BOTH HUMMINBIRD 360 IMAGING AND MEGA LIVE. HOW IMPORTANT WERE THEY?

JEFF: The 360, particularly for practice, was huge because I could see and map out where the rock and the hard spots were located on the couple of places that I had. So, I had really good waypoints where I wanted to have my boat. In the tournament, I actually turned the 360 off just to have less sonar running up there, because I didn’t really need it. I had the Mega Live to show me where the little high spots were in relation to my waypoints. And I could see my bait and the fish, so the Mega Live was really key in the tournament.

I want to get on top of the fish when I’m moping. For that, 2D sonar works great. I can watch my bait like I’m ice fishing. But what ended up happening, particularly on day three when I caught both of my fish, was that it got flat calm, really bright and quiet. Twenty feet of water isn’t that deep—that’s the length of your boat—so when you’re on top of fish at that depth, they 100 per cent know you’re there. If they haven’t been fished for a lot, haven’t been pressured, it’s probably not a big deal. But I could tell by the way they reacted to my bait and the boat that they didn’t like it.

So once the fish started to get pressured a little bit, especially on the third day, the forward-facing sonar allowed me to look in front of the boat, so I could put my bait on top of the fish without getting the boat on top of them and alerting them. When I could see some fish out in front of me. I’d pitch out my bait and swim it over top of them, three or four feet off the bottom, and they’d come up and bite it. I otherwise just couldn’t get on top of them and do what I wanted to do, so it certainly helped me out for that. On the last day, I probably had 70 to 100 bass look at my bait that I could see out there, but they would not bite anything. So, just because you can see them, it doesn’t mean those fish are going to end up in your boat.

GORD: THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE ON DAY THREE, AS YOU WERE HEADING BACK TO THE WEIGHIN WITH ONLY TWO FISH IN THE LIVEWELL, WASN’T GOOD. WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND?

JEFF: Obviously, I wasn’t happy. I wanted to go out that day and catch five smallmouth again, and get the boat back to Knoxville as soon as I could. But I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. I fished hard. Riding back wasn’t a fun boat ride. I felt like I’d blown this amazing opportunity. Some- body’s always the hero on day three of the Classic, and I felt like it wasn’t going to be me. It was tough, but at the same time, I didn’t have any regrets. The last few hours that I fished, I thought, what can I do? What should I do? But it wasn’t like it was a ghost town and there were no fish around where I was spending my time. So, I didn’t have any regrets. But, yeah, I didn’t think that I did what I needed to do. I felt like if I had got three fish, then I’d have a pretty fair chance to win.

GORD: LAST QUESTION. YOU’RE NOW THE WORLD BASS-FISHING CHAMPION. HOW DOES IT FEEL?

JEFF: Winning that tournament is the biggest dream pro anglers have. Anyone who fishes bass tournaments and likes competitive fishing, that’s our big Super Bowl event. It’s just hard to believe. I mean, you’ve been around me since I was a little kid, so you know how much I love bass fishing and competitive fishing. It’s crazy. I know how hard it is to win, so that makes it special. I mean, this is the Stanley Cup for me. You get to do a lap in the arena and they make you feel pretty special. I’m very lucky to have been on that stage. OC

SEE PAGE 24 FOR FISHING EDITOR GORD PYZER’ S REGULAR COLUMN.