From GON To Big League Tournament Fishing
Parker Guy is pictured on the Bassmaster College Series stage after a second-place finish on Lake Hartwell in August.
Big Bass, Big Stage, Big Dreams
That is the banner on the weigh-in stage at a Bass Anglers Sportsman Society tournament event. BASS says those fishing the Elite Tournament Series are “Living the Dream.” Many young Georgia anglers hope to live that dream and walk across that stage.
Around 1999 when I started writing what was to become the Map-of-the-Month articles for GON, I sought local anglers with great knowledge of bass fishing on particular lakes. A good many fished local and state tournament trails, but in 1999 there was only one Georgia angler on the top BASS trail.
Each year, at the most only one Georgia fisherman made the Classic. That is beginning to change, with some young anglers learning their skills while fishing on high school teams. They and others hone those skills by fishing college teams.
In 2007 when I started also doing these articles in Alabama for AON magazine, I was surprised to find 10 to 11 anglers from that state on the Elite Trail, and every year several made the Classic, and more than one won it over the next 15 years.
The disparity in numbers may soon be changing, and many of the Young Guns from Georgia were first introduced to GON readers as high-school or college anglers. When BASS started naming its All-American High School Fishing Team, I did articles with several of them from our state. Now some of them are making their mark on the BASS and other trails—and there are several more I was never fortunate enough to fish with who are entering the top arena.
Tournament fishermen in Georgia are familiar with names like Drew Benton, Emil Wagner, Marc Frazier, Paul Marks, Taku Ito and Drew Cook. All live in Georgia and are on the Elite Trail in 2025.
Drew Benton actually lives in Panama City, Fla. but says his home lakes are Eufaula and Seminole and is considered a “Georgia” fishermen by many. And Taku Ito is from Japan but lists Dalton as his hometown now.
But some young anglers I did articles with when they were in high school and college are showing their talents and will become as well-known on the pro trails, too.
It was almost a decade ago when GON featured a high-schooler named Cody Stahl for an article on Lake Oconee. Now, Cody is qualified to fish the 2025 Bassmaster Classic.
Cody Stahl
Cody Stahl, Drew Benton and Drew Cook are the only three Georgians who qualified to fish the 2025 Bassmasters Classic. Cody qualified to fish the Classic through the BASS Opens in 2024 by winning one event.
I did an article with Cody on Lake Oconee in the October 2015 issue (gon.com/fishing/oconee-bass-moving-shallow-with-the-shad) when he was a senior in high school and had just made the BASS All American team. The next three years he fished for the SCAD college team. Cody has been busy fishing Opens and other tournaments since then.
In 2021, he won the Bassmasters Open on the James River as a co-angler. In 2024, he won the Open on the Mississippi River as a boater and qualified for the Classic. He plans on fishing the Opens in 2025 to try to qualify for the Elite Series.
Over the past few years, Cody has an impressive record in BASS events both as a boater and co-angler. He has fished 29 tournaments and won two. And he also finished in the money 13 times and had three Top-10 and nine Top-20 finishes.
Cody just started a new job with Pure Fishing in Colombia, S.C., so he may not be listed as from Georgia after he moves, but he definitely cut his fishing teeth here in the Peach State.
Fishing the 2024 Opens was a very tough path to qualify for the Classic, with nine tournaments all over the Eastern United States. But that prepares an angler to fish a similar schedule in the Elites, and doing well helps you get sponsors. Cody has the experience and sponsors to do well in the future.
Parker Guy was a BASS high-school All American in 2020 when he was featured in a GON article on Lake Eufaula.
Parker Guy
Parker Guy is fishing the BASS Opens in 2025 to try to qualify for the Elite Series. He was a High School All American in 2020 when he did a Lake Eufaula Map of the Month article in the June issue of GON (gon.com/fishing/shallow-june-bass-bite-eufaula.)
After high school, Parker fished with Emanuel College and complied a great record. Parker also fished many local and state tournaments, also doing well in them.
Parker qualified and fished every national championship while in college, including the Bassmasters, Major League Fishing and Association of College Anglers. This past fall, he came in second in the Bassmasters College National Championship on Lake Hartwell.
In other national championships, he placed fourth at Winyah Bay in 2022 and fourth in 2023 at Pickwick. He is probably the only college angler to fish the final day of the Nationals three years in a row, just missing going to the College Classic Bracket four times by just one place.
In other tournaments, Parker placed second in the American Bass Anglers national championship in 2023 and has won the Georgia Bass Nation qualifier for the last two years in a row, one at Lanier and one at Hartwell. And he and his partner won the Clarks Hill Classic this past April with a prize of $20,000.
Parker fished some Bass Opens this past year and placed fifth in his second Open event on Santee Cooper in March. To show his versatility, he did not use Forward Facing Sonar at all in that tournament.
Fishing those tournaments and doing well on a wide variety of waters has earned Parker sponsors, and he will fish all the Bass Opens in 2025, hoping to qualify for the Elite Series and a Classic.
Will Harkens was featured in a Lake Nottely article as a senior in college.
Will Harkins
Will Harkins was a senior in college when we did a Map-of-the-Month article on Nottely in June 2023, an article also available online at gon.com/fishing/june-bass-lake-nottley.
Will had already started fishing the National Professional Fishing League and came in 22nd in Texas in his first tournament on that trail. That year he had a great rookie year finishing third, seventh, second and second in the last four tournaments, and he finished in second in the Angler of the Year race. This year Will started the season with a win on that trail.
Will also fished the BFLs before concentrating on the NPFL, and he was second in the BFL Angler of the Year points in 2021 and third in 2022. He had three Top-10 finishes in BFL tournaments in 2022.
Will is fishing the NFPLs in 2025, and he is now considering fishing the BASS Opens to try to qualify for the Bassmaster Elite Series and the Classic, both future goals. A lot of it depends on the changing rules in the upper-level series. With Will’s record and youth, it’s probably just a matter of time.
Caleb Hudson was a junior on the Emmanuel University fishing team in 2023 when GON featured him in a Clarks Hill article.
Caleb Hudson
Caleb Hudson joined the Greenbrier High School fishing team in Evans as a freshman and was a junior on the Emmanuel University fishing team when we did a January 2023 Map of the Month article on Clarks Hill (gon.com/fishing/10-locations-clarks-hill-prespawn-bass).
Caleb and his partner Tanner Hadden transferred to University of South Carolina-Union for their senior year and qualified for the College BASS Classic Qualifier. January 2023.
In the Qualifier bracket tournament, Caleb made the semifinals, where four college anglers fished for a Classic entry. While fishing in college, Caleb worked for Greenfish Tackle and fished local tournaments while home from school.
Fishing a lot of travel tournaments in college under a wide variety of conditions on different lakes prepared Caleb to be a better fisherman. In 2025, he plans to fish the Southern Division BASS Opens to cut his teeth at that level. If it works out, he will fish all nine of the 2026 Opens to try to qualify for the BASS Elite Series.
Greenbrier High School alum Tanner Hadden was a freshman angler on the Emmanuel University team when he was featured in a 2021 Clarks Hill article.
Tanner Hadden
Tanner Hadden was a freshman at Emmanuel University when we did an article for the July 2021 Map of the Month on Clarks Hill (gon.com/fishing/july-bass-clarks-hill).
Tanner grew up in Evans and learned bass fishing on Clarks Hill from his dad, D.J. Hadden. Tanner also fished with the Greenbriar High School team for four years before going to college.
This past March, Tanner set a new Clarks Hill record for spotted bass with a 5.45-pounder (gon.com/news/hadden-clarks-hill-spotted-bass-record.)
Tanner and his college partner Caleb Hudson qualified for the College BASS Classic Qualifier in 2024. Only eight college anglers nationwide, four teams, qualify for that tournament each year. Tanner does well in local tournaments and is fishing both divisions of the 2025 BASS Opens to try to qualify for the Elite Series. And he is also going to fish the Major League Fishing BFL All American.
Keep an eye open for these young Georgia anglers as they make their mark in professional fishing.
And keep an eye for the next crop of Georgia Young Guns who will be featured in future issues of GON and we continue our efforts to highlight and promote up-and-coming young anglers in our state.
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