Spring 2024
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BASSMASTER ELITE SERIES – BRYANT SMITH
Like the Skeet/KVD overlap, Bryant Smith’s exceptional rookie season was often overshadowed by the fact that his rookie class was so exceptional. The two ahead of him in the ROY and AOY standings both won at least one Elite tournament, as did one of the rookies behind him. He’s finished in the money a remarkable 13 out of 15 times in Bassmaster events, with three top-10’s and seven top thirties, and yet he has not yet been showered with the media attention given to his contemporaries. It’s well- known that he’s a hammer, but less well-known how he fishes or what his back story might be.
What stands out to me about his rookie season on the Elites is not so much the 4th place finish (Lake Champlain), 7th place finish (Santee Cooper) or 12th place finish (Lake Murray), it’s the fact that he didn’t ever pitch the proverbial gutter ball. The three times he missed a $10,000 check he was 58th, 69th and 55th, enough to salvage valuable points and add a total of $7,500 back into his bank account.
Given his extreme record of consistency, albeit in a relatively small sample size, there’s every reason to believe that Smith will stand out on the water. Win a derby or two, or a title, and that takes care of itself, but from a marketing and personality standpoint he’ll have some impediments. He’ll turn 33 during the practice period for the season- opening event on Toledo Bend, which is “old” compared to some of last year’s rookies. Furthermore, this year’s rookie class, assumed by some to be “the best prepared ever” (that remains to be seen) is even younger and they’ll suck up some of that media oxygen, too.
Post-split, the western contingent at BASS decreased substantially in numbers. Indeed, Smith will join Clifford Pirch and Brandon Palaniuk and Matty Wong among those from west of Texas or Oklahoma. Palaniuk has of course thrived since coming back to BASS from BPT, adding another AOY title, but Pirch suffered a late season meltdown last year that kept him from qualifying for his ninth Classic and
second in a row after fishing six consecutively from 2015 through 2020.
Smith has a blank slate in front of him, and the comparatively low profile given such a stellar track record may prove to be a feature rather than a bug. Becoming the first post-split Elite addition to win a major title, would be huge for him. Justin Lucas (2018) and Aaron Martens (2013 & 2015) are the only westerners who’ve won it since Skeet (2007). If he won the Classic, he’d be the first since Skeet in 2009 and Luke Clausen before that. •
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