Summer 2019
®
K
lein has fished in more than 400 Bassmaster
events. He is a 2-time B.A.S.S Angler of the
Year title holder, earned 30 Bassmaster Classic appearances, recorded eight B.A.S.S. Tour victories and is a
Top-10 B.A.S.S. all-time money winner. He holds two FLW
Tour titles and six FLW Championship qualifications. He is
one of only two anglers to have won a B.A.S.S. tournament
in each of four decades and the only angler to qualify for
the Bassmaster Classic in each of five decades.
Klein is a U.S. Open champion. He has claimed a gold
medal and two silvers in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games.
He was ranked in the Top-10 ESPN Greatest Angler
Debate.
As the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame stated, “He has
known no other job except as a professional bass angler.
While the idea of young anglers leaving college and
becoming a full-time professional is commonplace today,
Klein was the first to make professional angling his first
career when he started fishing at the age of 19. After four
decades of competition, he is considered one of the top
anglers in the world”
In 2018, Klein was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall
of Fame, and as a co-founder of Major League Fishing, he
launched the industry disruptor League that is bound be a
legacy for all professional anglers to come.
What more could be in store for Klein?
How about kicking off 2019 with a ShareLunker catch
in his current home state of Texas.
WesternBass wanted to know more about one of
original west coast pros.
Here is Gary Klein.
WB: What an amazing career you’ve had. How did it all start for you?
KLEIN: I started fishing when I was 15- years-old out in California. That was in 1973. I was fortunate enough to be raised in the outdoors and introduced to fishing and hunting by my parents. I was no different than any other young teenager growing up.
WB: When did you know you wanted to be a bass pro?
KLEIN: I really had no idea what I wanted to do as a career, until I was introduced to competitive bass fishing. The first event that I fished was held on Lake Oroville.
It was won by Dee Thomas. That was also my first introduction to Dee Thomas.
After that, bass fishing was all I could think about. I knew it is what I wanted to do. I knew it was my passion and I pursued it. I was just consumed with it, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When you’re that young, you think you can conquer the world. I had no idea that it would lead me into the path that it has.
WB: Where would you say that path is that you’ve ended up on.
KLEIN: You know, when you’re my age, you look back and when I look back to where I came from and what I pursued there is nothing that I would change. I don’t think I could’ve ever gotten involved in another profession that could have taught me more about the individual that I am than competitive angling.
I say that is because it’s not all roses. Leaving California in 1979 to go out on the B.A.S.S. circuit was an unknown for me. I left with $1000 in my pocket and no credit cards. I figured if I went through that thousand dollars, then I would come back to California, get a job and pursue something else in life.
But it just so happened that everything fell into place for me. I won just enough to get by and pay another entry fee. I was fortunate enough to win my second B.A.S.S. tournament on Lake Powell in 1979.
At that point, I wasn’t really thinking that I had made it. I was still kind of in awe that I had beat Bill Dance. He finished second in that event. What winning that event did was give me some breathing room, because I knew that qualified for the Bassmaster Classic. It has been a fun career. It has been a hard career
WB: Did coming from the west define your career?
Klein: Along with success, comes responsibility and as an angler, in the very early years, I was a one-dimensional fisherman. Dee had taught me the importance of flipping – the effectiveness of flipping and it was that technique that gave me the confidence and the reason to leave California in 1979.At that time, no other competitors on the B.A.S.S. circuit were flippers and I spent enough
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