Who's The World's Best?
As the Greatest Angler Debate Kicks off, Bassmaster profiles the Top 10 anglers of all time. Who do you think is No. 1?
Rick Clunn has 28 consecutive appearances in the CITGO Bassmaster Classic, a streak that will take his peers years to match, not to mention an unprecedented four world championship titles. On the flip side is Roland Martin, whose equally stellar career parallels an unequalled 19 BASS tournament wins and nine BASS Angler-of-the-Year titles.
And then we have Denny Brauer, whose BASS winnings are nearing $2 million, a mark yet to be reached by Clunn or Martin, whose careers stretch more than a decade beyond the all-time leading money winner.
If you could pick between these three titans of professional bass fishing, who would be your choice as the greatest of all time?
None of the above?
Maybe your pick would be Bill Dance, possibly bass fishing's most recognizable icon after three decades on TV. Or you might go with Larry Nixon, who came before Brauer as the first man to earn $1 million in cast-for-cash angling.
Who is the greatest bass fisherman of all time? At last year's Classic in Charlotte, ESPN and BASS unveiled a plan to determine the angler to hold the elite title through "The Greatest Angler Debate."
In this distinguished fishing event, the roles will be reversed. Instead of weighing bass to determine who is the best angler, fans will weigh in on the pros to set the record straight. And let it be known up front this is not a fantasy game in which the outcome is played out on a yet-to-be released video game.
This is the real deal. It will be a never-before-determined title and an honor that will certainly draw respect from within and outside the sport of bass fishing.
The Greatest Angler of them all will be unveiled at this year's Classic in Pittsburgh. Until then, voters will be bombarded with a dizzying array of statistics, inside information never before revealed, and other vital intel to help them sort through the list of 10 candidates.
The debate will come alive on ESPN2 through The Greatest Angler Debate series showcasing the top 10 anglers in half-hour profiles. Grab more info on bassmaster.com, where fans eventually will cast their final votes and pore over the details in upcoming issues of Bassmaster. Other promotions are planned across ESPN Outdoors, with the multimedia machine running full throttle until the Classic in Pittsburgh.
As for who made the final Top 10, that process was determined by a blue ribbon panel of outdoor sportswriters who narrowed the field from 35 anglers to the final 10 qualifiers. The criteria for making the list crossed all lines of tournament leagues to provide an unbiased representation of the sport.
The selection committee weighed the following criteria:
By Craig Lamb
Bassmaster, Feb. 2005
