The USA Bass team has a score to settle at the upcoming Pan-American Bass Fishing Championships. The last time it traveled to Canada for a Pan-Am event, the team lost by less than an ounce to the host country.
This year captain Scott Martin has put together a team led by the newly crowned Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year and the reigning Bassmaster Classic champion. This USA Bass Team will look to repeat its dominant performance of last year at the 2024 Pan-American Bass Fishing Championships, which are set for Sept. 25-29 on the Saint John River in Canada.
Jacob Wheeler (pictured), the world’s top-ranked angler for five years straight who recently collected his third BPT points title in the past four seasons, and Justin Hamner, the Classic winner who ended up fifth in the Elite Series AOY race, head the 12-member American contingent for the 10-team event based out of Fredericton and Nackawic in the province of New Brunswick. Other nations that will be represented include the host Canadians, along with Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, China, Colombia and First Nations.
Wheeler will team with Brett Carnright, winner of last year’s Lake Champlain Toyota Series derby, in the duos format. Hamner will fish Martin, a longtime tour pro, former FLW Tour Angler of the Year and a veteran of many international competitions.
Other American pairings consist of Nick Hatfield and Alec Morrison, Trey McKinney and Joey Cifuentes, Tyler Williams and Joshua Weaver and Rhonda Pitts and Emily Freeman. Pitts and Freeman earned their slot as the highest-finishing female team at this summer’s ICAST Cup in Orlando, FL.
Cifuentes and Hamner were key contributors to the U.S. Pan-American showing last year as American teams swept the top three places at Lake Hamilton in Arkansas.
Cifuentes teamed with fellow Arkansan and Bass Fishing Hall-of-Famer Larry Nixon to pace the effort with two five-fish limits that combined to weigh 24-05. Hamner and Hilary Martin (daughter of Scott and granddaughter of Roland) were just a tick behind with 24-03, while David Dudley and Michelle Jalaba were third with 23-15.
Elite Series standouts Jeff Gustafson (winner of the 2023 Classic) and Cooper Gallant will be among Team Canada’s participants, as will Canadian bass-fishing legend Bob Izumi, a decorated angler who hosted a TV show in his home country for more than 25 years.
With the exception of a few competitors who reside in the host nation, the Saint John will be an unfamiliar venue for the field. Izumi, who’ll captain the Canadian squad, said it’s primarily known as a smallmouth fishery, but he’s heard tell of some big largemouth showing up recently.
“It’s got a good population of smallmouth, but the fish aren’t Great Lakes-size,” Izumi said. “Limits in the high teens will be good ones – we’re not going to see tons of 20-pound bags weighed in.
“I’m thinking the weights are going to be very close, as they are most of the time with smallmouth in places that have a lot of fish. There won’t be a lot of separation in the field – it’s going to be ounces, not pounds. You can pretty much catch fish everywhere and it’s going to come down to finding some that are bigger than average.”
The black bass species are not among the most popular in that part of Canada – Izumi pointed out that locals are much more apt to focus on Atlantic salmon, stripers or trout.
“The area isn’t populated by thousands of bass fishermen – it’s not like it’s bass-crazy. Hopefully this will help showcase it to a lot of people and they’ll say, ‘Hey, I need to get out there and try this bass fishing.’ It’s really a unique part of Canada to go to for a tournament. It’s very quaint with a downhome atmosphere and the people are friendly and welcoming.”
He added that the use of forward-facing sonar will put competitors in contact with some extremely uneducated fish.
“Historically, it’s been a shallow and mid-depth fishery and I don’t think (FFS) has been utilized in the system like it has in many other areas of North America. It’ll be a new element and there will be fish caught that have never seen lures before.”
