Inductees By Year Class

Shaw Grigsby fished his first national tournament in 1977, 40 years ago this year. A former motorcycle racer, he became a full-time pro angler on the Bassmaster Tournament Trail in 1984, and since then has won nine Bassmaster tournaments, qualified for the Bassmaster...

Wade Bourne (1947—2016) —  A native of Clarksville, Tenn., Wade Bourne was a senior writer for Bassmaster Magazine for more than 40 years before his passing in 2016. He was a talented communicator across several media platforms, including print, television, radio and...

VanDam is one of the most recognized names in bass fishing as the all-time money winner with B.A.S.S. (more than $6 million). His initials are the most-feared in bass fishing as KVD has won four of the 27 Bassmaster Classics in which he’s competed, has a record 25...

GARY KLEIN – Gary Klein, a 2018 inductee into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame and an original member of the Hall’s Board of Directors, has known no career other than as a professional angler. As a teenager from Oroville, California, he studied under the watchful eyes of...

Helen Sevier — In her 31-year career with B.A.S.S. LLC, Helen Sevier rose from direct-marketing expert to President and CEO of the world’s largest fishing organization. Along the way, she quietly but unquestionably contributed greatly to the growth of the sport of...

For more than two decades, Tommy Sanders has been covering competitive bass fishing at the highest level. Sanders is synonymous with outdoors TV, gracing ESPN Outdoors for more than a quarter century. Jerry McKinnis, a model of longevity with 44 years of The Fishin’...

Dr. James A. Henshall (1836-1925) --- was the author of the first book on bass fishing, Book of the Black Bass in 1881, and was the sport’s earliest advocate of note. A surgeon by trade, he designed the most popular rod and reel of his day, though he chose to patent...

Davy Hite took a risk, giving up a rock-solid career in the SC National Guard to pursue his dream of becoming a professional angler. Over the course of twenty-four seasons he excelled, winning two Bassmaster Angler of the Year titles, the 1999 Bassmaster Classic and...

Fritts is one of the handful of anglers who have won both the Bassmaster Classic and the FLW Championship (later renamed the Forrest Wood Cup), and he furthermore won the Angler of the Year title on both of those major circuits. While his five B.A.S.S. wins and six...

Mark Davis — Davis fished his first Bassmaster tournament at 23 years old, but by that point he’d been guiding on waters near his Arkansas home for a decade. He has continued to compete as a touring pro for more than three decades and has earned wins on multiple...

Berkley Bedell (1921—2019) Berkley “Berk” Bedell, a pioneer in the fishing tackle industry and founder of Berkley and Company — now known as Pure Fishing -- was born in Spirit Lake, Iowa, on March 5, 1921, as a third generation resident of that city. He never forgot...

Ed Chambers Sr.  (1940—2018) With a full-time job selling and repairing jukeboxes, pinball machines and other coin-operated devices, Ed Chambers Sr. had to make the hours he spent bass fishing as productive as possible. To do that, he needed soft-plastic worm styles...

Chris Armstrong (1948—2014) Chris Armstrong was born on April 11, 1948, in St. Petersburg, Florida, and grew up in Jacksonville where he spent much of his time studying and drawing the outdoors. After graduating from Ribault High School he earned a degree at Ringling...