The 50th annual Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic on Lake Guntersville Alabama is over and now in the books. The Canadian history books that is. As we wrote in a previous news piece, for the first time ever, we had representation by three Canadians in the world’s most prestigious bass tournament.

Mercury/Garmin pros Cory and Chris Johnston, of Peterborough Ontario as well as Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson, of Keewatin Ontario, completed 3 days of battle against some of the best bass sticks in the world.

Unfortunately, our Canadian contingent didn’t fare as well as they would have liked (trust us, all three of these guys are there to win). Gussy finished 31st with a 7-lb, 3-oz big bass award (day 2) while Chris finished 34th and Cory 47th respectively.

As cliché as it may sound, it was a great experience for all 3 of these proud Canadians. They not only have the parts to make it again, but all 3 have a legit chance of top 10’s and even a win!

Congratulations to Garmin/Mercury Pro Hank Cherry of North Carolina who led from start to finish. His monster day-one 29lb. 3oz. bag gave him a “comfortable” cushion, although he did still have to “catch em’” on days 2 & 3. He ended up weighing a phenomenal 65.05 lb for 15 bass total.

For his victory, he received $300,000 American as well as the coveted Classic trophy.

Congratulations to Hank and huge applause to our Canadians for making history.