Bryan Kerchal

Bryan Kerchal – (1971-1994) In July of 1994, 23 year-old angler Bryan Kerchal lived the dream of hundreds of thousands of weekend anglers by beating a star-packed field of anglers to claim the title at the 24^th Bassmaster Classic. In doing so, he also became the first, and to date only, fisherman to win as a B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier, as well as the first northeastern angler to claim the coveted crown and the $50,000 top prize.

Kerchal may have attained fishing immortality while still exceptionally young, but the path to his Hall of Fame achievements was anything but easy. He was raised in Newtown, Connecticut, and after graduating from Newton High with the Class if 1989, he briefly attended Massachusetts’ Salem State University, where he spent more time poring over Bassmaster Magazine than his textbooks. He left school and took a part-time job as a cook at the Ground Round restaurant, which left time try to figure out his life’s work, while also pursuing his passion for bass fishing.

He’d been introduced to the sport through a neighbor and was self-taught until he joined the Housatonic Valley Bassmasters club. Through that B.A.S.S.-affiliated club, he qualified for the state championship tournament and made the 12-man Connecticut team, then qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship. His performance as the top Eastern Division angler there earned him a berth in the 1993 Bassmaster Classic on Alabama’s Logan Martin Lake. At the 1993 Classic he finished dead last, but there was stout company and no shame at the bottom of the leaderboard, as four-time Classic champ Rick Clunn beat him by less than a pound.

Defying incredible odds and the same daunting qualification path, Kerchal returned to the Bassmaster Classic as a B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier in 1994, making him the first to defend a B.A.S.S. Nation title and qualify for the Classic, as an amateur, twice. He’d fished six B.A.S.S. Invitationals that season, but the B.A.S.S. Nation was once again his route to the world championship. This time around, the results were quite different.

Kerchal suffered through a tough practice period at North Carolina’s High Rock Lake, and while many pundits predicted that the summertime conditions would allow Hall of Famer David Fritts to repeat his 1993 win using offshore tactics, heavy rain prior to the event raised and muddied the water. That made flipping to the lake’s many boat docks a more viable tactic. He’d found a red shad Culprit ribbontail worm floating in the lake during practice, and having little to lose he decided that would be as good a lure as any. Pitching that Texas-rigged worm with a 3/16 ounce bullet weight and a 2/0 Gamakatsu hook to three sets of docks in Second Creek, Kerchal weighed in three consecutive limits – the only angler to do so — that totaled 36 pounds 7 ounces. He ended Day One in fourth place and took the lead on Day Two. Veteran flipper Tommy Biffle caught 18-14 on the final day of competition to make a run for the title, but ultimately fell 3 ounces short of Kerchal’s catch.

Each time he caught a legal fish, Kerchal took out a small green whistle shaped like a bass and expressed his satisfaction through music. The fish whistle became a symbol of his excellence and his enthusiasm and has been picked up on by future B.A.S.S. Nation qualifiers, including 2017 B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year Brandon Palaniuk, who carried one while he fished as a B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier at the 2011 Classic.

“Most of the field had 10, 15, 20 years more experience than Bryan did,” Rick Clunn told the Charlotte Observer after Kerchal’s win. “He didn’t have nearly the knowledge that the rest of the field had. But I’ll trade all the knowledge in the world for enthusiasm and belief in you. As you get older in this sport, technology takes over. For a lot of fishermen, it steals the passion out of what they do. But mentally, all young people tend to have this belief in the impossible.”

Tragically, Kerchal did not get a chance to defend his title on High Rock Lake in 1995 or to fulfill his destiny. Less than five months after his history-making victory, he and 14 other died when American Eagle Flight 3379 crashed. He’d been making an appearance for one of the sponsors who’d seized upon his success and enthusiasm and partnered with him. At the 1995 Classic, a bassboat was driven around the arena with his trophy in it.

He was survived by his parents Ray and Ronnie Kerchal; a sister, Deana Kerchal; and longtime girlfriend Suzanne Dignon.

The B.A.S.S. Nation championship trophy was subsequently renamed the Bryan Kerchal Memorial Trophy.