Clark Wendlandt’s Angler of the Year Journey
LIKE A CLIMBER slowly making his way up the steep, icy ridges toward the summit of Mount Everest, a journey that can take several months, Clark Wendlandt’s climb to the pinnacle of American bass fishing, the 2020 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year title, has also been a long one. Twenty-eight years, to be exact.
It’s been that long since the Texas pro entered his first B.A.S.S. event, the 1992 New York Invitational on the St. Lawrence River. The larger fish were in Lake Ontario and the big water was rough that year, but Wendlandt, then just 26 and farther from home than he’d ever been in his life, headed into the waves anyway. Seasoned veterans like Shaw Grigsby and Larry Nixon turned around and stayed in the St. Lawrence, but Wendlandt kept going, eventually finishing ninth in the event.
Had anyone really noticed the young angler, what they would have seen was a fierce competitiveness, an absolute determination to succeed in this most unforgiving of sports. That has not changed one bit throughout his long career. If you approach him at a tournament today and ask any question about what’s happening in the world, he won’t know. The only
