CODY HUFF
AVA , MISSOURI
PHOTO BY CHARLES WALDORF
THE PROSPECT
According to our resident BIG5 tournament scouting department – i . e . website managing editor and confessed tournament super-geek Jody White – Missouri pro Cody Huff is the dictionary definition of “ multi-tool prospect ” and an angler to watch in the Rookie of the Year race in 2021 .
Looking at Huff ’ s tournament resume in 2020 alone , it ’ s hard to argue with that scouting report : Huff started his season with back-to-back wins on Toledo Bend in a span of eight days ( a Bassmaster College Series event and the Toyota Series Southwestern Division opener ), and then added another champion ’ s trophy in November ( the Toyota Series Plains Division finale on Table Rock Lake ) to bookend his season .
Huff earned a check at the 2020 Bassmaster Classic ( he finished 24th ), had five top 10s in his Abu Garcia College Fishing career at Bethel University , and can claim fellow Ava , Missouri , resident Rick Clunn as a friend and occasional fishing partner (“ Rick and I talk on the phone maybe once a week ; he ’ s a pretty good guy to bounce things off of ,” Huff deadpans ).
But a little deeper dive into the “ how ” of his qualification into the Pro Circuit hints at why Huff should be a freshman to watch in 2021 ( and could be a sneaky-good pick at Smith Lake , Lake Murray , and the St . Lawrence River ).
Huff zeroed in on suspended fish as they moved between creeks and main-river channels at Toledo Bend , relying on live sonar to follow schools moving into creeks the first two days , then tracking them back out as they moved into deeper water on the final day .
He made similar adjustments at Table Rock , targeting suspended largemouth in 50 to 100 feet of water the first two days , then catching nothing but shallow-suspending smallmouth on a small swimbait on the final day , when the shad moved out of the handful of areas he had caught his fish .
“ All the shad on that third day ended up being suspended really high , 10 feet or less ,” Huff says . “ I went out into the middle of a creek where the shad were , and for some reason , there was nothing but 3-pound smallmouth there . They were all singles and doubles , no big schools , so I had to see them a long ways away and snipe them . You had to make a perfect cast and bring it right over their heads , and they ’ d blow up on it . I was watching them all on LiveScope – I didn ’ t catch a single fish all week that I didn ’ t see eat the bait ( on live sonar ).”
Huff ’ s grasp of live sonar – plus his ability to decipher what ’ s he ’ s seeing and make the adjustments on the fly – is part of the reason why Pro Circuit pro Grae Buck also tabbed him as his ROY pick .
PHOTO BY ROB MATSUURA
COAST-TO-COAST INFLUENCE
Tournament bass fishing rosters are pretty heavily dominated by anglers living in the Southern “ Bass States ” ( Arkansas , Alabama , Tennessee , etc .), but don ’ t discount the pros from the far eastern and western fringes of the country . Oregonian Jacob Wall made a splash on the Pro Circuit coming out of the West Coast – he finished fifth in AOY standings his sophomore season in 2020 – and we have our eyes on Virginia ’ s Cody Pike and Western Division pro Tai Au as rookies who might merit some extra attention in the 2021 season .
CODY PIKE
POWHATAN , VIRGINIA
TAI AU
GLENDALE , ARIZONA
PHOTO BY JROB NEWELL
Au put together a strong season in 2020 to qualify into the Pro Circuit , sacking up 26-1 on Day 1 en route to a win at Havasu and staging another 26-pound surge on the final day at Clear Lake to win there as well . Au added a 10th-place finish at the Delta in between to claim the Western Division AOY .
Pike qualified into the Pro Circuit after a spirited AOY battle in the Toyota Series Eastern Division with two veterans ( David Williams and Todd Walters ) who have a combined 76 top 10s to their credit . Pike finished sixth at Hartwell , ninth on the Potomac River and 10th at Lake Norman to complete a stout Toyota Series season . He also claimed a BFL win on the Potomac for good measure .
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2021 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 49