Cherry Puts Finishing Touches On Second-Straight Bassmaster Classic Win At Ray Roberts

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Jun 14, 2021, 10:06 ET

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hank Cherry now occupies some rare air in the sport of professional bass fishing, and he has the bank statements to prove it.

The Lincolnton, N.C., pro, caught five bass Sunday that weighed 13 pounds, 1 ounce and won the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk with a three-day total of 50 pounds, 15 ounces.

Hank Cherry, of Lincolnton, N.C., has won the 2021 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk with a three-day total of 50 pounds, 15 ounces.

He is only the fourth angler in the 51-year history of the Super Bowl of Professional Bass Fishing to win the event in back-to-back years. He earned another of the iconic Classic trophies and his second $300,000 check in 18 months.

Another North Carolina pro, Matt Arey, finished second with 49-1 and lost at least one big bass on Championship Sunday that might have put him over the top.

"I feel bad for Matt, and I told him I've been where he was," Cherry said. "I had the same thing happen to me and mine happened a lot closer to the boat."

"I'm not giving it back — not apologizing for it. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

Cherry, a nine-year veteran of the Bassmaster Elite Series, finished third in his first Classic back in 2013 on Grand Lake O' the Cherokees. Like Arey, he lost a crucial fish in that event that would have given him the trophy.

He went through a tough stretch in the Classic after that, finishing no higher than 27th in three tries. But then he put the bad memories of 2013 behind him last year on Lake Guntersville when he caught 29-3 on the first day and rode that mammoth bag to a wire-to-wire victory.

He didn't quite go wire-to-wire this year, starting in third place on the first day with a limit of 20-4. But as suffocating heat moved into the area, the fishing got tougher and Cherry remained consistent enough to stay on top with a Day 2 catch of 17-10 and a final-round bag of 13-1 that was just enough.

He caught the bulk of his weight during the week flipping flooded bushes along the shoreline and throwing a jerkbait around riprap along the dam.

"The bite in the bushes is going away," Cherry said. "It's so hot out there right now. The water temperature was 71 degrees when we got here for practice, and I saw it as high as 87 today. A lot of those bushes are starting to break down, and those fish just don't want to be there."

"I was fortunate to get enough out of them to win."

For flipping the bushes, Cherry used a 3/4-ounce tungsten weight with a 4/0 flipping hook and a variety of soft-plastic baits, including a Berkley Pit Boss, a craw lure and a beaver-style bait.

"I would just alternate between five or six baits, back and forth," he said. "That probably wasn't as much for the fish as it was for me. Whatever I was using, I was doing the same thing. But it felt like I was doing something different."

When the bass got extremely lethargic in the 99-degree heat Sunday, Cherry did actually make a change to his flipping setup, switching to a 1/4-ounce tungsten weight with a 3/0 hook. He had two fish in his livewell at the time but caught three bass to fill his limit within 30 minutes after making the switch.

"I caught maybe the dumbest bass in the lake," Cherry said. "I flipped into a bush and instead of going into the bush, that lighter bait kind of ricocheted off of it. The bass actually swam out of the bush to get the bait and swam back in with it."

That fish weighed almost 4 1/2 pounds and helped Cherry recharge on a day when he said sweat was constantly rolling into his eyes and blinding him.

When Cherry fished the rocks along the dam, he used a new jerkbait called a Berkley Stunna in the stealth shad color. He believes he caught the tail end of the jerkbait bite, just as he did with the flipping bite.

"The bushes I was fishing, if the lake was at normal pool, they wouldn't even be in the water," Cherry said. "So, you know the fish are probably itching to move away from there and go offshore.

"I think the same is true around those rocks. The heat is just radiating off those things — and if it makes us miserable, you know it probably makes them miserable, too."

Cherry joins Rick Clunn (1976-77), Kevin VanDam (2010-11) and Jordan Lee (2017-18) as the only back-to-back Classic winners. This marks his fourth victory with B.A.S.S., including last year's Classic, an Opens win on Smith Lake in 2012 and an Elite Series victory on Muskegon and White Lakes in 2013. He was the 2013 Bassmaster Elite Series Rookie of the Year.

Cherry said he enjoyed his reign as the 2020 Classic champion even though the year was marred by the COVID-19 pandemic and many of the personal appearances he might have made as Classic champ didn't happen.

Whether this next reign will be different, he couldn't say for sure.

"I don't know what to expect, I really don't," Cherry said. "I'll just take it as it comes — and I'll never doubt just how blessed I am."

Frank Talley of Temple, Texas, took home Berkley Big Bass honors and an additional $2,500 for his 8-3 caught on Day 1.

As part of the Yamaha Power Pay program, sixth-place finisher Scott Canterbury of Odenville, Ala., earned a $20,000 bonus.

Cherry took home an additional $7,500 for being the highest-placing entrant in the Toyota Bonus Bucks program, and Chris Jones of Bokoshe, Okla., earned $2,500 for being the second-highest placing entrant.

The Bassmaster Classic was hosted by the Fort Worth Sports Commission and Visit Fort Worth.

Finish	Name	Hometown	Total lbs-oz	Earnings
1	Hank Cherry	Lincolnton, NC	50-15	$300,000
2	Matt Arey	Shelby, NC	49-01	$50,000
3	Chris Jones	Bokoshe, OK	45-09	$40,000
4	Justin Kerr	Lake Havasu, AZ	45-02	$30,000
5	Brock Mosley	Collinsville, MS	42-00	$25,000
6	Scott Canterbury	Odenville, AL	41-06	$22,000
7	Matt Robertson	Kuttawa, KY	40-03	$21,500
8	Chris Johnston	Ontonabee, Ontario, Canada	40-02	$21,000
9	Drew Cook	Cairo, GA	38-07	$20,500
10	Patrick Walters	Summerville, SC	38-01	$20,000
11	Cory Johnston	Cavan, Ontario, Canada	37-00	$15,000
12	Ed Loughran III	Richmond, VA	36-07	$15,000
13	Steve Kennedy	Auburn, AL	35-08	$15,000
14	Todd Auten	Lake Wylie, SC	34-04	$15,000
15	Matt Herren	Ashville, AL	33-11	$15,000
16	Kyle Welcher	Opelika, AL	33-03	$13,000
17	Brandon Palaniuk	Rathdrum, ID	32-00	$13,000
18	Jamie Hartman	Newport, NY	31-09	$13,000
19	Cody Bird	Granbury, TX	29-15	$14,000
20	Paul Mueller	Naugatuck, CT	29-02	$13,000
21	Jeff Gustafson	Keewatin Ontario Canada	28-07	$13,000
22	Frank Talley	Temple. TX	27-13	$15,500
23	Clark Wendlandt	Leader, TX	27-12	$13,000
24	Chad Pipkens	Dewitt, MI	27-02	$13,000
25	Seth Feider	New Market, MN	26-09	$13,000
26	Hunter Shryock	Ooltewah, TN	20-13	$10,000
27	Drew Benton	Blakely, GA	20-10	$10,000
28	Luke Palmer	Coalgate, OK	20-10	$10,000
29	Clent Davis	Montevallo, AL	20-00	$10,000
30	Jordan Wiggins	Cullman, AL	19-13	$10,000
31	Trevor McKinney	Benton, IL	19-09	$10,000
32	Brandon Cobb	Greenwood, SC	19-00	$10,000
33	John Cox	DeBary, FL	17-09	$10,000
34	Bryan New	Belmont, NC	17-02	$10,000
35	Brandon Lester	Fayetteville, TN	16-04	$10,000
36	Chad Morgenthaler	Reeds Spring, MO	15-14	$10,000
37	Jason Williamson	Wagener, SC	15-01	$10,000
38	Chris Zaldain	Fort Worth, TX	15-00	$10,000
39	Austin Felix	Eden Prairie, MN	15-00	$10,000
40	Brandon Card	Salisbury, NC	15-00	$10,000
41	Taku Ito	Chiba, Japan	14-10	$10,000
42	Ray Masayuki Matsushita	Tokoname-Shi Japan	14-01	$10,000
43	Bill Lowen	Brookville, IN	13-15	$10,000
44	Brad Whatley	Bivins. TX	13-12	$10,000
45	Pat Schlapper	Eleva, WI	13-10	$10,000
46	Jake Whitaker	Fairview, NC	13-05	$10,000
47	David Mullins	Mt Carmel. TN	13-03	$10,000
48	Stetson Blaylock	Benton, AR	12-13	$10,000
49	Keith Carson	DeBary, FL	12-06	$10,000
50	Tommy Williams	Shepherdsville, KY	11-14	$10,000
51	Micah Frazier	Newnan, GA	11-11	$10,000
52	Buddy Gross	Chickamauga, GA	11-05	$10,000
53	Shane LeHew	Catawba, NC	10-11	$10,000
54	Blake Sylvester	Plaquemine, LA	6-04	$10,000

2021 Bassmaster Classic Title Sponsor: Academy Sports + Outdoors
2021 Bassmaster Classic Presenting Sponsor: Huk Performance Fishing Apparel
2021 Bassmaster Classic Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2021 Bassmaster Classic Premier Sponsors: Berkley, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha
2021 Bassmaster Classic Local Sponsors: Anderson Merchandisers, T-Mobile, TNT Fireworks

Media Contact: Emily Harley, B.A.S.S. Communications Manager, 205-313-0945, [email protected]

SOURCE B.A.S.S.