If Hollywood is looking for a feel-good story to feature, it should look up Easton Fothergill.
The 22-year-old from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, just pulled off the highly unlikely: winning bass fishing’s crown jewel, the 2025 Bassmaster Classic. It wasn’t long ago that Fothergill wasn’t sure he would even be alive today.
“Everything I went through made me appreciate this all the more,” Fothergill told Wired2Fish soon after his big win. “People asked me, ‘How did you stay so calm?’ And I told them that I was just happy to be there. I know how fragile life is now. I know how quickly it can be taken away.”
While competing in the Bassmaster National College Championship in the summer of 2023, he suddenly experienced severe headaches. He held on long enough to team with his partner (Wired2Fish’s own) Nick Dumke to finish in fifth place, then went for medical help. The prognosis wasn’t encouraging.
“Originally, doctors thought it was just a real bad migraine,” Fothergill said. “But later, there was some concern that it might have been a tumor. It was definitely a low point in my life.”
A CT scan revealed Fothergill had an abscess on his brain — basically a pocket of infection. Fothergill underwent surgery, and doctors drained the fluid to release the pressure it was putting on his brain.
“The doctors told me that if I didn’t get in when I did, I might not have survived. They didn’t know if it would be days or months, but there was a chance it might have killed me.”
Doctors were able to treat the infection with antibiotics and after about a month of recuperation, Fothergill was cleared to continue his pursuit of bass fishing glory.
He was able to compete in the Bassmaster College Bracket Championship — his goal before his health problems — and he won.
That qualified him for a berth in the 2024 Bassmaster Opens series, where he won two tournaments and earned a berth in the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series and a spot in this year’s Bassmaster Classic on Lake Ray Roberts in Texas from March 21-23.
Right To The Last Bass
Fothergill admits when he entered, few believed he had a chance at winning. “I was definitely a long-shot,” he said. But he was able to do what few of his competitors could — he caught huge bass throughout the tournament.
Keying on staging areas where bass were holding before moving in to spawn, he used his forward-facing sonar to target big females. Then he used a spinning rod and a Neko rig with a Strike King finesse worm to make precise casts to lure the bass.
Ah, but this story gets better. On Championship Sunday, going into the last hour of the tournament, he only had four bass in his livewell. He would have to fill his limit of five to have a hope of winning.
Fothergill gambled and ran across the reservoir to a spot where he caught a big bass on the Day 2. When he scoped a bushy, tangled flooded tree, he spotted a big largemouth. He made several unsuccessful casts, then watched as the bass suddenly swam out of the cover.
“I was able to make a perfect cast; I put it right on her,” Fothergill said. “It was one of those moments that was meant to be.”
With only 15 minutes left in the tournament, he landed the 8-pound bass and clinched the championship. His margin of victory? Just a bit over 8 pounds.
Fothergill won with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 76 pounds, 15 ounces. Trey McKinney finished second with 68 pounds, 7 ounces. In the process, the second-youngest Classic winner made history; his total weight set a record for the 55-year-old Bassmaster Classic. He walked away with $308,000 and the unofficial title of “the comeback kid.”
For Fothergill, it marked just one more progression toward his goal of making a living as a fulltime pro.
“I worked my way up in the Bassmaster ranks,” he said. “I fished the high school circuit, then college, the opens and now the Elites and the Bassmaster Classic. My goal is to show kids that it can be done.”
How’s that for a Hollywood ending?
