With all of the excitement surrounding the last tournament of the year, the race for 2025 Bassmaster Classic berths and the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year title, I don’t think we gave the news about Rick Clunn and Mark Zona adequate consideration. It came as something of a surprise to many of us that both have participated in their last Elite Series event. Now that I’ve had some time to think about the significance of their careers it’s really starting to hit me that I won’t see them around nearly as much.
Zona has been a friend since I joined the Elite Series in 2011. We’ve filmed a lot of shows together and we’ve deer hunted together, and that has helped me understand a little about what makes him tick. Everyone knows him as a commentator, and rightly so. He knows the sport inside and out, and he always managed to convey key information while also keeping it entertaining.
It was more than that though. Behind the scenes he was a voice of reason on a lot of different issues. People on the corporate side respected him because he was a straight shooter, and the anglers respected him because he’d played the game at a high level. Also, he worked hard to get to know us as individuals. That’s hard, because sometimes it blurred the lines, and sometimes he had to ask us uncomfortable questions — for example, when anglers weren’t using their sponsors’ baits — but he was intent on being factual and accurate.
Zona was also willing to call out bad behavior or ill-advised tactics. He wasn’t confrontational about it, but if you listened to his words closely and read between the lines, his editorializing was loud and clear. He trusted the listener to be educated, and if you weren’t he worked hard to bring you up to speed. That’s because, despite the joking, he cared deeply about the sport and about the reputation and integrity of the Elite Series.
As many people have pointed out, Rick Clunn fished at the top level of competition for an amazing 50 years, and as a dedicated power fisherman I gravitated to him early because of his incredible skill with reaction baits. I remember watching him win on the Arkansas River, dissecting pieces of cover surgically and running away with the tournament. All of the things we take for granted — running lures into cover, altering speed to trigger strikes, and so on — he was the one to take them to the next level. He was a “winder” and that influenced the way I fished from a young age.
When I won the Elite Series event on Falcon in 2013 it was pretty certain heading into the last day the winner would either be me or Clunn. It was the most important tournament of my life to date, a high-profile, high-weight tournament. I knew where he was fishing and knew the potential of that area. To be honest, it was hard not to root for him. I knew he wasn’t cutting me any slack on the water, and he didn’t expect me to treat him gingerly. Nevertheless, if he’d beaten me it would’ve stung a little bit less than losing to anyone else in the field.
Fortunately, while Zona and Clunn are leaving the Elite Series, they’re not “retiring.” I’m sure I’ll cross paths with both of them many times down the road. Both are irreplaceable, and I’m glad I got to be on the big stage with two of the greatest names our sport has never known.
