It’s good to be Carhartt Bassmaster College Series competitor Cody Huff right now.
Back in August of 2019, Huff won the College Series Classic Bracket on Watts Bar and earned a ticket to compete in the 50th Bassmaster Classic on historic Lake Guntersville this week. Along with a Classic qualification, Huff’s win secured a fully rigged, brand new Nitro Z20 bass boat and 2020 Toyota Tundra that are both wrapped in his Alma Mater’s colors.
“Man I can’t tell you how much of a blessing this past 6 months has been,” Huff said humbly. “Bass fishing in general, but specifically college fishing has 100% changed my life. It’s opened so many doors and given me opportunities I could have never dreamed of.”
Huff has had an incredible college fishing career, studying Business at Bethel University in northwest Tennessee while simultaneously chasing bass around the country at an impressively high level. And it’s safe to say the start of Huff’s 2020 season has raised the bar a notch or two.
This 22-year-old aspiring professional angler has competed in three major tournaments in 2020 and has yet to finish below third place. Huff posted a wire-to-wire victory in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series event on Toledo Bend in January and immediately followed it up with another win in the FLW Toyota Series on the same fishery. He then added a 3rd place finish on Lake Seminole in an FLW College Fishing regional last month.
It’s safe to say Cody Huff is one heck of a fisherman with some serious momentum. But don’t let reading all these accomplishments give you the idea Huff has had his opportunities handed over on a silver platter. This humble young man from Ava, Missouri won’t come right out and tell you, but he has scratched and clawed his way up the proverbial bass fishing ladder.
“Financial struggles are something I’ve always dealt with when it comes to bass fishing,” Huff said honestly. “My parents are extremely supportive and help whenever they can, but funding my fishing dream has always meant work. I’d mow neighbors’ lawns or work on my great uncle’s farm bailing hay, brush hogging, and anything else that needed done to make a little money. Whatever I scrounged up would go towards fishing in one way or another.
“I can remember my buddy Dalton and I literally scraping up quarters in our trucks so we’d have enough money to pay an entry fee one time. We realized when we got to the lake we didn’t know if we’d have enough gas to get home, but we got lucky and won it! Fishing has definitely helped me make my way, too. Seems like I was always able to find a way to have just enough cash to fish the next weekend, which was all I really cared about.”
Huff’s recent on-the-water success has afforded him the ability to not be so concerned with his finances, but his mental state remains the same. He is calm and he is hungry, which is a dangerous combination. While the rest of the world may not have some college kid high on their list of favorites, Huff is absolutely fishing this tournament to win.
There has been one Carhartt College B.A.S.S. angler given the opportunity to compete in the Bassmaster Classic since 2012, and the best finish ever posted by a college fisherman was sixth place. That was back in 2014 by some kid named Jordan Lee, coincidentally also on Lake Guntersville.
Records are made to be broken and Huff has as good a chance as any of his predecessors; but whether he comes in first place or last place Huff is already a success story and deserving of all the good fortune that comes his way.