After the first four Bassmaster Opens Elite Qualifier events of 2023, Texan Brett Cannon holds sixth place in the point standings. So far, he’s stumbled a bit at Buggs Island but claimed third place in the first two EQs at Lake Eufaula and Toledo Bend Reservoir.
His strong start bears little resemblance to the long and winding angling route the 39 year old traveled prior to the EQs.
Cannon remembers bass fishing with his father, Robert, when he was young enough to be strapped into a car seat on the way to a lake. In 1986 Cannon’s father moved his family from Texas to Pompano Beach, Fla., where he bought an Interstate Battery Distributorship.
When Cannon was 7 he and his older brother Jeremy would set a small johnboat upside down on top of two skateboards. This allowed them to push and pull their “rig” like a wagon to small lakes and Everglade canals as far away from home as seven miles.
At 16 Cannon began hauling the johnboat in the back of a pickup. He had to cut back on his fishing in high school to play baseball. He was a standout pitcher and dreamed of being a major leaguer.
“I drove the pickup to school with the johnboat in the bed,” Cannon said. “Sometimes I would skip lunch and go fishing until baseball practice.”
After high school he played baseball for Florida Atlantic University where in majored in small business and entrepreneurship. While there he began fishing local tournaments with his brother, who had acquired a bass boat.
“If there was a bite on in college, I’d make up stories to tell my coach so I could get on the water,” Cannon said.
Although he suffered injuries to his pitching arm in college, Cannon was picked up by the Los Angeles Angels. After they released him, he played for the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League.
He lived in a Ramada Inn and survived for a year on a monthly $600 salary. His arm never fully recovered, which ended his baseball career.
The following year he stayed at his grandfather’s home in Waco to help him recuperate from an illness. Once his grandfather was well enough, he moved back to Florida to work for his father.
During this phase, he bought a camera and began producing hunting and fishing videos for a company he and his partner dubbed “Killin the Outdoors.” Although that venture failed, he made invaluable contacts while working trade shows to promote it.
Some of the anglers he met at trade shows and while fishing in south Florida competed in big-money saltwater fishing tournaments. For the next six years Cannon joined them as a mate and chased marlin and other species.
He and his friend Kitt Toomey broke a world record for catching all nine billfish species, a Royal Grand Slam, in the least amount of time. They pulled this off in 26 days by fishing in Hawaii, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Florida and twice in Australia.
“I eventually got burned out on saltwater tournaments,” Cannon said. “I wanted to get back to my bass fishing roots.”
He bought his first bass boat at age 29 and began competing in Florida bass tournaments, mainly on Okeechobee and the Kissimmee Chain.
Besides working for his father, he initiated Brett Cannon Productions. Among other things, Cannon does camera work, creates content and web ads and conducts marketing campaigns. He soon moved back to Texas, which provided more opportunities for his company.
The move also introduced him to Texas lakes and a whole new world of bass fishing. “The downside to fishing in Florida is that it’s so one-dimensional,” Cannon said. “You don’t even need to turn a graph on.”
He befriended knowledgeable bass anglers in Texas who taught him how to locate offshore bass with side scanning and forward-facing sonar. Besides his production company, Cannon began guiding two years ago on O.H. Ivie, one of the Lone Star State’s premier bass lakes.
“Every day I’m out there on the best lake in the country,” Cannon said. “My skill set gets better and better every year.”
Texas Elite Series pro Lee Livesay is one of the anglers who have schooled Cannon. They traveled and roomed together in 2022 while competing in the Bassmaster Central Opens. His biggest take from those events is how to deal with fishing pressure.
Cannon’s number one goal is to win one of the EQs and earn a birth to the 2024 Bassmaster Classic. He got a taste of bass fishing’s main event at the 2021 Classic on Lake Ray Roberts, Texas.
“I had caught a 14.40-pound largemouth from O.H. Ivie that year,” Cannon said. “It was the biggest bass entered in Texas’ ShareLunker Program. When I walked across the Classic stage to receive a replica mount of that fish, I knew I just had to fish the Classic one day.”
Cannon regards his fiancée, Emily Currera, as his biggest sponsor because “she lets me fish.” Other sponsors include Bass Mafia, Realtree Fishing, Bubba, Oakley Sunglasses, Crosskix footwear, Elm Creek RV & Campgrounds, Interstate Batteries and Watr, an all natural hydration drink for fishermen.
