Canada’s Evan Kung struggled when he fished the Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers for the first time in 2023. The season’s highlight was 14th place at the St. Lawrence River. Also respectable was his 48th-place finish at Toledo Bend.
However, other than 98th at Lake Eufaula, he never finished among the top 100 in the other six EQs.
Kung’s fortunes have taken major turn for the better this season. After the first three EQs, he sits atop the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Opens EQ overall standings.
What makes his start even more impressive is the habitat disparity at these events. He finished ninth at Santee Cooper Lakes, a lowland impoundment; ninth at Lake Ouachita, a highland impoundment; and 17th at Okeechobee, a shallow Florida lake.
How does he account for this dramatic improvement?
“Nerves,” Kung said. “I’ve slowed way down and fished more thoroughly this season. Sometimes I put the trolling motor down in the morning and don’t pick it up until it’s time to run to the weigh-in.
“Last year I focused too much on where and how I caught fish in practice. This year I’ve just gone out on tournament days with an open mind to see what’s going on.”
Kung’s mind was opened to fishing very early in life. His family has photos of him holding a push-button kids fishing outfit that his grandfather Tony Kung gave to him when he was 3 years old.
While growing up, he fished often with his grandfather for crappie and other species. His father, Andrus, was an avid tournament angler who introduced him to bass fishing.
At age 10 he began fishing tournaments as a member of the Junior Port Perry Bassmaster’s club. Older club members would take the youngsters out on competition days and help them learn how to catch bass. One of Kung’s fellow club members was Cooper Gallant, who now competes on the Elite Series.
“Seeing what Cooper and other Canadian pros have done convinced me and my parents that I could actually do this for a living,” Kung said.
Kung and his father began teaming up to fish club tournaments and a popular Canadian bass circuit when he was 13. They typically competed in eight to 10 bass tournaments a year plus an annual walleye event that takes place in May.
“When I first started fishing with dad, we mostly fished shallow grass and docks for largemouth,” Kung said. “We also did some fishing for smallmouth with jerkbaits and topwater baits.”
At around age 18 Kung began fishing out of his own rig, a 16-foot aluminum bass boat sporting a 50-horsepower outboard. This allowed him to go out by himself and experiment with finesse techniques.
“Dad taught me how to fish shallow, but I taught him how to do finesse fishing,” Kung said.
This father-and-son duo qualified four times for the Bassmaster Team Championship. These adventures took them first to Arkansas’ Lake Norfork, then twice to Lake Hartwell and lastly to the Harris Chain. Their best finish was 20th place at one of the Hartwell events.
“I especially learned a lot when we fished Lake Norfork,” Kung said. “It was a completely different world from bass fishing in Canada. That experience made me come back home and spend more time learning how to fish offshore structure.”
After graduating from Durham College in Oshawa, Ont., in 2023 with a degree in small business entrepreneurship, he went straight from the classroom to fishing the EQs.
“I decided to fish professionally for a few years before getting a full-time job,” Kung said. “Right now, my main goal is to stay up in the Angler of the Year points.”
If Kung can keep his nerves in check and slow down the rest of the season, he is likely to be adding his name to the list of Canadian anglers fishing the Elite Series.
Kung’s sponsors include Daiwa, the G-Bay Fishing Co. in Midland, Ont., Tilley Apparel, Woo Tungsten, Great Lakes Finesse, Punisher Jigs, PowerHouse Lithium and Dynamic General Construction.
