After living in California for the first of his 29 years on planet Earth, Andrew Loberg left his family and friends on the West Coast and moved to Guntersville, Ala. His dream of becoming a Bassmaster Elite Series angler prompted this drastic relocation.
In his first season fishing the Bassmaster Opens Elite Qualifiers, Loberg has worked his way up to fifth place in the 2024 Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifier standings. With only two events left, he is positioned well to make his dream a reality.
Loberg doesn’t have a spouse but claims he is “married to bass fishing.”
He continues to work for Land IQ, a California agriculture consulting company based in Sacramento. Among other things, the company analyzes California lands that grow specialty crops such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, rice and vegetables. This is done via extensive legwork and computer analysis.
The company then develops a plan to help growers manage the soil, make the best use of whatever water sources are available and speculates on how the growing season will progress.
The company sends the data they collect in California to Loberg, and he does the computer analysis. Loberg stated he “loves being in agriculture.”
He inherited his love for bass fishing from his father, Andy; five uncles; and grandfather Dave Lauck. All of them are avid bass tournament anglers who compete often in West Coast team and pro/am tournaments.
His earliest bass outings were with his father to Folsom Lake near their home in northern California. At age 11 Loberg teamed up with his father to fish his first bass tournament there.
“I’ll never forget it,” Loberg said. “I remember waking up early and seeing all the boats racing to their first spot. I was super ecstatic when we got a check. That’s when I realized you can actually win money by fishing.”
Every year on Loberg’s birthday, his father would let him skip school so they could fish Clear Lake. He caught an 8-pound largemouth there with a squarebill crankbait when he was 10.
While a junior at Rocklin High School, he and some of his fishing buddies initiated a bass fishing club. Over the next two years, they competed in youth division tournaments put on by the Basin Bassmasters.
After high school, Loberg pursued a degree in agriculture and crop science at Chico State University in northern California. He joined the university’s bass fishing team, which provided ample opportunities for him to fish tournaments on a wide variety of western waters. They included the California Delta and Clear, Shasta, Havasu, Mead and Oroville lakes.
“The anglers from all the western colleges were a pretty tight-knit group,” Loberg said. “We were in our late teens and early 20s and traveling in caravans to fish regional and championship tournaments across the country. It was a lot of fun.”
His highlights include finishing fifth at an FLW National Championship on Lake Keowee, S.C., with his partner Nick Carrico, winning an FLW College Fishing Western Conference Championship with Travis Bounds on Clear Lake and earning a “Half-Century Belt” for catching more than 50 pounds of bass during a two-day Bassmaster regional on Clear Lake.
With a degree from Chico State and a secure job, Loberg entered FLW tournaments and gradually worked his way up to some of their professional level events. This success encouraged him to take the quantum leap to Alabama and chase his Elite Series dream.
“It’s been an adjustment from fishing in California to the Eastern U.S.,” Loberg said. “A bass is a bass, but they behave differently in California than out here.”
He credits the diverse waters he fished in California for preparing him for the Elite Qualifiers. He claims that Clear Lake taught him how to fish from the shallows to deep water and with everything from finesse tactics to all-out power fishing. His experiences on the tidal California Delta also added essential skills and tools to his arsenal.
Loberg’s sponsors include Lucky Craft, the Narian Nut Co., P-Line, Costa, Powerhouse Lithium, Powell Fishing Rods and AFTCO.
