It’s not always how you start, it’s also how you do in the middle, which has left John Garrett needing a good finish.
After a hot start, Garrett didn’t think he’d be sweating his shot to qualify for the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic. Garrett had suffered some poor finishes and dropped to 42nd in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings.
As first-man out of qualifying for next year’s Classic, Garrett said he just needs to finish strong to burst the bubble.
“Just two solid tournaments,” the 29-year-old from Union City, Tenn., said. “I hate to even be in this situation really after the good start I had to the year, but just two good tournaments away.”
At the start of his second Elite season, Garrett looked as if he was building off his rookie campaign. He won at the Harris Chain and recorded three Top 10s and seven of nine Top 50 cuts to finish eighth in the AOY standings.
In this year’s opener, Garrett was two bites from winning on the St. Johns River. Adding a fourth-place showing at Lake Okeechobee, he led the AOY standings. Garrett dropped in each of the next five tournaments, making only two cuts.
“Even with the start I had,” he said, “I’ve had probably the worst year as far as luck, bad luck and losing fish.
“I’ve been happy with a lot of decisions I made. Even early this year, I probably had the easiest opportunity to win that I’ll ever have at the St. Johns. I lost fish, broke fish off, made some bad decisions.”
Garrett said he also inadvertently ran a no-wake zone, received time in the penalty box and missed the morning bite. Nevertheless, Garrett had a huge third day, moving from 38th to second with the CrushCity Monster Bag of 31 pounds, 6 ounces.
Two fish shy of his limit on Championship Sunday, he finished a disappointing fourth, just 2-14 back of Bill Lowen’s winning total.
The next week at Lake Okeechobee, Garrett said he performed better but ended as runner-up, 16 pounds behind Brandon Palaniuk.
“The only tournament I fished flawlessly was Okeechobee,” he said, “then Brandon catches a 34-pound bag and makes it impossible to catch him.”
In those first two tournaments, Garrett accumulated 204 points, more than in his next five combined. He made cuts at the Pasquotank River and Lake Fork, but 84ths at Lake Hartwell and the Sabine River and 72nd at Tenkiller hurt.
“I can look back on this year’s tournaments, and at the end of day I’m scratching my head. It’s just not meant to be,” he said. “I’ve been fine on making decisions and I’ve been getting nice bites, I’ve just had such a run of bad luck.”
Tenkiller is the latest example. He caught enough weight on Day 2 to advance, but he hit a log coming in and clogged his water intake. Fixing it made him two minutes late to check-in, costing 2 pounds, a Day 3 appearance and around 24 points.
“I’ve had opportunities to have a really good year,” he said. “I just have not capitalized on opportunities. I’m disappointed in myself.”
With 401 points, 10 behind the last-man in, Garrett knows he only needs two decent showings to gain his Classic berth. The estimated mark to make is 527 points.
The schedule resumes at the Yokohama Tire Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair on Aug. 7-10, and the season finale is on the Mississippi River out of La Crosse, Wis., Aug. 21-24.
Averaging 60 points in each, or around 45th place, should give Garrett his third Classic berth.
“I would like to make two top 30s,” he said. “I would love to go to St. Clair and knock out a Top 10 to make my life easy. They are two places I’ve never fished a tournament before; I’ve never been to La Crosse.”
Most of the field should catch five-fish limits at both stops, he said, making for tight leaderboards and increasing the possibility of slipping down the leaderboard.
Although comfortable chasing smallmouth, Garrett said the randomness of St. Clair shows in past results. It’s a great fishery from one end to the other, but there is some luck involved in running into those larger-than-average fish.
“You always have a couple smallmouth guys in the mix, but when you see a Top 10, oh wow, there are some names in there I didn’t expect,” he said. “It can go real easy or go really hard on doing well in the places where everybody is catching 3- and 4-pounders.
“You could have a really good day, catch a lot of fish and not end up where you want weight-wise.”
Garrrett has been relaxing, fishing some at home and spending time with family during the two-month break. While not overly anxious, he sure would like to make the Knoxville Classic.
“I’m not stressing about it, just going to go and fish hard the next two tournaments, hope it happens,” he said. “I would love to fish a Classic in my home state on a river I grew up on.”
A Classic qualification is up for grabs to the La Crosse winner, who if double-qualified would add a berth to the 42nd-place finisher in points. Elites can also enter the Elite Qualifier tournaments this fall with three win-and-in Classic opportunities.
Garrett said he thinks a good number of Elites will join the top 50 qualifiers from two Opens divisions for that chance.
“Especially how the schedule lines up, I think there are going to be quite a few guys fishing the EQs,” Garrett said. “If I don’t make the Classic through the normal point standings, I’ll be fishing the EQs.”
He’d rather simply bookend his bad events with a strong finish.
