In his first year fishing a full season of the Bassmaster Opens, Michigan’s Aaron Jagdfeld currently holds second place in the point standings for the Nitro Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops. With one EQ event left, he could well be competing on the Elite Series tour in 2026.
He also found time this year to win the B.A.S.S. Nation Elite Qualifier on Lake Erie and will soon be fishing the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship on the Upper Mississippi River. Plus, he finished third at the Bassmaster College Classic that took place on Eagle Mountain Lake during the 2025 Bassmaster Classic.
When Jagdfeld was an infant, his parents took a picture of him wearing an outfit printed with the prophetic words “Born To Fish.”
Grandfather Tom Roush began taking him fishing at age 3 for perch, bluegill and walleye at Burt Lake, one of Michigan’s premier smallmouth fisheries.
“I fished with my grandfather regularly all the way up through high school, and I still do on occasion,” Jagdfeld said. “He’s 86. We did a little bass fishing on Burt earlier this year.”
Jagdfeld also fished streams and rivers with his father, John, who is a fly fisherman. His father put a fly rod in his hands as soon as he could hold it. By age 6, he was proficient enough to land a fly on the water where it could tempt a bite.
They often fished Michigan’s Sturgeon River for rainbows, browns and steelhead.
While fishing lakes in northern Michigan with his grandfather, Jagdfeld would occasionally hook an inadvertent bass. That juiced him enough to begin riding a bike to local ponds to cast for largemouth.
While in middle school, he had an opportunity to meet Michigander Kim Stricker, a former Bassmaster pro and TV fishing personality who now produces a YouTube podcast titled “Hook n’ Look.”
The sight of Stricker’s bass boat and garage full of lures opened his eyes to the world of tournament bass fishing. After that experience, he followed Bassmaster events and dreamed of someday being one of the pros.
As a sophomore in high school, he had an opportunity to fish tournaments. Because the price of even a used bass boat was out of reach, he bought a kayak and competed on local kayak bass fishing circuits.
“I never fished out of a bass boat in high school,” Jagdfeld said. “But I did win enough money to buy my first bass boat, a 2002 Champion 187.”
He brought his aging bass boat with him when he matriculated to Michigan’s Adrian College. He majored in sports management and joined the university’s bass team.
“I had never fished out of a bass boat before going to college,” Jagdfeld said. “It was a huge learning curve. I won a tournament on the Detroit River, but the first three years did not go well.”
In his senior year, he turned things around by winning a Bassmaster College tournament and qualifying for the championship. He and his partner, Elliot Wielgopolski, followed that up by winning Team of the Year in the Legends Division and qualified for the College Classic Bracket.
“The most important thing I learned in college was how to go someplace new and not be overwhelmed by a massive lake like Toledo Bend,” he said. “I feel pretty comfortable now breaking down a lake in three days.”
Besides Toledo Bend, college tournaments took Jagdfeld to storied bass waters across the country, including Lake Murray, the St. Lawrence River, Lewis Smith Lake and Florida’s Harris and Kissimmee chains.
While kayak fishing in high school, he enjoyed skipping jigs under docks and clipping submerged grass with ChatterBaits for largemouth and casting a hair jig and a spybait for smallmouth. Traveling across the country in college forced him to adopt a wide variety of fishing techniques.
“I didn’t get a forward-facing graph until I was a sophomore in college,” Jagdfeld said. “I use it a lot now and do well with a jerkbait and a minnow style jig. I love fishing with it and without it. There’s a time and place for both.”
After graduating from college, Jagdfeld took a job as a marine technician at Sunshine Power Sports in Tecumseh, Mich. Walt Wallord, the marina’s owner, let him take time off to compete in tournaments.
Two of those events were 2024 Bassmaster Opens. He finished second in the Open at Lake St. Clair, which provided the funds necessary to fish the Bassmaster Opens this year. He’s making the most of his opportunity.
His sponsors include Whitewater Fishing, Leupold Sunglasses, Phoenix boats, Munaco Landscape and Montcalm Marine in Stanton, Mich.
