Kim’s 17 Year Journey to the Bassmaster Classic by Kim Bain

Most readers will know Kim through her writings on soft plastics and the like, but last month Kim became the first Australian to fish the Bassmaster Classic, let alone the being the first female angler to qualify.

Kim started serious tournament fishing with the inception of ABT and she is living proof that Australian tournament anglers have what it takes to make it in America.

Following are Kim's thoughts and words on the journey to the Classic, the Classic itself and dealing with the consequences of fishing in the Classic. It's a rare insight into what is involved in American tournament fishing.

Over to you Kim.

I've always been into fishing, as some of the photos accompanying this article will attest. Unfortunately, the problem with a long fishing history is that every time there's a new set of limits and closures in my home waters I lament what has been lost over the years. It is crushing. But I also have a motto to try to look on the bright side and find something positive.

I've been writing for QFM in the vicinity of 15 years, I've been in fishing clubs in the Moreton Bay area for 20 years. So on the eve of another state election, with new rules (bans and limits) just coming in and the next round of lies and closures not too far away I asked myself to find something good that I've seen in the recreational fishing game from the last couple of decades.

The longest journey that I've been on in fishing is one as a sponsored angler; and being sponsored (in effect - working for the fishing industry) recently took me all the way to the largest fishing event in the world. The exercise was so successful that I scored four front pages in major US newspapers - from west coast (Los Angeles) to the east coast (Miami Herald) and in Texas and Louisiana. Some quarters would call it the most successful promotion of the sport of recreational fishing in history.

The occasion was being the first female to qualify for and fish in the Bassmaster Classic.