KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — At the tender age of 22, fishing phenom Dylan Nutt – a former member of Hamilton County’s Sale Creek High School fishing team – out fished some of the greatest anglers in the world to win the prestigious 2026 Bassmaster Classic in front of a giant home-state crowd in Knoxville.
And for the first time in 32 years and only the second time in history, a B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier wears the world-famous Bassmaster Classic crown.
Qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic through B.A.S.S. Nation means an angler reached the Classic by climbing the ladder from amateur local club tournaments, state, regional and national to reach the sport’s biggest professional stage.
Nutt is from Nashville, but his school didn’t have a bass fishing team so the young man fished the high school bass tournament circuit with Sale Creek in Hamilton County, often fishing alongside Banks Shaw, another rising star in the bass fishing world.
Immediately following his win, Nutt said, “I haven’t had the chance to think about it. I’ve got so many things in my head right now. I don’t know what I’m thinking. It [the Classic] has always been the pinnacle of bass fishing to us, and I mean, heck, the last Classic that I went to was the one here, back in 2023, and I never would’ve thought next time I went to a Classic I’d be in it and holding the trophy at the end of it.”…