BY HANNAH HERRERA
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Two Lee County locals helped bring home gold for Team USA in the 19th Black Bass World Championships.
Auburn native Logan Parks and Beulah native Kyle Welcher both had their Team USA international debut last week in Arabie Dam, South Africa.
“There’s only six people in the entire country that get to represent team USA and that’s really, really cool to be one of those six,” Parks said. To have two of us from this area is amazing.”
Because the professional sport of bass fishing originated in the U.S., Team USA is almost automatically expected to win, Welcher said. But in last year’s world championship, they placed fourth. And this year, they were trailing Italy by 19 penalties going into the last round.
“It was very disappointing the first couple of days for it to just not really come together as a team,” Welcher said.
Luckily for Team USA, teammates Ott DeFoe and Drew Gill finished first out of 45 boats on the third and final day of the tournament. Strong finishes from Welcher and teammate Jacob Wheeler; Parks and teammate Scott Martin also helped catapult Team USA past Italy into first place.
“That was really the boost, is all three of us finally had an above average day at the same time, kind of boosted our whole team up,” Welcher said.
Normally bass fishing is a solo sport, but a unique aspect of this tournament was its team setup.
“I think as we got further and further in the tournament, us being a really good team and communicating really well helped us to improve day after day after day. The team aspect was something that was foreign to me, but that’s what gave us the confidence and ability to adjust quicker, because we had six really good fishermen giving their input,” Welcher said.
Both Parks and Welcher said they were honored to be chosen for the team and never expected to be fishing professionally in South Africa. Welcher didn’t even have a passport until last year.
“Who would’ve thought two rednecks from Alabama would get to go fishing in South Africa in the Olympics of bass fishing?” Parks said, laughing.
Parks grew up fishing every day, and said he and his friends got kicked out of all kinds of places trying to find the best fishing spots. He founded Auburn Junior High’s bass fishing team, then went on to fish with Auburn University. Welcher said he was fascinated with fishing from an early age, obsessed with its “unsolvable” nature. He also founded his high school’s bass team, then went on to fish at the University of Alabama. Welcher and Parks currently fish in the Bassmaster Elite Series.
Both credited eastern Alabama for their fishing development, saying the region’s diversity of lakes and rivers was key in their growth.
“I can go fish crystal clear water like Lake Martin one day and catch spotted bass, and I can go to Lake Eufaula and fish dirty water and I live 40 minutes from both those places, and they’re completely different fisheries,” Welcher said. “For me, the coolest thing is being able to have all the variety really, really close to home. I don’t want to go to the same place all the time, because I want it to be different and fresh whenever I get there, different conditions every time. That’s the coolest part about Lee County is how close we are to three different major rivers, and they all fish completely differently, and every lake on that river fishes differently.”
Parks said fishing Arabie Dam in South Africa was like fishing Lake Eufaula, but with scarier wildlife. Welcher said it looked like West Texas.
“It was awesome,” Parks said. “It wasn’t crazy different because I see a lot of alligators on Lake Eufaula, but these crocodiles are much bigger than the alligators. You definitely don’t want go swimming over there. We didn’t see any hippos, so that was good. I would say it was similar but a lot more dangerous.”
Both Welcher and Parks are passionate about the future of bass fishing. In 2023, Parks founded the Logan Parks Fishing Foundation, which invests in high school and college anglers with scholarship and competitive opportunities. Their annual tournament is next month. Welcher was impressed by the excitement and skill of the other countries at the world championship. The professional development of the sport in other countries is very promising for the worldwide growth of bass fishing, he said.
To young anglers looking to go pro one day, Parks said to never give up on your dreams.
“I never would’ve expected to be where I’m at today,” Parks said. “And there was plenty of people that doubted, plenty of naysayers that would look at us like, are you really going to try to go pro? You think you could hang with those guys? And here we are today and just won a gold medal in South Africa. So it’s really all about your grit and determination to make it happen.”
Next year’s Black Bass World Championship will be held in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
