Announced his retirement from the Elite Series this afternoon... Dan

https://www.bassmaster.com/top-video/video/rick-clunn-steps-away-from-bassmaster-elite-series/

Listened to him teach at the Bass University at UT Arlington over 40 years ago teach on the seasonal habits of bass. It completely changed my thoughts on bass fishing and opened the door to beginning to understand how to find bass. Helped me have some success in this sport. He is a few years older than I, and the body does not appreciate the boat rides and long days any longer. Hope he enjoys whatever he does in the future.

And at his age he still weighed 38-4 for 2 days - better than 32 others. I hope he stays in the industry somewhow. He has a lot to offer.

He's still gonna fish an Open here or there and stay active within the industry and sponsors.

I'd like to see him and one of the young scopers team up.

Legend

I noticed at the end the announcer kind of got choked up a bit. I'd have to say that would be one of the toughest things you'd ever do in your lifetime is to see and announce Rick Clunn stepping away from the Elite series.
I got to here him speak down at Richland Chambers a couple of decades ago and what I learned from him about tournament fishing was a REAL eye opener.
I can remember when he got started; I was already a member of Bassmasters at that point and at the earliest part of his career being sponsored by Glastron boats. Yes they were in the bass boat business at one time and there were quiet a few of them running the lakes, bayous, rivers, of north Louisiana back then. A friend of mine owned one and it was probably the very first bass boat I fished out of back in the day. I used to have one of their sales brochures and Rick was in it.

If that was the seminar near the intersection of 45 and 31, I was there too.

It may have been. He was actually weighing in at an Invitational and Ray Scott was trying to burn some time so he let Rick speak for a while. I just remember what he said about what it cost dollar wise to tournament fish back in the early 90's and what he'd spent so far that year and what he'd won. What he'd made in tournament winnings would have been a very nice salary for most of us back then and I don't think they were even midway through the season. The short of it; he was loosing money, winnings weren't covering the bills. He made it clear if you didn't have sponsors or deep pockets you couldn't play the game at the full on pro level.

Clung was a self made fisherman. Now all it takes is a mom or dad with a good job.

One of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all time

Rick Clunn

A brilliant, creative, passionate bass genius. Legend.

Listened to his podcast a couple months ago where he said he has learned more about bass behavior the past 2 years than he had in the past 50 combined due to FFS. The man has been a student of the game and has provided a huge amount of insight to the sport over the years.

I'd like to see a few Goat vs Goat match tournaments next year between KVD and Clunn . That would be interesting.

Met him at the classic on Grand lake OK a few years back. Told him my friends and I had “flown the lake” many times at fork back in the day on his behalf.