Jacob Wall, formerly of Jacksonville, earned the final qualifying spot on next year’s Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour. [Photo courtesy of Major League Fishing Tour]
Jacob Wall casts while professionally bass fishing. [Photo courtesy of Major League Fishing Tour]
Jacksonville-bred Jacob Wall earns final qualifying spot on next year’s Bass Pro Tour
It’s March 15 in Florida’s Harris Chain of Lakes, and professional bassist Jacob Wall is having an unforgettable day.
He’s way down the tournament leaderboard with barely 10 minutes of fishing to go. While the South Medford High School graduate is looking for bass, he’s really looking for points.
Landing a slightly larger largemouth won’t mean anything in the standings for the day, but a couple more ounces in their cache could make all the difference in season-ending point totals.
“Every ounce counts,” says Wall. “They are the deciding factor at the end of the year.”
Wall then caught a 2 1/2-pound largemouth, trading it for a smaller one in his tournament catch. Good for just his 36th of the tournament that day, but the seven points he scored in that moment catapulted Jacksonville’s favorite fishing son into the big time.
Those valuable points earned Wall a 10th-place finish on the Pro Circuit, earning him the final qualifying spot on next year’s Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour.
Next season, he’ll be fishing alongside legends like Kevin VanDam and others as he competes for $100,000 weekly paychecks in the most elite bass league on the planet.
Wall looks back on that day in Florida as a reminder of how getting a point here or there in the standings created that crunch time in the 27-year-old’s romantic career.
“That’s how it works,” says Wall. “I focused on trying to turn those not-so-good days into good days. You’re looking for points, and at the end of the day, every point counts. The last fish of that tournament mattered.”
Wall is the first pro bass angler from southern Oregon on a circuit dominated by other southerners of a different kind.
Since turning pro in 2018, he has earned nearly $200,000 in prize money through 48 tournaments, winning two and earning 11 top-10 finishes, according to MLF records.
But sneaking into next year’s top-drawer circuit could catapult Wall into personal and potentially financial stardom.
The MLF only fields 80 professional anglers who pay $5,000 for each tournament, with last place paying $3,700. That’s a far cry from his first year, during which Wall earned less than the checks he cashed.
MLF tournaments are all catch and release, with every fish over 2 pounds going toward that angler’s daily catch, regardless of how many fish he uses to get there.
The tournaments are also on The Outdoor Channel, which will put Wall’s face in front of more viewers and can’t help but add to his growing circle of sponsors.
He will compete against 79 more anglers each week, half of what he used to do in the minor leagues. But Wall believes he’s earned the ropes and is ready to be in the spotlight.
“I think I’m a better fisherman now than when I started,” Wall says. “A few years ago, I don’t think I could say that.”
Hitting the top level of bass fishing won’t leave Wall with a deer-in-the-headlights look, he says.
“It doesn’t really surprise me anymore who I’m fishing against,” Wall says as he casts on Ontario’s Lake Champlain as he prepares for his final tournament of the season on the St. River. Lawrence in Ontario.
“I’m just focused on going out, catching fish and getting points,” Wall says.
And the road to the top of the bass fishing world is a lot like getting to Carnegie Hall: practice. practice practice
Even as a 12-year-old bass fishing prodigy practicing for kids’ casting contests, Wall knew all those practice castings on his family’s Jacksonville driveway would one day pay off.
For hours after school, Wall would practice throwing or spinning the machines at plastic targets stapled to pieces of plywood, emulating the casts he’d seen on televised bass tournaments and believing he’d be that guy one day.
This practice won a trip to the finals of the Bassmaster CastingKids national competition in 2007, then came back the following year and won it all.
He initially competed in local tournaments through the Crater Bass Club and later the St. Mary’s. In 2011, he and former partner Colby Pearson won Oregon’s first high school championship and finished second at the National High School Bass Championships.
From there, Wall enrolled at the University of Oregon, where he fished for the school in its club sports program. His U of O team won two Western Division titles and qualified for nationals all four years he was on the team.
Wall turned pro full-time in 2018, moving from the territory of the Salmon Nation in southern Oregon to Alabama, where he still resides.
Wall says he’s had great support from his parents, Jocie and Steve Wall. His father has regularly traveled the bass circuit with Jacob, who says he’ll never forget those days casting the entrance and dreaming of making it big.
“I’m still a good pitcher,” laughs Wall. “That should help a little, right?”
Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Contact him at 541-776-4470 or by email at mfreeman@rosebudmedia.com.
