- Home Town
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Springfield MO
- Home Field
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Table Rock Lake
Missouri pro Randy Blaukat’s name has consistently been atop the Bassmaster and FLW leaderboards for over three decades. Along the way he’s established himself as the thinking man’s angler, utilizing a highly-developed sense of strategy and an advanced understanding of tackle craft to come out on top. The results speak for themselves – he’s qualified for eight Bassmaster Classics and nine Forrest Wood Cups on his way to winning $1.9 million from those two major circuits. Two additional highlights of his career were his 1989 Bassmaster Top 100 win on Virginia’s Buggs Island, in which he removed his Ranger’s drain plug to get underneath a low water bridge, and his 2000 Top 150 on the vast and treacherous Mobile Bay in Alabama.
Randy was the first American Megabass pro-staffer, joining the company shortly after he finished 8th in the 1992 Bassmaster Classic. At that point, company founder Yuki Ito had just moved out of the “garage” phase of his creations, and Blaukat was immediately knew that the company was “ahead of their time.” He was struck, he said, by the “quality of the baits overall” and knew that they “set the bar from the start.
Blaukat hails from the Ozarks region, where anglers plying clear lakes like Table Rock, Bull Shoals and Beaver Lake have worked for decades to perfect the attitude and performance of their suspending jerkbaits through hand-weighting and meticulous customization. That positioned him perfectly to work with Ito to develop the now-legendary Vision Oneten. For several years, he had it mostly to himself among U.S. pros, but eventually the lure’s distinct characteristics and exceptional fish catching ability forced the cat out of the bag.
“That bait had such an underground following for so long,” he recalled. “It catapulted to the forefront on word of mouth, which is pretty rare.” Over time, despite what was then limited availability in the United States, it gradually got to the point where there’s “not a pro on tour who doesn’t have one in his tackle box.” Despite the ubiquity of the Vision Oneten in tournament winners’ reports, it’s not the only Megabass jerkbait in Blaukat’s quiver, and he encourages other savvy competitors to embrace the subtle advantages of each one. “I’ve won as much from January through April on the Live-X Margay as I have on any other jerkbait,” he added. “The X-80 Trick Darter is another one that I use a lot. They all still play a role for me in the pre-spawn and they’re under the radar, so there are situations where they’re like using live bait.”
Another hallmark of Blaukat’s career has been his vocal and consistent advocacy for environmental issues, and in particular the ways in which anglers can not only do no harm, but also have a positive impact.
“I have been a target of a lot of criticism (for taking those stances),” he said. “But I continue to do it because it is critical not only for the sustainability of our sport, but also for our planet overall.”
- 18-time Bassmaster Classic and FLW Cup Qualifier
- 2-Time BASS Top 150 Champion
- 3-Time Central Pro Am Champion
- $1.9 Million in career winnings
- 3 Top 10 finishes BASS/FLW
- BASS Central Open Division AOY
