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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

FORT WORTH, Texas ­– Less than two years removed from a brush with death that brought one of the lowest of lows, Easton Fothergill now stands atop the bass fishing world having claimed its highest prize.

The former University of Montevallo angler Fothergill won the 2025 Bassmaster Classic on Sunday, March 23 on Lake Ray Roberts in Texas, becoming the second-youngest champion in tournament history at 22 years old.

“It’s indescribable, the trajectory of my life since that first bad moment,” Fothergill told Bassmaster.com. “Everything has come true that I’ve ever wanted. It’s pretty crazy.”

The Grand Rapids, Minn. native took first place in the event when he weighed in with a total of 15 bass for 76 pounds, 15 ounces over the course of the three-day event.

Fothergill started the tournament in third place after day one with a load of 24-15 before he surged into first with a load of 29-6 on day two, the best load of anyone that day.

Going into the final day with an 8 1/2-pound lead, he needed to fend off Lee Livesay and Trey McKinney after the pair got close during the morning. However, Fothergill caught an eight-pound bass, the largest of anyone in the tournament, to seal the deal late on Sunday.

However, before that moment where he stood atop the podium in Dickies Arena having won the biggest event in bass fishing, he was an accomplished angler with the University of Montevallo.

Just three weeks before the 2023 College Classic Bracket, he developed an abscess in his brain after bacteria entered his bloodstream through a sore in his mouth, which doctors believe he developed from simply jamming his toothbrush.

The extremely rare incident made his condition rapidly deteriorate and forced emergency brain surgery at UAB. He needed just one week of recovery in the hospital and a couple of weeks of rest at home in Minnesota before returning to his love of fishing at Montevallo.

He came back with a bang as he won the College Classic Bracket with his longtime partner Nick Dumke in Sept. 2023 to qualify for his first Bassmaster Classic in 2024, where he placed 16th out of 56 anglers.

Fothergill would go on to win two Bassmaster Opens in 2024, securing his spot in the Bassmaster Classic for the second-straight year.

He then competed in the Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers and won the Angler of the Year to qualify for the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series, where he now competes professionally against some of the best anglers in the world in the biggest tournament series in the sport.

While Fothergill placed outside the top 90 in the first two tournaments of the series, he returned to Alabama and found his groove in the Coosa River ahead of the Classic win.

From there, the Falcons went on to win their fourth-straight Bass Pro Shops School of the Year title, extending their own record-setting run for the most consecutive titles.