SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame has funded over $100,000 in conservation projects since 2020, and in 2024 awarded fisheries students $27,500 in scholarship money.
Continuing to stand true on its pillars of celebrating, promoting and preserving bass fishing, the Hall begins 2025 with an invitation to grassroots conservation groups and students to again apply for grants and scholarships.
Bass Fishing Hall of Famer and fisheries biologist Gene Gilliland says the real-world impact of these grants can be witnessed at bass fisheries across America.
“Projects that our sport’s Hall of Fame has helped fund recently include aquatic plant introductions in Bloomington and Evergreen, Illinois, Leavenworth, Kansas, Clarks Hill, South Carolina and Philpott, Virginia. Along with building live release tournament trailers in Alabama, Iowa and Kansas; and installing artificial fish habitat in New Mexico, Texas and Tennessee,” says Gilliland.
Bass clubs, lake associations, reservoir groups, and youth fishing organizations have been recipients of BFHOF grants and are the "boots on the ground" volunteers that put these funds to work. All in an effort to help to preserve the sport of bass fishing.
Natalie Coash, who now works as a fisheries research specialist for the Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife research Unit, says the money she received from the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame during her time as a student at Auburn was helpful not only to her academic growth, but “The money I received from the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame was instrumental in my growth as a fisheries biologist, and also made everyday life a bit easier as my tuition, rent, utilities and health insurance totaled about $16,000 a year, and my graduate student salary was $20,000,” said Coash.
Conservation groups and current fisheries students are encouraged to apply now by clicking here.
