When Mooresville Now caught up with Kaden Buchmann last year to talk about his growing fishing career, neither of us expected we’d be having this conversation again so soon.
In fact, Kaden wasn’t even planning to fish the Bassmaster Opens at the time.
Fast forward to today and the 22-year-old former Mooresville High School angler has qualified for the 2027 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell. He’s also currently leading the Elite Qualifier points race for a chance to make the Bassmaster Elite Series.
“Absolutely not,” Kaden said when asked if he thought we’d be talking again this soon about qualifying for the Classic.
His trip to the Classic was secured with a win at Norfork Lake in Arkansas, where he led all three days. Along with earning his place on one of the biggest stages in bass fishing, the victory came with more than $71,000.
For Kaden, however, the Classic invitation meant even more than the check.
“Honestly, the Classic,” he said. “The money is definitely amazing and a great push, but making the Classic is basically everyone’s dream.”
It also gives him a chance at more than $300,000 on Lake Hartwell, which happens to be one of his favorite lakes.
From Mooresville High School to the Classic
Long before Arkansas and the Bassmaster Classic, Kaden was a kid fishing around Lake Norman and eventually competing for Mooresville High School.
He dreamed about reaching bass fishing’s biggest stage, but dreaming about it and believing it would actually happen were two different things.
“Oh absolutely,” he said when asked whether he ever pictured himself competing at this level. “But I never imagined that I’d be good enough to make it.”
Those years fishing for Mooresville taught him something he’s carried with him as the competition has gotten tougher. Sometimes it simply takes time to get better.
“You can’t move up into higher competition and expect to dominate,” he said.
Lake Norman has also helped shape the way Kaden fishes today, and some of those lessons came into play at Norfork.
Kaden found similarities between the two lakes. Norfork was a very clear fishery with almost no grass, and he fished the entire lake on most tournament days, much like he would back home on Norman.
“The biggest thing Norman taught me was to fish fast but efficient,” he said.
The win that changed everything
Leading a tournament for three straight days might sound like the perfect position to be in, but Kaden says being the one everyone else is chasing is actually much harder mentally.
When you’re leading, you have everything to lose.
His approach was to go out every morning, have fun, enjoy himself on the water and try not to get stressed, no matter what happened.
Even when the final day was over, he wasn’t ready to believe he’d won.
The other anglers who still had a chance at taking the lead were actually the ones who told him backstage at the staging tanks. They were all there without fish when they told Kaden he’d done it.
Colby Bryant, who was in second place going into the final day, told Kaden the win was his.
Kaden’s response?
“Thank you, but it isn’t over yet. LOL.”
He wasn’t going to believe it until he was actually holding the trophy.
When that moment finally came, the reality of what he’d accomplished hit him.
“I was basically just trying to get my words out and not get emotional,” he said. “There’s hundreds of thousands of people that dream of doing what I just did and qualifying for the Classic.”
Back home, some of the people who have been there from the beginning were watching it all unfold.
The first people Kaden contacted after he knew he’d made the Classic were his mom and grandma. Kaden couldn’t say much, but they had plenty to say because they were having a watch party at Marty’s in Mooresville.
His family told him they couldn’t believe it and how proud they were of him for proving to everyone that he could do it.
The hometown celebration continued when he returned to the Lake Norman area.
The first place Kaden went when he got home was Toucans Lakefront off Highway 150 for a celebratory dinner. When he walked inside, about half of the people there cheered.
“I’m pretty sure my awesome family probably had something to do with that, but it was so cool,” he said.
At just 22, Kaden is also beginning to experience something he once saw from the other side. Young anglers are now looking up to him.
After his win in Arkansas, a ton of kids came up to take pictures with him and have him sign jerseys and hats. Kaden even mentioned that he had sent Mooresville Now a photo from the experience.
He’s also visited two high schools in the area, McDowell and his alma mater, Mooresville.
Closer to home, he’s been getting stopped at gas stations for a while now, particularly by people who pay attention to the fishing industry.
He still finds it shocking and cool every time it happens.
Of course, Kaden isn’t exactly traveling incognito.
His big, colorful truck is wrapped in a Sport Fisher Energy design, which he jokes makes it “very, very impossible to hide.”
What fans don’t see
Winning a major tournament comes with a trophy, a $71,000-plus check and plenty of attention. But there’s a lot that happens away from the cameras.
There are countless practice days, 12 to 13-hour travel days and the constant need to get things fixed on both the truck and boat.
Being gone for a week at a time can also put a strain on other parts of life.
Still, when asked about the biggest sacrifice he’s had to make to chase this at 22, Kaden doesn’t really see it as sacrificing.
“I really haven’t had to sacrifice anything I actually wanted to do,” he said. “It honestly really happened extremely naturally.”
He also hasn’t been doing it long enough to have much time to wonder whether professional fishing was going to work out.
His results haven’t exactly given him much reason to doubt himself either.
In the first three tournaments he fished, Kaden cashed a check in all three, including a top-10 finish on Lake Norman in the Bassmaster Open in May.
Preparing for Lake Hartwell
Now comes the Bassmaster Classic.
Kaden expects that during official practice and the actual tournament days, he’ll be able to fish pretty freely, have fun and focus on what he knows how to do.
It’s everything surrounding the tournament that he expects will feel surreal.
Rolling through the Greenville area, attending the Night of Champions dinner and participating in media day are the moments when he expects the magnitude of what he’s accomplished to really hit him.
“The Bassmaster Classic is something everyone who enjoys bass fishing dreams about at night,” he said.
How much Kaden will lean on what he learned fishing Lake Norman at Hartwell could depend on a coin flip on October 7 that will determine whether it will be a no-LiveScope tournament or a LiveScope tournament.
He says that decision will really determine how much his Norman knowledge comes into play, although he expects it to help at least a little regardless.
Between now and March 19, Kaden says the first step in preparing for the biggest tournament of his life is simply trying to soak it all in.
Then there’s the business side.
He needs to secure new sponsors for the 2027 season. Now that he’s qualified for what he calls “the Super Bowl of the fishing industry,” he suspects that part may be easier than it has been previously.
He’ll also be spending plenty of time around Lake Hartwell before it goes off limits.
Kaden attended Lander University, which is closer to Hartwell, and plans to spend a lot of his free time before the off-limits period staying at friends’ houses in that area and really learning the lake.
If Kaden could go back and talk to the younger version of himself who was fishing for Mooresville High School, he’d tell him to respectfully soak up as much information as he possibly could, keep fishing and continue gaining more and more contacts within the industry.
He’d also offer one very specific piece of advice.
Never buy another truck other than a Tundra.
“They are such reliable trucks for what we do,” he said.
Hometown support
The support from Mooresville and Troutman is already growing.
Kaden says he already doesn’t have enough family passes for everyone in the family section at the Bassmaster Classic area. Fortunately, a ticket isn’t needed to get into the area or convention.
“It’s going to be awesome,” he said.
He’s already been sent and tagged in all kinds of posts from people who were following along when he had a live camera in his boat last Friday. He even had a couple of race shops in Mooresville watching the live coverage.
“All of the support I’ve already received from Mooresville and Troutman is so cool,” he said.
For someone who grew up fishing here, competed for Mooresville High School and now lives in Troutman, he’ll have plenty of people back home following along when March arrives.
And when Kaden finally launches his boat on the first morning of the Bassmaster Classic, don’t expect him to be there simply to enjoy the experience.
We asked him to finish one sentence:
“When I launch my boat at the Bassmaster Classic in March, I’m going to think about …”
His answer didn’t take much explaining.
“Winning that stinking thing!”
Then, in true competitor fashion, he added:
“I mean, after all, that’s what we’re all there for. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be beyond grateful to just be competing, but at the end of the day I’m still a competitor, and once we blast off that first morning, I’ve got work to do!”
