The map above is based on the hometown of world ranked pro bass anglers (over 350) and cross referenced with US census data, to find out where the best pro anglers in the world are “produced” per capita.
While a state like Minnesota is known as “the land of 10,000 lakes” and is among the top states with the most fishing licenses per capita, it’s the southern states that dominate when it comes to producing pro anglers.
The top 10 states producing the most pro bass anglers per capita (per million residents) are as follows:
Alabama – 9.62
Arkansas – 6.30
Louisiana – 5.15
Oklahoma – 4.31
Indiana – 4.18
Tennessee – 4.14
South Carolina – 2.56
Mississippi – 2.34
Kentucky – 2.24
Idaho – 1.71
The map and date were put together by boating site https://www.boatsafe.com/ (any link attribution would go to them) again using the listed hometowns of every world ranked pro bass angler.
| State | State | Number of Ranked Pro Anglers |
| Alabama | AL | 47 |
| Alaska | AK | 0 |
| Arizona | AZ | 6 |
| Arkansas | AR | 19 |
| California | CA | 13 |
| Colorado | CO | 0 |
| Connecticut | CT | 2 |
| Delaware | DE | 1 |
| Florida | FL | 25 |
| Georgia | GA | 15 |
| Hawaii | HI | 0 |
| Idaho | ID | 3 |
| Illinois | IL | 5 |
| Indiana | IN | 28 |
| Iowa | IA | 0 |
| Kansas | KS | 3 |
| Kentucky | KY | 10 |
| Louisiana | LA | 24 |
| Maine | ME | 0 |
| Maryland | MD | 1 |
| Massachusetts | MA | 0 |
| Michigan | MI | 10 |
| Minnesota | MN | 7 |
| Mississippi | MS | 7 |
| Missouri | MO | 2 |
| Montana | MT | 0 |
| Nebraska | NE | 0 |
| Nevada | NV | 0 |
| New Hampshire | NH | 0 |
| New Jersey | NJ | 4 |
| New Mexico | NM | 0 |
| New York | NY | 1 |
| North Carolina | NC | 15 |
| North Dakota | ND | 0 |
| Ohio | OH | 4 |
| Oklahoma | OK | 17 |
| Oregon | OR | 3 |
| Pennsylvania | PA | 4 |
| Rhode Island | RI | 0 |
| South Carolina | SC | 13 |
| South Dakota | SD | 0 |
| Tennessee | TN | 28 |
| Texas | TX | 37 |
| Utah | UT | 0 |
| Vermont | VT | 0 |
| Virginia | VA | 8 |
| Washington | WA | 2 |
| West Virginia | WV | 1 |
| Wisconsin | WI | 5 |
| Wyoming | WY | 0 |
