If there had to be one remarkable story on the Marshall Bass Trail throughout the entire 2021 season this is the one. I was unaware for the entire 2021 season that Tyler Cline lived nearly 4 hours from West Virginia. Despite the distance he still made it here for 6 tournaments and claimed the Team of The Year award on the Marshall Bass Trail.

Tyler is a resident of Johnson City, Tennessee which is approximately 230+ miles give or take from Charleston, WV. You might wonder why in the world does he drive 400+ miles both ways to come to WV and fish?

“When it comes to why I drive that far to fish when there is so many good lakes around me within just an hour or two? I would have to say because its a great bond that my Dad and I have to fish and compete together.” Tyler said. “Once we started bass fishing with a buddy out of his boat, I believe we both got hooked on it then eventually got our own boat. We began this journey we’re on now to being as competitive as possible and learning everything we can.”

Being competitive seemed to be no match for Tim and Tyler as they won the 2021 Marshall Bass Trail Team of The Year by 17 points over great friends of theirs, Dylan Fitzgerald and Brian Fitzgerald. All season long the Cline duo seemed unstoppable and put up consecutive finish after consecutive finish. 

“I can’t point to one thing that was the key to our consistency, but a multitude of things. One of the biggest keys was knowing when to stick to a spot or when to go and changing or slightly modifying a bait to get a limit.” Tyler told us. “For the last couple of years we have always been consistent in our club just about always getting a Top 5, so I guess it just followed us over for our first year fishing the full Marshall Bass Trail.”

Out of those consecutive finishes, the Clines racked up two Top 5’s, a 7th place finish and the only thorn in their side this season seemed to be a 20th and 21st place finish over at Summersville.

“We have never been great on Summersville, but trying to learn and get better on it every year,” Cline explained. “Every season in our club and last year on the Marshall Trail minus The Cup we had decent limits for the time of year, but was lacking that 2 to 3 pound kicker that’s needed. We’re not just avid anglers but also avid hunters so we never spend as much time fishing in the fall as a lot of the anglers in WV that are great and consistent in the fall.”

While Summersville might have proved a challenge for them last season, they are getting geared up for the 2022 season and they are looking to seal a win during the season. In 2021, as consistent as they were they never sealed the deal on a win, which left them hungry for 2022.

“Our main goal this year on the Marshall Trail is to continue the consistency and go after a win. It sure would be nice to win a regular season event, but at the moment to just complete a good limit and have a shot during The Cup to win it would be an achievement over last season,” Tyler told us. “We had a target on our back last year for Team of The Year and I’m sure it will be there this year at the start, but we’ll be trying to defend that title of Team of The Year”

Tyler and Tim wrapped up the 2021 season with an impressive day to close out The Team of The Year on The Marshall Bass Trail. It was day I don’t think they will ever forget and a day where one decision made a huge impact for them.

“We went out and was practicing the day before down river and caught some decent fish but they were more of a random thing than a pattern. Then we began fishing our way back to the ramp and hit on a slight pattern before taking out, but we were still undecided on what to do come tournament day,” Tyler said. “Just minutes before takeoff we decided to go up river and fish our history and just happened to stop on a spot that we both have had success at or fished in a boat with another guy having success and within the first 15 minutes we had caught a limit and then culled up to a true 12 inch limit and knew we sealed the deal on the points there.”

They did in fact seal the points win that day and proved to everyone that distance is only in miles. They proved to all of us that miles are only a number and that they can’t break a true father and son fishing bond.