The Trail of Dreams Pro-Am Series is set to kick off on the 1,440 acre Sutton Lake on April 30th. While entries are still trickling in for the 2022 Series we caught up with previous Pro-Am angler Cody Huddleston who just signed back up to fish again in 2022. Perks of being the early bird we reached out to get an interview with him! 

This off-season has already felt like forever with the crazy amount of snow and freezing weather we have had here in the mountain state, but Huddleston has kept busy this off-season with hunting and the occasional fishing.

“I have literally flipped a coin before to decide if I wanted to catch smallmouth or get in a tree stand,” Huddleston claimed. “Those two hobbies keep me pretty busy year around and I always try to get up on Summersville Lake in the winter time to do some walleye fishing.”

This past off-season he must’ve flipped the coin the right way one day. He claimed this impressive white-tail deer over in Southern Ohio. Check out the photo below!

Huddleston’s best finish last year on the Pro-Am series came on Summersville back on May 8th, 2021 where he finished up 6th place. He hasn’t closed the deal on a win yet, but in 2022 he’s going to be one to watch for in a stacked field of competition.

“Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’d rather have a trophy or plaque than a check any day. The level of competition is so unbelievable on the Pro-Am Series that whoever’s lucky enough to finish at the top in a field of anglers like that definitely has something to be proud of!”

Huddleston claims last year mother nature took a course on the Pro-Am series. If anyone fished or was at the Sutton Pro-Am event in 2021 you know exactly how bad mother nature was to the field that day. 22 degrees to get the morning started was certainly a challenge. We asked him to look back on the 2021 season and give us his thoughts on it.

“The first two stops of the series we had unreal cold fronts that really affected the fishing,” Huddleston said. “It’s a situation where experience really hurt me because I knew what the fish were suppose to be doing and what I needed to do to catch them, but the weather had their schedule all out of wack. This year I will pay attention to that and kind of fish for the moment not necessarily what they should be doing.”

Huddleston is still no stranger to cooling water or Summersville in the month of October. In 2020, he claimed his first West Virginia Bass Nation State Championship in the month of October. I certainly look for him to be in the hunt in October when the Pro-Am series visits Summersville.

While mother nature was definitely a memorable factor in the 2021 season. Huddleston says otherwise of his most memorable moment in the season. 

“There was a ton of memories I can think of, but the biggest was getting to meet the famous Rob Ciarapica. I really didn’t know much about Rob until the day we fished, but I was blown away by his passion for the sport. I was able to show Rob a few things and get him a nice fish and it made my day,” Huddleston explained. “It reminded me how awesome this style of tournament fishing was for the Pros and Ams!”

In 2021, Shane Raynes and DockTalkWV assisted the Trail of Dreams with all new Live Coverage of the Pro-Am events. It was something new and never been done before in the state and certainly paved the way for tournament coverage in West Virginia to be a real thing.

“This Pro-Am Series make you feel like you are going out to fish Championship Sunday of the Bassmaster Classic,” Huddleston said. “The whole Trail of Dreams crew does an amazing job running the event. Shane Raynes with Dock Talk getting the morning interviews, updates during the day, and recaps really makes you think you’re in the big leagues. I’m excited to see what Chase Sansom does this year for the series. We have all seen him take the Marshall University Fishing Team to new levels so it should be an amazing year to be apart of the TOD Pro-Am Series!”

This year Cody has plenty of fishing planned ahead of him, due to the fact that all the major trails around the state worked together this year and made it to where anyone can just about fish anything they want.  This year he is planning to fish the Trail of Dreams Pro-Am Series, the WV BASS Nation buddy trail, the Marshall University Bass Trail and round it off with the WV Bass Federation State Championship on his favorite lake in the state, Summersville.

If you are interested in joining the Trail of Dreams Pro-Am Series please email TODFishing2022@gmail.com or message the Trail of Dreams Facebook page for a contract for the Pro-Am Series. Deposits are due February 15th and spots are filling quickly!