Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Scott Hamrick just won the 2025 National Professional Fishing League Championship. He is a world champion, victor over 41 other extraordinarily talented and accomplished anglers.
And Hamrick, of course, is an accomplished angler in his own right. On his home lake—Norman, in North Carolina—he’s one of the top sticks and always on the short list of the anglers to beat, but in a Championship field that included national names like Walters and Welcher and local legends like Burroughs, few put Hamrick on their list of ones to watch.
I, for one, did not. My list was made up of the usual suspects—the Progressive Angler of the Year leaders, the local star, and the hotshot “scopers.”
And few thought this tournament would be won without at least some “scoping”—the use of forward-facing sonar which the League prohibited beginning with the 2025 regular season, which was allowed in this Championship only because it was in use when these anglers qualified in 2024.
Scott Hamrick is not known as a scoper, and he prevailed at Lake Hartwell using two time-honored methods of talented tournament anglers—skipping a jig and grinding it out with a big bait in search of a “kicker.” Patience and perseverance.
When it comes to those traditional tactics, Hamrick is a master. During the final day of the NPFL Live show, he spent much his time on camera being self-deprecating, joking about the few bad casts he made, talking about what his friends would say, and mentioning the bait he was using—a 1/2-ounce Shooter Lures jig made by his friend Louie Hull.
It was a lesson in humility, and it was fun to watch. You wouldn’t need a hundred thousand dollars of boat, motor, and electronics to do what Scott Hamrick was doing. You could do it from a johnboat with a sculling paddle … assuming you had the skills to make the casts and the savvy to put yourself in the right places, which are what truly separates the best in the world from the rest of the world.
Hamrick is adept with the latest technology, but he’s a master with traditional methods.
Yet he was not a pre-tournament favorite. At 61, he was the second oldest angler in the field and is now the oldest winner in NPFL history.
Over two seasons with the League (2024 and 2025) his best previous finish was 26th at Lake of the Ozarks in 2024. When the NPFL stopped at Hartwell that year, he was 46th—out of the money and far from the spotlight.
This year, he ranked 45th in the Progressive Angler of the Year standings. Though he hovered around the Top 40 cutline to qualify for the 2026 Championship, he ultimately fell short by five places
Now he’s “in” as defending champion.
And, by the way, he finished 40th in the AOY rankings in 2024, making him the very last man to qualify for the Championship he just won.
Another thing you should know about Hamrick is that he co-hosts a podcast with Mike Seawright called “Fishing Legends Live.” And whether or not you granted him legendary status before the 2025 NPFL Championship, you’ve got to give it to him now.
I think Scott Hamrick is exactly the kind of fishing hero the sport needs at this challenging and divisive time. His modesty, his respect for the game, his skills earned through thousands of days on the water, and his sporting ethic are a great example to us all.
He might have been the last angler to earn his way into the 2025 Championship, but he came out on top, he used methods and tactics available to us all, and you just can’t write a better story than that.
