Northwestern Ontario’s most famous bass angler is now part of a brand new video game.
Jeff Gustafson, from Keewatin, Ont., is a featured character in Bassmaster Fishing 2022. It’s a fishing simulator that features ten of the biggest name in competitive bass fishing.
Gustafson, who won his first Bassmaster Elite event on the Tennessee River this past February, said he is honoured to be part of the game, even if they did take some liberties with his likeness.
“They’ve got a little bit more grey in my beard than I have in real life,” he said. “But they’ve made me kind of muscular looking and so I can live with that.”
Can you spot the difference? Jeff Gustafson in real life (top) verses his video-game likeness (bottom) (Supplied by Jeff Gustafson)
Other anglers featured in the game include American pro Scott Martin, who has lifetime earnings of over $3 million US in Bassmaster events, as well as Takumi Ito, from Japan and Carl Jocumsen from Australia.
Gustafson said the game has been in the works for a while and over the last couple years, and the company had a number of people at Bassmaster tournaments.
“They’ve had boats out on the water, watching the guys fish, taking a lot of video,” he said. “They’ve got sound bites from a lot of the anglers. So they’ve done some due diligence trying to make the game is as realistic as possible.”
Gustafson said at an event last season, the company had a video shoot with some of the anglers as preparation to be in the game.
“I had to go in a room and they put sensors all over on my body, ” he said. “I basically just had to turn and make casting movements. And I think they get a lot of movement that way that they’ve utilized in the game.”
This is Jeff Gustafson’s scorecard in the game, he’s one of several famous anglers players can choose from. (Supplied by Jeff Gustafson)
Gustafson said in the game you can choose your lures, and it features a lot of the lakes and rivers that the anglers fish, as well as the tournaments in the circuit.
Though he’d much rather be on the boat than playing video games, Gustafson is looking forward to checking it out soon. Gustafson also said he has also heard a lot from people since the game was released last week.
“The response from a lot of people …….