Draft:Jeff Klassen

Jeffrey George Klassen (born December 21, 1961) is a recognized sport fisherman with many accolades and recognitions of merit. His accomplishments have included: having written numerous articles in fishing magazines as well as having been the subject of many others; was a guest on several radio talk shows; hosted a national fishing TV show on OLN and FOX Sports, "Surf & Shore Fishing The World"; a guest on other fishing shows^[1][2][3]; a fishing guide to celebrities^[4]; published two books^[5][6] and has secured 14 IGFA certified world record fish catches^[7].

Klassen was born in St Boniface, Manitoba, Canada, but grew up in Calgary, Alberta, where he lived with his mother and sister. He attended Crescent Heights High School, where the likes of Tommy Chong and Canadian Diplomat Ken Taylor (played by Ben Affleck in "Argo") attended. He inherited the love for fishing from his grandfather and caught his first fish, a small Northern Pike at the age of 4. When he got his first bicycle, it was fishing every day after school in local Calgary waters, mainly the Bow River and Glenmore Reservoir. At 16, driving opened up new fishing destinations for Jeff, including Kananaskis Park, Banff and Jasper. At 17 Jeff went Jamaica, where he got his first taste of saltwater fishing. In his early 20’s Jeff frequented Mexico often, where he learned and honed his big game fishing skills.

1990-1999 Cabo San Lucas

In both 1988 and 1989 Jeff visited a small Mexican fishing town called Cabo San Lucas, after hearing through the grapevine (pre-internet) that it was the place to fish for just about everything saltwater. He fell in love with Los Cabos and after his 2nd trip was pondering how he could make some kind of a career move there. Having just completed numerous courses in broadcasting and film editing he came up with the idea to shoot videos of peoples fishing trips. After quitting his job and selling what he owned he headed south of two borders, where he started his fishing career.

Within a year of shooting videos he realized that it wasn't very lucrative, gave that up and opened up a small tackle shop, which at first specialized in surf fishing gear. Jeff started the whole surf fishing niche in Los Cabos, taking people on guided surf fishing trips. He made famous a little known lure called the "Ranger", which ultimately became the most productive and popular surf and inshore casting fishing lure in the world. With the Ranger lure and his own creation the "Klassic Popper" he targeted Roosterfish, Jack Crevalle, Yellowtail, Cubera Snapper, and Grouper.

In 1992, having seen the potential of the internet, Jeff started his first website, which over nearly 35 years morphed into what he still maintains, www.reel1in.com, an informative site, where he also sells surf fishing lures, including the "Ranger". All through the 90's, until about 2002, he had a very popular blog (before the word blog existed) called the "Klassen Comment".

During this time Jeff had befriended the Hagar family, particularly Bob, the brother of Sammy Hagar, who had recently opened the famous cantina "Cabo Wabo". As a result Jeff was able to take out many of the famous musicians celebrity friends, including the likes of Alice Cooper, members of Guns n Roses, boxer Oscar de la Hoya, along with many others, including the Hagar brothers own Mom.

Jeff purchased a fledgling local lure business making offshore trolling lures for big game (Mahi Dorado, Sailfish, Marlin). He quickly learned how to make them and ultimately added offshore fishing to his tackle shop inventory.

In 1998 he was approached by a production company out of Texas/Alabama to host a reality-type fishing show "Surf & Shore Fishing The World". Sponsored by Cabelas, the show dedicated to fishing with both feet on the ground. The first two seasons were a huge success, first broadcasting on OLN, then syndicated through FOX Sports. Shows were filmed all over the US, those 2 seasons. After returning from Australia, shooting shows for season 3, Jeff found that his partner/producer of the series had completely vanished, for unknown reasons, thus having the show come to an abrupt end.

Discouraged, Jeff decided it was time for a change.

1999-2005 Cabo San Lucas, Costa Rica

Much to the chagrin of Jeff, he had seen, having partially contributed to, the quick rise in popularity of Cabo San Lucas, which had grown from a town of less than 9000 people to a small city of 30000 during his time there. There are currently over 116,000 people living in San Lucas now.

In 1999, Jeff was offered a position to complete the opening of and manage a new fishing lodge in Costa Rica, Crocodile Bay Lodge Archived 2013-08-19 at the Wayback Machine. Jeff had been looking for a new fishing adventure and accepted the position. He spent 6 months there before differences with the owner lead him back stateside, basing himself in Washington State.

For the next few years Jeff continued to work his website, reel1in.com, while being a personal guide to anglers wanting to fish prime fishing locations in different parts of the world, including Los Cabos, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, among other locations.

2006-2020 Barra de Navidad, Mexico

After searching for a new Mexican "sleepy town" Jeff stumbled across Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, 3 hours South of Puerto Vallarta, an hour north of Manzanillo. There he opened another tackle shop, with a charter boat, again making lures. At the same time he owned two Coldwell Banker real estate franchises, losing both after the stock market crash of 2008, leaving him with just the tackle shop and charter boat, which he continued to run until 2020.

2020-Present

Having been diagnosed as "Alpha 1" in 2010, Jeff's lungs slowly began deteriorating, ultimately ending his big game pursuits, due to COPD, and in 2020 he decided to make the move to Tampa Bay, Florida, where he had the Mexican weather, smaller game fishing, but also access to excellent Pulmonologists.

Jeff self-published 2 books in 2024, "Fishing ... Mexican Style!" and "Tales of a Sport Fisherman (vol 1).