Just Curious about John fox. use to watch his fishing shows as a kid. He autographed his book for me in 1976. Is he still around and does he still fish tournaments? Any stories?

I think he is mostly a live bait guide down in Florida. I've seen a few times on R. Martin and it sure seems he pushes shiner fishing.

I believe he got caught cheating in a tournament and was banned from them.

AAAHHH!

The ole American Angler from the 70's. Used to play golf with John. Made a few bad decisions in regards to bass fishing.

I was watching one of his videos and that guy got real serious telling about crawdad hatches and how important it was. He said 7 days before and 7 days after a new moon and 7 days before and 7 days after a full moon the crawdads hatch and that my friends is when ya want to be fishin!
That about covers the whole moon cycle doesn't it? I never watched another one.

Wiz, I think I heard the same thing about Fox way back in the 70's.---Smitty

I fished with Fox in 1978 @ MDA tournament at Sam Rayburn. After weigh in the tournament director asked me if I had any complaints about John. We had a great day on the lake and I told them he was one of the nicest guys I have ever fished with. I talked to a friend of mine who was the assistant tournament director what it was all about and this is the story I was told. Fox had a partner file a complaint at a weigh in because Mr. Fox had a big sack of fish but had not let his partner help land any of his fish. When the T.D. checked out Fox's fish they had all been foul hooked in the side of the head. I was told that he was catching fish that had been staked out. Apperantly the fish had been tied off between two trees, cast a crank bait across the line reel down till you feel the fish set the hook and break the line at the same time. After that he had to quit fishing the big tournaments. This guy could catch fish anywhere I don't know why he got caught up in something like this. That is the story I was told, mabey this will help for your answer. I still see him on the OLN network fishing in Fla. and doing infomercials.

The one I heard many years ago was that he had a false bottom in his live well with fish under it. I know the guy that bought one of his old boats - what a peice of junk, sunk it at Amistad.

JB Nitro, you are right; I remember reading that. Last I heard, he was still the only person banned for life from BASS tournaments.

PopScot, I remember that Amistad tournament well. It was also the day Steve Hill swamped his boat. Never saw either of them at tournaments after that.

What a shame...I really admirred that guy. He would always say...Good luck and Good fishing. Is there any chance for an appeal for him to get back in? It seems that life is a really long time to be banned. He cerainly would be on the up and up now.

SpinnerBaker - Yeah, that was some rough water. Hill's boat cap came lose and Clark was lucky he had a strong swimmer with him. I think Hill still fishes but he moved to Sweetwater shortly thereafter. I'm going to be up in Sherman and Arlington this weekend and would like to holler at someone to fish a day but will barely have time to visit the toy store in Grapevine.

He treated me right though. I won a major tournament on one of his worms. He promised that if I would tell everyone the worm that I caught it on, he would take care of me. I did and he did for sure. He sent me cases of his worms in exchange. I still have a bunch of them. Guess they're over 20 years old and still work too!

Steve Hill moved from almost drowning at Amistad to being in the middle of a huge population of rattlesnakes (Sweetwater). Talk about your death wish...

I was in a 16 foot MonArk back in those days. Steve and I originally planned to run the lake up and back together (we shared some of the same water), and I followed him up to mile marker 10 that morning, but I told him that if it got rough, I wasn't going to wait for him to run back, since I was in a 16 foot boat, and had my son with me. I got an early limit, and came back down the lake early. After a trip to Wally World to replace a trolling motor battery (standard tournament day), I went to the campground where I was camped. Clark was parked right across from me, and I immediately noticed his empty boat trailer, and went over to ask what was going on. When I walked into the camp trailer, it was so hot inside, I could barely stand it, but Clark and his partner were both sitting shivering, with all their pocket contents scattered out on the table drying. So, I got his story firsthand. I didn't find out about Steve's troubles until later. In case I didn't already have enough respect for rough water, that day added it. Steve said one wave hit them so hard, it knocked his wife out of her seat, and knocked his glasses off his face. Scary stuff.

Let me know when you make it to town with some time, PopScot. I'll give you a tour of a local lake, and we can catch up on old (tournament) war stories.

That's a deal Bud. I would enjoy rehashing old times and fishing some of those "Northern" lakes.