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Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13454391 02/28/20 02:03 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
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fivebites Offline
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My earliest fishing memory was probably around 1961 or so. I was 5 and my dad built me a "reel". We were fishing behind the dam at Lake Lavon and dad had built me a (if you can use your imagination) a platform fishing stand. He took a 1"x12" about 3 feet long as the base to stand on, nailed on a couple more 1"x12" that were vertical about 2 feet high, put a dowel between the two vertical sides, and used a 1 pound coffee can as the spool. Dad was a brick layer and we were pretty poor so the main line was white string they used for laying brick and then he had a couple of feet of probably what was mono fishing line attached to a weight and the hook. (hmmm...come to think of it, dad had invented the first carolina rig!!) He would hand chunk it out with some worms on it and when the fish would pick up the bait, I would start "reeling it in by using he coffee can on a dowell to manually bring in the line! Mostly catfish, but occasionally a largemouth or sand bass would get it. A few years later my Sunday school teacher and my dad's good friend Glenn was the first person to take me bass fishing and he was eat up with it. I can vividly remember ( I was probably 10 or so) him taking us out to a little farm pond walking the banks before daylight, and he had an old Ambassador reel with what he called a topwater tied on. I looked at him like he was nuts. "Glen, there's no worm on your hook"! That was the first time I saw a Hulapopper. He would cast it for me and tell me, "don't move it until ALL of the ripples on the water have stopped". A few casts later and I had the first topwater bite of my life. That was 53 years ago, and it has probably cost me a couple hundred thousand dollars since then. Thank you Glen! R.I.P. Great bass fisherman, great man. Thank you guys for bringing back such great memories.


2019 Chevy Tahoe
2018 Basscat Eyra 250 Proxs
PB Wife of 32 years!
PB Largemouth 9.56 Ray Roberts
Moritz Chevrolet - 9101 Camp Bowie W Blvd, Fort Worth, TX - Monte Coon (817) 696-2003
Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13454409 02/28/20 02:14 PM
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Posts: 370
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GLBoutdoors Offline
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Posts: 370
A couple of FIRSTS I'll never forget: 1st bass caught on TX rigged plastic worm (Sam Rayburn). My older brother was coaching me and said "when he pecks it like a bream, give him slack, count to 10 and set the hook." Man, that Fliptail worm and hook was in his gullet!

Also won't forget first blowup on buzzbait when Lunker Lure first came out. 4 Lber hit on Lake Murvaul right at the boat and sounded like somebody threw their trolling motor in the lake.

Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13454458 02/28/20 02:37 PM
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,681
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NoWeighers Offline
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Posts: 1,681
I can't remember what year it was.. But probably the middle seventies or so, and I was fishing with a buddy on Lake Dunlop. Of course those lillypads were Sneaky Pete and Purple Tarantula waters. But my buddy busted out a buzzbait and threw it.. I laughed out loud the first time I saw him retrieve it..

I told him you will never catch anything on that piece of [censored].. About three casts later I was netting a seven pounder for him..

Of course I immediately searched out and bought a few.. 45 years later I never leave home without one..


James Bendele
Falcon Lake Tackle
"On the eighth day, Man invented the Fish Hook."
Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: H2O Seeker] #13454579 02/28/20 03:36 PM
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mstring Offline
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Originally Posted by H2O Seeker
Originally Posted by BrandoA
Does anyone remember the Shemiamo Bantam reels?


I had 2 and sold both over time to 'upgrade'.

Originally Posted by SenkoSam
red Ambassador 5000

Still have mine and like it as much as the newer baitcasters I own with faster gear ratios. Even spincast reels have evolved since the good ol' days of Zebco.


Grew up on these and still have 4 or 5. I bought the Ambassaduer 2500C when it came out and still have the box it came in.

Beartrap mentioned 'rods on the deck' which is interesting because unless you built a front deck in your boat those did not show up until the mid-late '70's I believe. The Skeeter and Kingfisher models with stick steering had a very small spot you could stand on the bow but the trolling motor pedal had to be in the bottom of the boat.


I've still got a couple of those 2500s. I use them instead of spinning reels for small light baits.

Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13454625 02/28/20 04:06 PM
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 29,798
Duck_Hunter Offline
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My uncle got me into fishing when I was very young, first fishing for bream on a small pond behind his house. My family spent a lot of time on the Potomac River/Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia in the summer and I would fish from docks catching small flounder, striper, croakers and trout. Then, my uncle got me into bass fishing when I was a teenager and I loved it. Took a long time off until several years ago and now I’m back in love with it.


[Linked Image]
Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13454955 02/28/20 10:13 PM
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 7,377
TBassYates Offline
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Wasn't largemouth bass but one summer my dad moved us up between Sherman and Denison while he was painting the Grayson County Jr. College. He took us camping on Texoma and when we got there he rigged up some rod and reels. They were Ted Williams brand he bought at I believe a Gibson's in town. He put just a weight and hook and had bought a bunch of minnows. We waded out a little bit off the bank and then I saw something that blew me away. I had no idea about sandbass schooling. They would start chasing shad towards us and I swear it looked like there were thousands of them that went about 100 yards wide.You couldn't help but catch fish after fish for as long as they were schooling and after. My dad was taking fish off and putting them in a wire basket for our fish fry and even when we ran out of minnows he took the hook and put a pop top off of a soda can and wrapped it around and told us to throw it out and reel it back in. I will be darned if that flash and erratic movement didn't keep catching fish until we just got tired and they finally quit schooling and left the area buy we not only had a basket full of fish but I had that memory of those schooling fish that I will never forget. That evening right before dark at our campsite in a little cove my dad let my brother use his rod and reel that he had a Herbs Dilly on and I saw the first largemouth bass caught and I about cried looking at that bass which was about a 2 to 3 lber knowing I didn't catch it.


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Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13454971 02/28/20 10:46 PM
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361V Offline
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Is this a spotted bass maybe? [Linked Image]

Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13454986 02/28/20 11:21 PM
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 2,868
cob Online Content
Extreme Angler
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We lived in Sherman from when I was 11. One day when I was 12 (61 years ago) my friend and I walked about a mile thru some woods to hwy 75. There was a place there that built fishing lures. We knock on the door at Whopper Stopper and told the lady we wanted to see some lures. Mr Jodie Griggs (found out years later he ran the place) took us on a tour and gave us a Bayou Boogie and a packaged lead head worm apiece. RIP and thanks Jodie. I’ll never have any more enjoyment than those two lures gave me.


Some people go to church and think about fishing. Some go fishing and think about God.
Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13455255 02/29/20 03:24 AM
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pchapin Offline
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I have a 1953 16HP Scott Atwater in my garage that my father bought in 1954. We put a lot of miles on that motor. It would make a 14 foot John boat fly.
Fishing from the bank around that same time
[Linked Image]

Last edited by pchapin; 02/29/20 03:27 AM.

“No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact”
P01135809
Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13455994 03/01/20 01:23 AM
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1bas Offline
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In the 70s it was common for local club and many open tournaments to run from daylight to dark. In the hot summertime that was usually a 13-14 hr. tournament. One that branded itself in my memory( Name withheld ,to protect the innocent, and guilty) 10 bass was the limit. A individual started culling around 9 in the morning, culled 8 -9 times, and when he weighed in he only had 9 bass. 3 were paid, he got 4th. Missed winning by 9 ounces. I know he learned a hard lesson about keeping count, that day.

Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13456304 03/01/20 01:57 PM
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I never missed Freddy Grant’s Fun of Fishing Show every Sunday. I still have a 45 of him singing the theme song.
Lew’s sponsored Freddy, so he was big on the BB1.

I went out and bought one. What a great reel.

I still have several of those and I’ve been fishing Lew’s since.

Ol’ Freddy passed away last year.


"..The pleasantist angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait.
Bill Shakespeare





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Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13456319 03/01/20 02:22 PM
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Allison1 Offline
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My dad and I joined the San Antonio Bass Club in the late 60's. Our first boat was a boat we got from the coast, dory, that we had used floundering down there by my uncle. We brought it up and spent a couple weeks sanding, epoxy painting and making it ready. Had a 20 horsepower outboard tiller steer and a paddle.
We had some great times with that boat. The next one was a 15 foot Quachita aluminum boat with a Motorguide 12v trolling motor. They only had something like 12 pounds thrust and the motor was twice the size of motors now but it got us fishing and catching more.

When I came to Arlington in 71 I was going to school. When I got married in 75, the poor girl didn't know I had a fishing history. She soon found out.


Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13456372 03/01/20 03:17 PM
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Ken A. Offline
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Great old stories!

I caught my first 5# bass off the Miller Road rocks at Ray Hubbard on a black & white H&H spinner. I put that fish on a cheap rope stringer and wrapped it around the handlebars on my bicycle. As I pedaled my bike to the gas station on Chiesa Rd & Hwy 66 the fish's tail was slapping me on the leg all the way. roflmao It went 5lb 2oz on their meat scale and that started the fire in me that burns to this day.

Later in 1974 me and some friends with the help of some of the coaches (Gary Reeves, Don Rutledge, Coach Hudson) started the first high school bass fishing team at Garland High. We would fish Ray Hubbard, T-wok or Lavon each month. In Jan 1975 we had a tourney at Hubbard where we fished against North Garland & South Garland. I caught a 7lb 7oz bass on a black jig to win it all. We were 35 years ahead of our time for high school bass teams. thumb



Re: early years of bass fishing and bass tournaments [Re: beartrap] #13456384 03/01/20 03:27 PM
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Legend08 Offline
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Love those ambassador 5000 red reels. My dad won one back in the 60’s. I used it to catch my first big bass out of Falcon.
[Linked Image]


"A legend in my own mind, wanna-be Pro Angler"
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