2006 Amistad Bass Champs: Loading the boat at Diablo I watched him dump a good bag and load his old Champ. The winning weight was 39+ at the time standing next to him he looked over at me with a grin/smile "You could have 4 9's & a 2 and lose". It was at that moment my tournament fishing ideas changed.
His name
Terry Oldham
Your stories are welcome.

I didn't start my bass tournament fishing until I was almost 30 years old. During the 90's and 00's I was fishing pretty much every weekend. Also at that time I was traveling to Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend fishing Anglers Choice Pro Am's, Redman and other trails. I was also a nerd about reading every publication that had tournament results. I got to really learn who the Texas local sticks and pro's were over time. One thing that after a while I came to realize is that one particular name from that area seemed to come up every time I would see results of the tournaments and more times than not as the winner of the tournament. Mike Metcalf. First place in most big tournaments back then was always a boat. I always dreamed of one day maybe being at the right place and right time to have the incredible moment of winning a boat. I couldn't imagine how the feeling would be but then for years and years it seemed like Mr. Metcalf would win multiple boats each year. It was mind boggling to see that over the course of a year he would seem to win 3 to 5 boats sometimes. As a newcomer to the sport during those days and being around the David Whartons, Yelverton, Lonnie Stanley, the Dowdens, Randy Dearman, Harold Allen and all of the other East Texas legends for me Mike Metcalf was the King of East Texas tournament fishing as I started my tournament fishing journey.

In 1993 I fished the Redman All American in Tuscaloosa,Al. against a man named Yelverton whom I believe was from Texas...this was before they had no-boaters and in the All American they put outdoor writers with you as your observer....Mr. Yelverton was pretty weak and in the latter stages of his battle with cancer... Mike Whittaker who owned the Redman trail told several of us that they recruited a physicians assistant to be Mr. Yelverton's observer (and helper) both days....Mr. Yelverton passed away not long after the tournament and i always thought it was a class move by Redman to do this for mr. Yelverton...

Yes beartrap it was Gary Yelverton. He was a nice quiet kind of gentleman and one tournament I drew a guy that introduced me to him and we spoke with him for quite a while. He was definitely a great angler and had a great reputation among the other anglers.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, when I first started to get involved in tournament fishing in Texas, I was asked by Casey Allison to help with weigh in at a Ray Hubbard JC Outdoors tournament. I took pictures of the guys who placed. The guys who won were brothers. The Rose brothers. That's Robby on the right.

I remember when the working man could afford a boat