I met Fox back in 86, he had a fish attractant on the market, that I thought worked pretty good. He was a speaker at the Bass Club, a bar that was on Belt Line Rd in Dallas. Well he took my order for 3 bottles of the stuff, my money and never saw either one again.

As far as the cheating goes, there are a lot of stories around about him cheating, all I know is I never got what I was promised.

Don't believe all the stories about John Fox. He got in a fight with Ray Scott and was banned from BASS. People assumed he was caught cheating and the stories grew like wildfire.

The man that was having fish put on his hook for a TV show he was filming was a different PRO Angler and still fishing.

Awe Yes,,John Fox. What a character.

I have heard of all of the cheating, but have not heard it from someone who was in the know. I knew John in the late 1960s, early 1970s. I was in the retail business and John was promoting his "Fluttertail worm". It was a decent worm, but then it was the early days of worm fishing and they were all pretty decent. Ralph Gizzo(sp) was a notable guide on Big Sam and was promoting his Fliptail worm. It probably wasn't any better at catching bass but Ralph was also a good promoter and had the Fliptail selling pretty well. John's worm was a just a knockoff of the Fliptail which was a knockoff of the the other worms on the market. On any given day they all worked pretty well.

But, John was a born promoter, and a pretty good Bass fisherman. He called me up one day inviting me to fish with him the following evening. We were going out before dark and fish a submerged island out of Powell Park, and would fish nothing but black worms. He intended to prove that black worms were the preferred bait for big Bass after dark in all lakes. I didn't doubt the fact, as I had good luck using black topwaters after dark all summer, but I was anxious to go. Hell, I'd take a free fishing trip with a big name guide anyday.

John had put together five boats of Bass Fishermen and he, Sam Malone, publisher of the San Augustine newspaper, and I met at 6 o'clock in his boat at the lake and proceeded to the submerged island. John furnished all of the black worms, and in five hours of fishing we caught an awesome number of native Texas black bass. This was before the introduction of Florida Bass. We started on the West point of the islands and after three hours of fishing the bass quit. John suggested we move to the other end of the island which had a shallow point as the East end. We did and immediately got into another large school of fish feeding on the point. We all caught many Bass before quitting for the night at about 11 PM. This was the most fantastic fishing trip I had ever made. Sam Rayburn was new and was arguably the best Bass lake in it's day.

This trip netted us approximately 200 fish to seven pounds. No one was counting, so the number is just an approximation. John and Sam Malone wrote a large artical on this trip and Sam distributed it to newspapers statewide. I had friends from all over the state calling me to guide them on a trip to Big Sam. Big Sam had the reputation that Lake Fork holds now.

John went on to go bust in the lure business in San Augustine. He would rather be fishing than selling lures and finally wound up owning a fishing resort of sorts in Florida near the everglades I understand. I used to keep up with him on the internet. He was a very personable fellow and an excellent fisherman. He would have made an awesome salesman, but he would just rather fish than sell. I still don't know if he was the real deal, or just a scalawag, and it doesn't make any difference as I enjoyed his company. We fished Rayburn on several occasions and I always found him to be a good bass fisherman and a good friend.

My grand father fished with john back in his filming days on rayburn. And has told unforeseen amount of stories about him. Ive personaly meet john at my grandparents house at a fish fry before he moved to flordia. John runs a guide service and also does replica mounts that are some of the best ive seen, gill flair with teeth and crushers and cheaper than what bass pro will do. John got into a fight with ray scott over a cheating alligation which someone accussed him of but was not kicked out because of cheating. But for fighting .

Also lets not forget about ol bill dance the man that only fishes stock ponds now!

I have it on good record that most bass think I am cheating when I set the hook. They have occasionally accused me of improper impersonation of a bait fish. The problem for me is that it doesn't happen that often.

GO ------->

I 100% agree. Bill does fishing shows the way they should be done. I really like the new format of his show!

Where can we find the Bill Wilcox fishing show. I haven't seen it.

Thanks

alloutdoorsmedia.com is Bill's show online.

I would figure if you had it on good authority a guy was cheating then you would remember the name of the guy you are publicly accusing of cheating.

There should be a rule where if you are gonna publicly accuse someone or bash them you should have to do it under your real name and not an internet forum name.

I'm not sure the original question was answered correctly.

Italo Labignan and Henry Waszczuk were caught, charged and convicted by Canadian authorities doing exactly what the original post was asking about.

You can google it and find all the info.

Both of those guys have cheesy fishing shows on WFN.

why would you bring up a guy from so long ago and put his name out on a public forum ?
shouldn't there be a statute of limitations on this kind of thing ?
and if you don't know it to be true,,,,,why would you repeat it ?

Good question. Thanks Nutman

Yeah he has to be about 80 by now. Who cares?l