He dropped it on a roadbed, pumped that worm about twice and hammered the fish. You could see other contestants’ boats running past him in every direction. I happened to be there because I was at Hickory Creek Marina, which was owned by Dr. Stanley Applegate. He was the first man to give me any money toward my tournament cause — $2,500. As an aside, I didn’t have sense enough to send everybody out of one place. We launched boats from five marinas.  I learned a lot from those first tournaments – and kept on learning.  Little did anyone realize we were establishing the ground work for a whole new professional sport.

Question No. 2: Who was the first angler to send me a check to enter that first tournament?

Answer: Leo Welch of Burlington, Iowa

Backstory: “Lunker Leo Welch, Burlington’s Biggest Bomber Bass Boy,” as he billed himself. He was from Burlington, Iowa. Leo was also the third member of BASS after Don Butler and Harold Sharp.

I recently visited with him in Lake Wales, Fla. He’s 86 years old and doing well. He’s proud of his “first” distinction.  It was great to see him again.

Question No. 3: Most bass fans know that Stan Sloan won that first tournament. But in that same event, there was an angler who weighed in the smallest 10-bass stringer in BASS history.

Answer: Jimmy Holt.

Backstory: Holt was a friend of Stan’s and a photographer for the Nashville Tennessean. The first day he was paired with Jack Wingate and was catching these little knothead bass on a one-eighth-ounce Doll Fly Jig, which came out of East Tennessee. Jack told him he better quit throwing those little fish back because he might need that weight to win the tournament. Holt started throwing them in the bottom of the boat, and at the end of the day he took his shoestring and strung his 10 biggest (he failed to bring a regular stringer, so he improvised).  He brought them to the weigh-in, put them on the scale and they weighed a pound and thirteen ounces.  As you have already figured out, at the time there was no length limit…and no livewells.

Question No. 4: Who was the first newspaper reporter to write about our tournaments?

Answer: Reis Tuttle from Des Moines, Iowa – April 15, 1967.

Backstory: However, good friend Homer Circle, who wrote for the Springdale, Ark., newspaper was a close second.  He became a real supporter of my efforts and a respected commentator on our sport.

Question 5: Can you name my first money benefactor when I was putting together that first tournament on Beaver Lake?

Answer: Dr. Stanley Applegate, owner of the Hickory Creed Marina as mentioned earlier.

Backstory: He gave me $2,500 and said, ‘If you make it, you can pay me back. If you don’t make it, all I ask is that you never, ever tell my wife I gave you this $2,500.’  I was delighted to repay him after the tournament. 

I visited him recently at his home in Springdale, Arkansas. He’s an 86 year-old widower who recently married his college sweetheart, Lynn. He previously owned Hickory Creek Marina, which was located on Highway 71 between Springdale and Rogers.  At the intersection of highway 71 and the road that leads to the lake and marina was a piece of bare land that we desperately needed for the weigh-in site. As it turned out, that property was owned by Don Tyson’s father of Tyson Chicken fame. Don took down a fence to let us use the property and I’ll always be grateful.

Question No. 6: Who won my first BASS tournament?

Answer: Carl Dyess.

Backstory: This is kind of a trick question because Carl Dyess fished the first two Ray Scott tournaments ever held, but that was before I started the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society.  The BASS event he won was at Lake Seminole on the Florida – Georgia border.

Question No. 7: Can you name the youngest angler to ever win the Big Bass award in one of my tournaments?

Answer: Rhodney Honeycutt on Lake Eufaula, Alabama in 1968.

Backstory: He was from Hickory, N.C. and he did it at Lake Eufaula – the same tournament that his father, Blake, won in 1969 with the largest creel that ever will be caught — 15 bass that weighed in at 138 pounds and 4 ounces. Rhodney was just 14 years old at the time and the bass weighed in at nine pounds and six ounces.  I am happy to say “young Rhodney” has become a close friend over the years.

Question No. 8: Who was the first U.S. President to join BASS?

Answer: George Herbert Walker Bush.

Backstory: A year or two after he joined, he told me, ‘You know, I’m a life member of your outfit.’ (Incidentally, he paid for it; I didn’t give it to him). I asked him why he joined as a life member and he said, ‘I got tired of those darn bills coming every year.’ That was 1979. His son, our current President, is also a life-member of BASS.  He also paid for his life membership and continues to be an avid bass angler.

Question No. 9: Who was the only angler to turn down an invitation to compete in the Bassmasters Classic?

Answer: Johnny Adams.

Backstory: This Florida pro didn’t want to “waste his vacation time” by going to that first Classic in 1971.  By the way, Adams is the answer to another trivia question: who is the only BASS pro to ever play the Grand Ole Opry? We helped arrange for him to play the harmonica on stage at the original Ryman Auditorium when we were on the road doing seminars across the country.

Question No. 10: What was the brand of boat used in the inaugural Classic on Lake Mead, Nevada.

Answer: It was a Rebel boat manufactured by Rebel Lure Company of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Backstory: Forrest Wood and I were already great friends, but his Ranger plant had burned down to the slab. Roland Martin was sitting with Forrest in his home when they looked out and saw flames light the night sky as the whole building caught fire.

The Rebel was a fiberglass boat that had a 90-hp inboard-outboard engine.  The rig wasn’t worth a toot. By the way, Rebel went in and out of the boat business real quick and, back to making world-class lures. They found out that making lures was where they needed to be.

For more Bass Fishing History, be sure to read BASS Boss by Robert Boyle, available here or by calling 800-518-7222.