The B.A.S.S. Story Unplugged

Introduction

The smartphone is a wonderful innovation. It gives us information at our fingertips, acting as an encyclopedia of events and history with a simple question posed to the powerful oracles of our age-the voice-recognition internet search technologies.

When asked, “Is ray Scott the man behind the sport of professional bass fishing?” The search engine’s automated voice will answer, “Yes, Ray W. Scott Jr. of Montgomery, Alabama, introduced competitive bass fishing on June 5-7, 1967, at Beaver Lake, Arkansas.”

On the surface, any fact checker will attest to Scott’s certification a the visionary who propelled the black bass to become America’s fish, replacing the lordly trout as the most coveted, sought-after sportfish in freshwater.

Scott, an insurance salesman at the time, with a passion for bass fishing, used his knowhow to prospect for potential insurance policy buyers to parlay four named fisherman on 5”x6” card file into the world’s largest fishing organization, with over six hundred fifty thousand members at the high-water mark.

This is the story behind the headlines of how an addicted angler and a few dedicated followers revolutionized the fishing industry and turned cast-for-cash bass fishing into a megadollar business, a political force, and a savior of the fishing resources, with their “Peg a Polluter” legal team stopping offenders dumping waste into public fishing waters.

Scott’s makeover of the image of the bass fisherman from a beer-drinking, cane-pole worm dunker in faded overalls to today’s sponsor-logo-laden anglers in jumpsuits with high-powered bass boats and legions of fishing fans following them (their heroes) on cable television programs is a textbook lesson in public relations and marketing.

The message to bass fisherman, in the beginning, was in-your-face appeal: “If you piddle with perch, mess with musky, or fling a fly for trout, you don’t qualify. We want to a few good, hairy-legged bass anglers to join our cause.”

If you compel Ray Scott to swear on a stack of Fisherman’s Bibles, he will surely admit to taking the good idea of competitive fishing and giving it the better foundation of tournament bass fishing. Credit belongs to Hy Peskin, a famed Sports Illustrated photographer, who spawned the idea in the late 1950’s with his World Series of Sport Fishing. According to angling lore, Peskin, who photographed many of the era’s sports greats, overheard Ted Williams boast, “There are over 20 million fisherman in the nation. It’s the greatest participant sport, and I’m the best.” This prompted a discussion about who truly was the best.

As recounted, Hy Peskin, who had never caught any fish, didn’t respond, but he saw an opportunity to capitalize on piscatorial pride. Peskin’s concept mirrored baseball’s World Series, putting fishing on a grand scale on a grand stage. Each state, Peskin dreamed, would have its own tournament, leading to a regional championship to decide the anglers to compete in the World Series finals.

It was a grand plan, but Hy Peskin, in truth, was a promoter-not a fisherman. Critics of the day claimed that Hy had little understanding of what actually made a fishing tournament work, that he instead depended on others’ advice to determine the rules and fishing waters, that he reportedly was “easily swayed in enforcing the tournament rules.”

If the fishing facts be known, the launch point for bass tournament competition was birthed by Earl Golding, the outdoor editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald. In 1955, Earl organized the first Texas State Bass Club tournament, and his statewide press coverage and reports sparked interest among Lone Star State anglers. But, it was a Texas-based enterprise with few ripples beyond the Red River boundary.