BOOKS OF THE BLACK BASS

A little Black Bass History

(c) 1991, 2002 by Clyde E. Drury, Tacoma WA

"They fasten red wool round a hook, and fix on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's wattles, and which in colour are like wax. Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the colour, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to get a dainty mouthful; when, however it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive." Thus wrote Aelian in the third century after observing the Macedonians at their fishing. Many angling historians believe his description of their flies and methods of fishing to be the first written reference to fishing with an artificial fly. Students can go back much further if they want, references to fish and fishing date back to the origin of the written word. Pictorial evidence exists that Egyptians used a rod for fishing at around 1400 B. C. and current belief is that the Chinese used a reel for storing line as early as the third century.

A probably fictitious English prioress, Dame Juliana Berners, is credited with writing Treatysse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle in the 15th century. A beautiful thought that a Nun would build her rods, tie flies and make fishing lines out of horse-hair. Then use these homemade implements to catch fish for her peers. She described the flies in such detail that it is still possible to tie them today. After all this, she found time to put down advice on how to make rods, lines and flies, how to raise or secure live bait, besides how, when and where to fish. Here is a popular quotation from the good Dame, "And if the angler take fish: surely then is there no man merrier than he is in his spirit."

A couple of hundred years later The Compleat Angler of Izaak Walton came out. This book is still in print today because of his beautiful prose and philosophy of angling. "Doubt not, therefore, sir, but that angling is an art, and an art worth your learning; the question is, rather, whether you be capable of learning it, for angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so: I mean with inclinations to it, though both may be heightened by discourse and practice; but he that hopes to be a good angler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, observing wit, but he must bring a large measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity to the art itself; but having once got and practiced it, then doubt not but angling will prove to be so pleasant that it will prove to be like virtue, a reward to itself." Walton was a bait fisherman and didn't feel there was anything wrong with catching trout with maggots, worms, grubs, minnows, grasshoppers, or anything else. He was a much better writer than he was an angler. Charles Cotton, better known for his pornographic poetry than his fly fishing added an appendix to the 5th edition of The Compleat Angler, which turned it into an angling book. Cotton gave the dressings for over sixty flies all alleged to represent natural insects. An Army Colonel, Robert Venables, also contributed an appendix to the 5th edition. Interesting that while Walton pupils were throwing their wood rods into the water to wear out the fish, the Japanese nobility were already playing their fish while fishing with a single human hair for a line. That is what I call fine line fishing. In early 1990 I read there were 456 known editions of this book.

That is the end of ancient angling history in this paper because the history of Black Bass angling began in more recent times. The Black Bass is a native of North America and was unknown to those early angling writers. I read one history that said these early writers hadn't discovered the Black Bass yet, I guess not, they would have had to travel to North America for that. Although early explorers in this country mentioned fish that are believed to be Bass, those beliefs are only educated guesses. Robbins and MacCrimmon report that in 1562, Rene Laudonniere found Largemouth Bass among fishes captured by the Indians of Northern Florida. Some question this assumption, we do know that Laudonniere traveled to the St. Johns in Florida with the Huguenot expedition, under the command of Jean Ribault, and it is likely that the trout he mentioned were Largemouth Bass. The Smallmouth may have first been mentioned in literature in 1664 by Pierre Boucher when he included Ochigans in his list of fish. The Black Bass was called "ouchigan" and later "achigan" by the early French settlers. I have seen achigan described as meaning ferocious in one book and the fish that struggles in another. The other four species were not officially recognized until much later, probably because of Dr. Henshall's tenacity in his belief that only two species existed. Also, Professor Gill, an accomplished ichthyologist, had decided there were only two species of Black Bass in 1873. Rafinesque did describe the Spotted Bass in 1819, while Vaillant and Bocourt described the Guadalupe Bass in 1883. The Redeye and Suwannee Basses were not officially recognized until the 1940s when they were described by Hubbs and Bailey. Although Jordan had identified both as possible varieties as early as 1877.

Goodspeed noted in Angling In America some important happenings in eighteenth century American fishing. "The decade in which the years 1732, 1734, and 1743 fall is important in the annals of American fishing. In 1732 the first American fishing club was organized in Philadelphia; in 1743 our first angling book (if a pamphlet of twenty-two pages may be so called) was published in Boston; and we find that between those two dates, in 1734, the New York City government passed the first American law regulating the manner of fresh-water fishing."

" . . . this fish is remarkably ravenous; nothing living that he can seize upon escapes his jaws; and the opening and extending of the branchiostega, at the moment he rises to the surface to seize his prey, discovering his bright red gills through the transparent waters, give him a very terrible appearance," thus wrote William Bartram in his Travels through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, etc. in 1791. Dr. Henshall said that Bartram (John?), " wrote of the "Trout" (Black Bass) of Florida and the way of taking them with the bob, in 1764." I haven't been able to confirm this although I have found that journals of John Bartram were published at that time. An Account of East Florida, with a journal kept by John Bartram of Philadelphia, Botanist to His Majesty for the Floridas; upon a journey from St. Augustine up the River St. John's, as Far as the Lakes by John Bartram, covered a trip made from July 1, 1765 to April 1, 1766, with his son William. When they traveled together William made the entries into his fathers travel log and sometimes he copied word for word from his father's logs for inclusion in his Travels.

In this check list the confirmed beginning of Black Bass literature is William Bartram's Travels because there is no doubt that he described the Largemouth Bass at Lake George in Florida. Although the book wasn't published until 1791 it was based on a trip through the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida that began in 1773. The quotation Henshall credited to 1764 is identical with William Bartram's entry on bobbing for trout in the 1791, Travels.

Members of the Cincinnati Angling Club were taking enormous numbers of Black Bass in the early 1800s from the big and little Miami rivers. It was interesting that the members didn't feel they were hurting the fishery by catching large numbers of fish but they were very angry with the seiners. In the club's annual report in 1834 the secretary comments, "It is useless to disguise the fact, for the Members know and lament it, that the Bass in the Miamis are becoming scarcer every Year, diminished no doubt by the unhallowed depredations of the Piratical Seinefishers, those pests of the Waters, who set at defiance all rules of the science of our Noble Art. A remedy for this evil is loudly called for. Nothing short of Legislative enactment of the severest penalties, can put it down."

From 1800 to 1890 much American angling literature was written by scientists and ichthyologists. This period is called the "Doctors Period of Black Bass History and Classification." Important are: Louis Agassiz, Spencer F. Baird, Tarleton H. Bean, Max von dem Borne, Edward C. Cope, Georges Cuvier, James E. DeKay, Barton W. Evermann, Stephen A. Forbes, Theodatus Garlick, Charles H. Gilbert, Theodore N. Gill, Charles F. Girard, George Brown Goode, Seth Green, John E. Holbrook, David S. Jordan, Bernard G. E. Lacepede, Charles A. LaSueur, Fred Mather, Seth A. Meek, Samuel L. Mitchill, Constantine A. Rafinesque, Hugh M. Smith, Achille Valenciennes. They sometimes wrote about Bass angling but mostly they created scientific documents. Fascinating that the one man, besides Dr. Henshall, who may have done the most with the Black Bass was the German, Max von dem Borne. His Illustrirtes Handbuch der Angelfischerei was published by Wiegandt, in 1875 in Berlin. He wrote of the interest the Black Bass could have for the Germans and included remarks on fly fishing for Bass. Borne imported and raised Black Bass beginning in 1883 and is responsible for the initial distribution of both the Largemouth and Smallmouth through most of Europe.

There were also several non scientists who wrote about and praised the Black Bass during the 1800s. Notable were Charles Bradford, John J. Brown, A. N. Cheney, Charles Hallock, Samuel Hammond, William C. Harris, Henry W. Herbert (Frank Forester), Charles J. Johnson, Charles Lanman, Charles F. Orvis, Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, Thaddeus Norris, and of course, the Englishman Parker Gillmore, "Ubique," who was very enthusiastic about this magnificent fish. "The black bass are unquestionably as fine a fish for angling purposes as any we possess, and as an article of food are equal to our best." Brown put together, mostly by paste and scissors, the first strictly native fishing book in his American Angler's Guide in 1845. He was criticized by many but the book included information accumulated from expert anglers who frequented his tackle shop. Herbert followed in a few years with his Frank Forester's Fish and Fishing, which was first published in England. Herbert's knowledge of American fishes has been questioned, but his respect for angling as a sport had an influence on angling writers who followed. As early as 1862 Roosevelt was complaining about fish poachers and suggesting they be treated as felons and be hanged, or at the very least be sentenced to life in prison. A few years later Genio C. Scott also discussed poachers in his Fishing In American Waters. "The poacher is an unmitigated scamp wherever found." Also, "It is difficult to detect poachers on the island, because proprietors of real estate and hotel-keepers are afraid to inform against these desperadoes, lest they should, in revenge, add arson to poaching." Later he disregards pollution and blames the poachers for eradicating trout in the streams. "The paper-mills, railroads, bleaching-fields, chemicals of acids and gases, lime, manures, and numerous kinds of manufactories which cast their choking and poisonous debris and filtrations into the streams, have not proved sufficient to depopulate them of their speckled beauties; and were it not for the poacher, who stops not at nets, spears, snares of singular device, killing the trout by liming the streams and poisoning them with coculus indicus, they would still be so numerous as to require nothing toward propagation but protection. Want of moral rectitude, indolence, and greed make up the modest sum total of a poacher's character; and the sooner the class is forced to work for the state the better, therefore our legislators will please take note of the true penalty of poaching." Scott included the State of New York Game Law for 1867 in his book. It is interesting that they had established seasons for Black Bass even then. "No person shall take or have in possession any black bass or maskalonge between the 1st day of January and the 1st day of May, under a penalty of five dollars for each fish so taken or had in possession."

Scores of English writers, many of them military officers, traveled in the U.S. and Canada during the mid to late 19th century. They sampled the hunting and fishing and wrote of their adventures for the "folks back home." They wrote so highly of the sporting qualities of the Black Bass that I'm surprised there wasn't more interest in establishing Bass in England. A significant historical note scored in the late 1800s was The Gentlewoman's Book of Sport edited by Lady Violet Greville. This book included fishing stories that were all written by women. One of the stories is Bass and Tarpon Fishing by Mrs. George T. Stagg, which addresses her exploits in angling for Bass and other freshwater fish. She had the distinction of being the first woman to ever take a tarpon on a rod and reel, it tipped the scales at 102 1/2 pounds. In 1891 she caught a seven foot three inch tarpon that weighed 205 pounds. An unusual book for the time because during that period women writing about outdoor sports normally used a man's name for a pseudonym.

The youngster, Julio T. Buel, had just finished his meal when his boat scrapped against a submerged rock and caused him to drop his spoon into the water. While he watched the spoon disappear in the cold water of Lake Bomoseen a large trout grabbed his spoon and took off with it. According to one story he filched another spoon and put it in his pocket. Later he cut off part of the handle and drilled a hole in the part that was left. He then soldered a hook on the concave side of the spoon. He caught trout with the second spoon and decided to experiment with his trolling lures. He made spoon blades of nickel silver in dies he had fashioned himself. Buel became famous locally and local fishermen went on waiting lists to buy his lures. He left home in 1827, at the age of 21, and established a furriers' shop. After a demand had been created for Buel spoons by Henry William Herbert, Buel abandoned his hat making and established the J. T. Buel Company in 1848. This lure was commonly called the Buel Spinner and was a successful skittering lure.

"The black bass of the St. Lawrence are not only game fish, but are, in excellence of flavor, scarcely excelled by any fish of this country." Lt. Campbell Hardy made this proclamation in his Sporting Adventures in the New World, two volumes published in 1855 in London, England. Samuel H. Hammond copied this statement word for word and included it in his Wild Northern Scenes in 1857. Hammond also wrote, "The black bass of the St. Lawrence and Ontario are the "gamest" fish that swim and they are nowhere found in such abundance as in the neighborhood of Cape Vincent." I understand that Charles Lanman also made much the same statement about Black Bass being the gamest fish that swim. I don't know which book he included the statement in so I can't say if it was before or after the other two. Henshall improved on the declaration but he was not the first to use "the gamest fish that swims."

Here we need to back up and mention a major milestone in Black Bass angling history. Around 1810 George Snyder began making reels for friends and relatives in Kentucky. According to Dr. Henshall, George Snyder was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and went to Kentucky in 1803. Some stories have Snyder born in Germany or Switzerland. This watchmaker and silversmith did not invent the multiplying reel, he began to perfect it. These early reels were handmade and parts handfitted by master craftsmen who were mostly watch makers. During the next four decades others began to make and sell bait casting reels in Kentucky. Notable were Theodore Noel, Jonathan and Benjamin Meek, J. W. Hardman, J. L. Sage (Mr. Sage was not a watchmaker like the other reel makers but Dr. Henshall said he was a good mechanic, and often made reels for his friends) and Benjamin C. Milam. In the waning years of the century George Gayle, James Deally, and Frank Fullilove joined the ranks of the Kentucky reel makers. In the natural progression it is said that Jonathan Meek improved on the Snyder (In the mid 1840s Meek reels were assembled with numbered screws); John Hardman made reels that were a great improvement on both the Snyder and the Meek, one feature was pilar screws, which made for easy disassembly; Benjamin Milam made improvements and his reel won the International first prize at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. In the late 1800s, Benjamin Meek and his two sons developed a spiral gear to gear their reels and began mass-producing reels instead of making them individually by hand. Use of bait casting reels expanded when E. J. Martin of Connecticut began making braided silk casting lines in the mid 1800s. Mass produced and so called "take apart reels" became common as the demand increased. The final major improvement was provided by Wheeler & McGregor, a firm in Wisconsin who manufactured a level wind device from 1895 to 1911. William Shakespeare designed and built a bait casting reel with a level wind device in 1896 and began manufacturing the reel in the next year. For some reason level wind mechanisms weren't routinely used on reels until the 1920s. Some believe that Henshall had collected many reels and that possibly they had come into the possession of Al Foss. In 1915 Dr. Henshall wrote that he had bought and borrowed a large and complete collection of Kentucky reels, which was exhibited in the Forest and Stream booth in the Angling Building at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. "This exhibit was composed of reels of the several makers, in various sizes, in brass, silver and German silver. It is a pity that the collection could not be kept intact, and deposited in the United States National Museum. Owners of some of the borrowed reels, however, would not have parted with them under any consideration, regarding them as priceless heirlooms." (Henshall)

With the coming of the railroads the Black Bass became a real traveler. As the railroads moved west they took Bass, perch, sunfish and catfish with them. Railroad ponds were dug to store water and strip mines were created to produce coal for the steam engines. These waters along with natural lakes were stocked with fish and anglers used the trains to get to the fish. Often the railroads advertised fishing trips to create more business. Railroads would drop anglers off where ever they wished and could be flagged down for the return trip. Guide books were published by the Pennsylvania Rail Road, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway, Rock Island Rail Road, Erie Rail Road, and the Denver & Rio Grand. The Canadian Pacific Railroad published fishing guidebooks from the late 1890s until the late 1930s and bought ads in the major outdoor publications advertising the fishing in Canada with emphasis on the Black Bass.

Hallock's magazine, Forest and Stream, appeared in 1873 and immediately became the platform for the Black Bass writings of a Wisconsin M.D. employing the pen name "Oconomowoc." This, of course, was Dr. James Alexander Henshall, the Father of Black Bass literature. His Book of the Black Bass came out in 1881 and established him as the foremost authority on our great fish. "He is plucky, game, brave and unyielding to the last when hooked. He has the arrowy rush and vigor of the Trout, the untiring strength and bold leap of the Salmon, while he has a system of fighting tactics peculiarly his own. He will rise to the artificial fly as readily as the Salmon or the Brook Trout, under the same conditions; and will take the minnow, or other live bait, under any all circumstances favorable to the taking of any other fish. I consider him, inch for inch and pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims. The royal Salmon and the lordly Trout must yield the palm to a Black Bass of equal weight. That he will become the leading game fish of America is my oft-expressed opinion and firm belief." This major work was followed in 1889 by a supplement, More About the Black Bass. A Forest and Stream ad for his book said, "Dr. Henshall's monograph is the standard work on the black bass and all that relates to it. He has approached his subject with a critical and judicial spirit, eager to ascertain and set forth the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; and he has brought to his task as much earnestness as if the future of the human race depended on the results of his experiments, as indeed it does depend upon the exercise of these qualities by all engaged in the investigation of scientific truth." Also, "The chapter devoted to the consideration of the intelligence and special senses, affords evidence of careful, critical thought; and as Dr. Henshall is disposed to credit fish with acuter senses than have generally been ascribed to them, his treatment of this subject will be found especially interesting."

"A blackguard and a tough forever" how is that for a description of our Black Bass? I love it and I'm surprised it hasn't been quoted more. In his 1889 book, Where The Trout Hide, Kivert "Kit" Clarke called the Bass "an aquatic terrier, tenacious as a bulldog" he went on, "and a three-pounder on a light rod will fully compensate a man for a day's vexation." Also, "He is a patrician among his species; an aristocrat worthy of honor and respect, and after the salmonidae he is the bravest inhabitant of the waters." Clarke went on "Although giving the bass full credit for his great merit I am wearied of reading or listening to comparisons between the species; they seem to me much like an effort to compare the brilliancy of a diamond with that of a red brick. The black bass is an honor to the finny nation, but he should never be compared to the brook trout. The one is a thing of beauty and joy forever, the other is a blackguard and a tough forever."

Until the late 1890s Bass fishermen trolled with flies, spoons, spinners or used spinners for skittering. The only other option was live bait until lures were designed to be cast from the rod.

If the creation of Kentucky reels and the publication of Book of the Black Bass were major events in the 1800s then the third milestone is surely the commercial production of the wooden plug. There are differing opinions about the first wooden lure. In 1859, Riley Haskell obtained a patent for a wood bodied Fish Hook that was in the shape of a minnow. Although the patent specified wood it appears that all the Haskell Minnows were made of metal. Some English lures such as the Devon Minnow and Phantom Minnow also were available in this country in the early 1800s. According to one source, Dr. John A. Roach of Alliance, Ohio, carved a wooden plug out of a broom handle and caught many Bass with it. The lure was obtained by the Pfleuger Enterprise Mfg. Co. and they began to market a wood minnow in 1898. Pfleuger had manufactured the wood bodied Comstock Flying Helgramite as early as 1883, this lure had spinner blades on the sides instead of the front and back. Others credit Jim Heddon with being first when his wooden topwater plug hit the market around 1898. Within a very short time, Shakespeare, Woods, and Worden were all marketing wooden plugs. It doesn't matter who was first, the important thing is that plugs were now being manufactured to match up with those bait tossing reels from Kentucky.

George J. Seabury published a unique tribute to Dr. Henshall in 1890. This book of sixteen pages is dedicated to Dr. Henshall and has a made up picture of the author shaking hands with Henshall. It has two cantos: Oswego or Large Mouth Bass, and Black or Small Mouth Bass. There is a leaping Bass on the cover and each page contains illustrations by the author. Not a significant Bass book but it is an interesting addition to an angler's library.

The years between 1900 and 1925 included two revisions of Henshall's Book of the Black Bass, one in 1904 and the other in 1923. This period also spawned The Basses Freshwater and Marine, which was edited by Louis Rhead and contained the last Bass material written by William C. Harris.

At this time the automobile made anglers more mobile and allowed them to fish waters far from the railroad lines. Wetzel said the automobile, "indirectly proved more responsible for the scarcity of fish in the streams and lakes than any other cause."

In about 1906 Ernest H. Peckinpaugh of Chattanooga, Tennessee, made one of the first cork bodied bass bugs. Originally designed for bluegill they were modified for Black Bass. Within a few years these bugs were being marketed by the firms of Abbie and Embry, and J. J. Hildebrandt. B. F. Wilder obtained some bugs from Peckinpaugh for his own use. Later he gave some to Will Dilg who worked with Wilder and Cal McCarthy to develop several patterns. McCarthy sold his bugs under the name of Callmac bugs. Wilder and Dilg also made a deal with the Heddon Co. to make the Wilder-Dilg bugs. Neither Wilder nor Dilg gave Peckinpaugh credit for conceiving the cork bug. Instead, they gave credit to a Mr. Adams, a fishing guide from New York. Since there isn't any real evidence to support this theory, I'll give Peckinpaugh credit for developing the first commercial cork bug. Some say that the Coaxer, developed by William Jamison sometime before 1910, also may have been the first commercial cork bug. One story says that cork bass bugs originated in Missouri and Arkansas before the turn of the century when swampers made them from beer bottle corks and turkey feathers.

The No. 100 Creek Chub Wiggler was placed on the market in 1908 and was destined to have a place in history enjoyed by no other Bass Bait. This bait will be mentioned later in this section as the bait George Perry caught his world record Largemouth Bass on. Today Creek Chub Bait Co. has other claims to fame, Arthur Lawton using the Pikie Minnow took the world record muskie, 69 lbs., 15 ounces, in 1957. Also, the current (1991) world record striped bass and snook were both taken on Creek Chub baits. In addition, previous World Records for the muskellunge, walleye, and barracuda, were all held by anglers using Creek Chub baits.

The first book devoted to the Smallmouth Bass came out of Toronto, Canada in 1910. The Small-Mouthed Bass was written by a bait fisherman and college professor, W. J. Loudon, who said the book was based on his personal observations during the past ten summers. Loudon believed that the Smallmouth was essentially a product of the Great Lakes of Canada although it had been introduced into many parts of North America. This quarter century also saw the introduction of Bass books by A. V. Dockery, Larry St. John, O. Warren Smith, Ozark Ripley and Cal Johnson. All but Dockery were magazine editors and they wrote much and well on the Black Bass. Dockery had spent 14 years as American Consul in Germany, Portugal and England and displays a sense of humor in his book. One of his tips was "Keep your temper in good order, unless the bottle gets broken."

Another significant historical event came about on June 16, 17 and 18, 1910 at Congress Lake in Canton Ohio. Both W. J Jamison and Ans. Decker had been challenging others to a fishing contest. They agreed on a contest and Jamison was allowed to pick the lake. He picked weedy Lake Congress for the contest, which was ideally suited for his weedless and semi weedless lures. The Decker lures had three treble hooks and evidently he spent most of his time hung up in the weeds. The Coaxer was a cork bodied floating bait with two single hooks both riding up to make it weedless. Jamison bragged about this contest in his ads, contending that Decker lures could out fish all other Bass plugs and only the Jamison Coaxer could beat him and his lures. Decker also used the fishing contest by advertising that his lure had caught the biggest fish in the contest, which proved its worth. His 1911 ad said, "I proved in the contest last year that my Bait would catch the big BASS. Now as one good sized fish will put twenty-five small ones in the shade, why not purchase your bait accordingly?" In May 1911, Decker issued a public challenge to Jamison for another fishing contest. His ad said "Come on, MR. CHAMPION! $1,000.00 against $500.00 I can catch more Bass over 14 inches than you can!" In another Decker ad for 1911 he said "Come on, Mr. Jamison, business is about over now for the season, and here is a chance for you to pick up some EASY money." Jamison followed with an advertisement headed, "Winner of World's Championship LARGE MOUTH BASS CONTEST." This ad also included "The No. 1 Convertible "Coaxer" easily defeated the "Decker" Bait in a three days' match for the World's Championship at Congress Lake, Ohio, by a score of 28 to 16." That is about enough of this but you can see they got a lot of mileage out of this contest.

It was time for an improvement on the old Buel spoon and in 1912 Lou Eppinger began selling his new lure, the Osprey. In 1918 he changed the name of the lure to the Dardevle, he had named it after the American Marines in the recent war. They were called Devil Dogs by the Germans and Dare Devils by the allies. He changed the spelling of devil because people didn't like seeing the name devil in print. The e was dropped from Dare because a dictionary word could not be used in a trade mark. This much copied and never equaled spoon has always been a favorite with me. Years ago while stationed in Roswell, New Mexico, I bought several for trout and discovered they worked equally well on Bass. Spoons are not normally considered Bass baits unless they are dressed with plastic worms or other attractors. I have always had a personal prejudice for the Dardevle so I included it here. Another important spoon made its appearance in 1920, closely behind the Dardevle. The Johnson Silver Minnow with its effective weedguard made it easier to toss pork chunks into the weedbeds for Bass and it is still used today.

In about 1915, South Bend Bait Co. decided to obtain the rights to a successful lure being marketed by Jim Olds. South Bend introduced the lure as the South Bend Wobbler and in the next year changed the name to Bass-Oreno. One story has it that the South Bend factory workers stood around outside on their breaks to ogle the passing women who they called Peach Orenos, which was later modified to Bass Oreno to name the new lure. A million and a half Bass-Orenos were sold in the next decade. 1915 was also the first year of business for Al Foss. This is historically significant because he marketed a lure that he took credit for being the first lure specifically designed for fishing with pork rind. At first he included instructions for cutting your own pork rink or pork chunk. Evidently he solved the processing problems because it wasn't long before he was selling pork rind to use on his lures. The lures were small with the hook riding upright so it could be tossed right up into the pads or weeds. Weighted, weedless hooks were already available for casting with pork rind but Foss is generally credited with designing lures specifically for pork baits.

The Horton Mfg. Co. used the big war to help advertise their Bristol rods and Meek reels in 1918. "FISHING will make YOU strong just as Bombing makes the Soldier strong. The soldier prepares to fight at the front. He exercises until he is as strong as a bull. You must prepare to fight just as hard in business and profession. You owe your country a strong body, a clear mind and a loyal heart. Fishing exercises the same muscles as bomb and grenade throwing. When you cast your bait away out where you have "seen signs of the enemy" you have the same thrill that the soldier has when he hurls his bomb across no-man's land."

In 1917, the W. J. Jamison Co. was marketing the Shannon Twin Spinner, which is generally considered the grandfather of our current spinnerbaits. The Twin Spinner had a weighted upright hook and was advertised as designed to use with live frogs, live or preserved minnows, pork chunks, pork strips, etc. The spinners were placed in such a way as to make the lure weedless. In later years Jamison sold it with a bucktail. Today, spinnerbaits may be the only lure to rival artificial worms as an all water, all year bait.

Ozark Ripley told us in Bass and Bass Fishing of some illegal and despicable methods of taking Black Bass. In the chapter Enemies of Bass, he talks of market fishermen when it was legal to sell Bass and poachers when it wasn't. He writes of Bass being taken with funnel type wire traps or with trammel nets. Ripley also tells of Largemouth Bass being speared in streams at night on their spawning beds and of millions being killed in streams when farmers burn off timber to clear land. Dynamiting was widely practiced for taking Bass and this resulted in much wasted fish. He also discusses rock fishing, where the fishermen wade streams in rocky country with a sledge hammer. "Invariably the fish take refuge under a flat rock and the fishermen begin pounding on it with the hammer, thereby stunning or killing the concealed fish, which they reach under for and catch in their hands." Another method used was shooting fish with highpower rifles or shotguns during the spawning season. "On the Fourth of July, 1921, on the Little Sequatchie in Tennessee, a former splendid small mouth stream, against the laws supposed to exist I counted 48 men shooting fish with shotguns."

One of my favorite baits, the Lucky-13 was released by Heddon in the early 1920s. The Zaragossa Minnow was released at about the same time and was advertised as a salt water lure for Florida. Called the Zaragossa of Florida by many people, it soon gained wide acceptance as both a salt and fresh water lure. In 1930, Heddon introduced their Spook finish which was a transparent plastic finish intended to be life-like and resemble real fish-flesh. Within a few years most of Heddon's lures were available in the Spook finish and the Zaragossa became the Zara Spook. Both the Lucky-13 and the Zara Spook have a following and are still available today. I believe I have seen more magazine articles dedicated to the Zara Spook than any other Bass plug. The Darting Zara, which had a notched head, became Darting Zara Spook. Another favorite bait was first produced in the mid to late 1920s, this was the Clark Water Scout. A version called the Spence Water Scout is still available today in a version manufactured by Strike King Lure Company.

The next highlight was Black Bass and Bass Craft by Sheridan R. Jones in 1924. Jones, who preferred bait casting over the flyrod, had this to say. "Yes, bait-casting tackle has made the black bass and the black bass has made bait-casting a worthy rival of the art of the fairy wand. It is not our purpose to enter a brief on the superiority of the short rod; merely should the reader consider bait-casting in its true light - a sport unsurpassed and never more than equaled." Jones organized his book by type of water and discussed whether Bass could hear lures and perceive their colors.

William C. Vogt in his Bait-Casting that came out in 1928 told of catching Bass with some weird baits to prove that it was the motion of the bait that attracted Bass and not the bait itself. Vogt caught Bass on an ear of corn, a white onion, a red onion, a yellow carrot, a turnip with a purple top, a cucumber, a parsnip, a frankfurter and a pig kidney.

Senator Harry B. Hawes, the protector of the Black Bass in Congress, brought out My Friend The Black Bass in 1930. Hawes was very active in support of the Black Bass Law that made it illegal to sell Bass in interstate commerce. This started a movement in those states where the Bass was still a commercial fish to name it a game fish. He was so alarmed about the future of the Black Bass that he predicted the fish would be extinct within ten years.

"Less headstrong but more plunk, less inertia but more ability, less bulk but more streamline, less bulldog but more whippet, it is the bass antonym of the largemouth." This description of the Spotted Bass was taken from biologist, Percy Viosca speech at the 61st annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society in 1931. Although Rafinesque had identified the Spotted or Kentucky Bass over one hundred years before it had been mostly ignored until Hubbs identified it in 1927. Writing about Dr. Henshall, Robert Page Lincoln later was to say that many thought " . . . it was this third species that inspired this authority on the black bass to name it, "Inch for inch and pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims."

June 2, 1932 was really a red letter day in Largemouth Bass history. Nineteen year old George Perry caught the world record Black Bass of 22 lbs. 4 oz. on this day at Montgomery Lake in Georgia. As Perry told it, he caught his Bass on a Creek Chub Wiggle Fish, the only store bought plug he owned. One story has it that he used a $1.33 fishing outfit with 19 cents worth of 24 pound test waterproof silk line. We do have to remember that $1.33 was worth something in 1932.

In 1934, The Old Maestro of Bass Fishing, Jack Lamb, provided How To Catch Ol John Bass. Revised in 1937 and reprinted under the same title, identical books were published with three other titles, Black Bass; How To Catch Game Fish; and Tricks To Catch Fish. Adding the different titles and different bindings, I have identified 12 variations of this book. Lamb was probably the first traveling Bass pro, he moved around the country giving fishing seminars and selling his book. According to Ripley's Believe It Or Not newspaper column, Lamb began fishing in 1910 and did not miss fishing daily for 17 years. An important and overlooked book came along in 1937, this was Black Bass Lore by Wallace W. Gallaher. He stated, "The number of those angling for Black Bass exceeds those angling for any other game fish perhaps a hundred to one."

The Western Bass Club was organized in Seattle on the 24th of March in 1938. Many feel this is the oldest organized Bass club in the country. Bass fishermen were ridiculed in this salmon and trout state and many Bass anglers did not tell people what they fished for. Because of this attitude I was surprised when I first heard of this organization. Still active today they have done much over the years to improve Bass fishing in this state. They have published seven Bass fishing guides over the years to raise money that has always been used to help improve Bass fishing.

"Of all the fish that inhabit our fresh water, Bass have defeated me more times than any other and they probably will continue to do so." So wrote Ray Bergman in his outstanding Fresh-Water Bass in 1942. In the foreword to his book Bergman expressed his feelings about the Black Bass, " . . . I esteem the bass and am always heart-stricken by the blasphemy against them so often expressed by rabid trout fishermen. I challenge this blasphemy. Why should trout be considered superior to bass? I can't possibly feel that way about it. I admit considerable devotion to trout but in my heart is also an equal admiration for bass, and this book expresses sincerely my feelings toward the latter." Jim Gasque's Bass Fishing and Harold C. Hollis' Bass Tackle and Methods, both good books, came out in the next couple of years. Gasque wrote, "Of all our inland fish, I have found bass to be the most whimsical and uncertain, thus contributing to the complexities in taking them successfully. It is a fact that in most parts of the country, Florida excluded, bass fishing will result in at least 75 percent failure against 23 percent success." Joe Brooks' Bass Bug Fishing appeared in 1947 along with a book by the man many consider the greatest Bass fisherman of all time, often controversial and always opinionated Jason Lucas. Lucas On Bass, in the original and two revised editions, is considered the Black Bass Bible by many. John Alden Knight of Solunar Theory fame, and a master fly fisherman, brought out his Black Bass in 1949.

The year 1950 was highlighted by two books written by pioneers in their method of angling. Charles K. Fox and his Pennsylvania friends fished for Bass with 1/4 ounce lures, light rods and light reels in the 30s long before this type of fishing became the vogue. His book, Advanced Bait Casting, is a classic on light tackle and light lure casting for the Black Bass. Royce R. Mallory developed his methods of fishing the pork chunk over a 20 year period before his book, Pork Chunk Fishing, was published.

The 1950s were important because that is when the most successful Bass lure of all time began to come of age. The plastic worm evolved from worms made of rubber that were patented as early as the 1860s. Earl Cooley patented a rubber worm impregnated with an odor in the early 1930s. Some important people in the development during the 1950s were Bill Norton, Nick Creme, Dave DeLong and Charles Burke. During the mid to late 50s these pioneers developed an imitation worm that was good enough to convince a Black Bass that he had the real thing. Nick Crème is normally referred to as the first to hand pour worms in 1949 and also the first to add scent to his worms. I received email from a fellow who told me “David Delong dba Delong Lures made first plastic worm in 1946. Also put first scent in a lure.” I’ll just let you make your own choice. Plastic worms are continuing to evolve but the significant period in their development is the mid to late 1950s. I should add that another peak would come in the early 1970s with the development of swimming or twister tails for worms. Plastic worms are still evolving since the introduction of robotic machines for mass producing worms. Ringworm designs with lots of copies and salt impregnated worms are some of the latest.

The next 20 years included some significant books starting with Robert Page Lincoln's excellent Black Bass Fishing in 1952. Lincoln was a prolific writer who wrote for so many magazines that it's impossible to try to list them. Erwin A. Bauer's Bass In America was very well done and he followed it in a couple of years with his much published The Bass Fisherman's Bible. The father of structure fishing, a Physics Professor from North Carolina named Buck Perry, published his books on spoonplugging in the mid 60s and 70s. Perry used the spoonplug, which he had invented in 1946, to map structure before the arrival of depth sounders for fresh water fishing. The spoonplug was designed to find productive structure, locate fish, and make them stirke. Spoonplugs ran at a precise depth regardless of the speed of the troll or retrieve. By selecting the proper size Spoonplug, anglers could control the depth of their lure and effectively survey the structure. Perry said once that the Spoonplug was to find fish and that you could use any lure once you found the fish. Grits Gresham's The Complete Book of Bass Fishing came out in 1966 and brought things up to date.

Since we mentioned the record Largemouth I guess we need to carry through with the other five members of the Black Bass clan. The next oldest record is the Smallmouth taken at Dale Hollow Lake in Kentucky in 1955. The fish was caught by David L. Hayes and weighed 11 pounds, 15 ounces. (This record would be disqualified in 1996)

Lauri Rapala's amazing minnow, the Rapala began showing up in this country in the 1950s although the fishermen who were lucky enough to have one were pretty close mouthed about it. The August 17, 1962, issue of Life magazine ran an article about the Rapala titled A Lure That Fish Can't Pass Up. That issue of the magazine was the famed Marilyn Monroe issue and was one of their all time best sellers. People with Rapalas began renting them for $5 a day with a $20 deposit and fishermen were keeping them even at $25 a pop. My first experience with them in the early 1960s in Germany was for pike and trout and they were as good as people said. In 1964 I was stationed in Spokane, Washington having returned from Germany with dozens of small Rapalas. I lived in a duplex with an avid fisherman who worked the swing shift. When he came home at midnight if the moon looked right he would wake me up to go Bass fishing. We fished a deep and clear lake with floating grass islands. The Bass hung out around and under these grass islands and we couldn't keep them off the Rapalas. Pete had a rule that we couldn't keep any Bass under 5 pounds, the limit was 20 pounds plus one fish and even with Pete's rule we came home with limits more times than not. Many Bass anglers today would consider it criminal to take that many fish. Back them I still had all seven kids at home and those Bass were put to good use. Also, that was before the Bass tournaments and people in this state who fished for Bass were laughed at. They were considered trash fish by most and Bass fishermen were real secretive about what they caught. The only problem with fishing with Pete was that I had to go to work in the morning and he could go to bed. Pete was the most dedicated outdoorsman that I have ever known, he even volunteered to be stationed on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan because he wanted to sample the hunting and fishing there.

Bassmaster magazine arrived in the Spring of 1968 and the Bass fishing world was changed forever. With over half a million members around the world, Bass Anglers Sportsman Society has probably had more impact on Bass fishing than any other organization has ever had on one fish. Lures, reels, rods, lines, electronic gadgets, etc., now become overnight commercial successes the minute Bassmaster magazine mentions they were used to win a tournament. BASSMASTER

1972 saw the beginning of a new era with books being written by or for tournament anglers who had become the heroes of Bass anglers around the country. Some of these Bass pros became TV personalities with their own show, others became tackle manufacturers or opened successful tackle shops. Especially successful were Bill Dance, John Fox, Jimmy Houston, Al and Ron Lindner, Tom Mann, Roland Martin, and Johnny Morris.

Bass boats with all their features came into being in the 1970s. Some say the first Bass boat was the Skeeter, which used a foot operated, bow mounted electric motor. Others credit Forrest Wood of Ranger Boats with inventing the Bass boat but I think he only improved on ideas that already existed. Forrest guided in Jon Boats and built wooden Jon Boat in his early years. He said his early Bass Boats were really just improvements on the Jon Boat. Many feel that Ranger boats are the standard that all other Bass boats are measured by. I've never owned anything but a Sears cartop boat so I won't get into this argument. Bass boats became casting platforms with live wells and all the attendant electronic gear. My friend, Joe Wilcox, was wont to call them PT boats with sonar, radar, etc. They do have about every type of equipment you can imagine except depth charges.

The early 1970s witnessed enthusiastic Bass anglers as never before when word began leaking out of Texas about anglers catching fifty or even a hundred Bass in a single day while fishing south of the border. Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society bought an airplane and advertised "Door to Shore" trips to Mexico's Lake Dominguez. Interesting that a Texan named Dan Snow was involved with B.A.S.S. and these tours. This name will come up a couple of times later. Lakes with names like Dominguez, Guerrero, Azucar (Sugar), Falcon, Armistead, and Don Martin became the subject of many outdoor articles. I really should say that Americans rediscovered Mexican Bass. Jack Lamb told us in 1930s about the antics of some sporting (?) Americans at Don Martin Lake. Seems it was common for fishermen to take home from three to five hundred Bass a day. Mexico retaliated by imposing a 12" minimum size limit, but this only caused the Americans to throw small Bass onto the bank to die. One fish camp operator estimated that 18,000 Bass had been thrown upon the bank in one summer. According to Lamb, the Mexican authorities imposed severe limitations to keep these meat hunters off the lake.

Crankbaits had been around for years but Fred Young changed the whole idea with his Big-O, which looked like a pregnant fish and incorporated a side to side move. Fred began developing his hand carved balsa lures in 1967 and they had only local notice until Billy Westmorland took them on the tournament trail in 1972. Fred had named the lure after his brother and field tester, 6 ft., 6 inch, Odis Young. The hand carved lures were sold for $10 and Odis once sold 10 out of the trunk of his car for $100. The lures rented for $5 a day and cost $25 if you lost one. Another case like the Rapala, fishermen go crazy if they think someone else has a lure that will catch more fish than anything they have in their tackle box. Fred couldn't keep up with the demand once the lure became know nationally and he sold it to Cotton Cordell. There were so many of this type of bait on the market in a few years that you couldn't keep up with them. For a while they were called alphabet baits because so many of them were named with a letter. This may have been the first type of lure to achieve quick success because of tournament publicity.

In March of 1972 during the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference held in Mexico City the idea of a Bass Symposium was discussed. Grits Gresham later approached Ray Scott and Scott donated the first $2,500 seed money to support the idea. Late 1973 saw the creation of the Bass Research Foundation (BRF). This is the first research foundation ever created for the exclusive study of the Black Bass. Richard Coleman was appointed Executive Director and a Scientific Advisory Board, composed of blue ribbon fisheries scientists, was established. Plans were formulated for a Bass Symposium to be used as a cornerstone in deciding which research programs were needed first. Nearly 500 fisheries scientists, managers, bass anglers, outdoor writers, conservationists, and businessmen attended the affair at Tulsa OK in February 1975. They represented 42 states, the District of Columbia, two Canadian provinces, and England. All aspects of bass biology and management were discussed. Richard H. Stroud & Henry C. Clepper edited 2 books on the Symposium, both were published in 1975, Sportsfishing Institute, Washington, DC. One was Black Bass Biology and Management containing the 56 scientific papers and supporting bibliographies. The other, Bass Management Practices, is a transcript of Panel Discussions. Bass Research Foundation was organized in Montgomery, Alabama but eventually moved to Starkville, Mississippi. I always figured they moved to dispel the belief they were part of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society.

In 1974 a Canadian University published a comprehensive history of the Black Bass. The Blackbass In America And Overseas, by William H. Robbins and Hugh MacCrimmon is the most important work on Bass since Henshall. Although it has been ignored outside the scientific community because it is not an angling book it should be on every Bass angler's bookshelf.

Sugar Ferris established Bass'n Gal in September 1976. The first all women Bass tournament trail recognized the millions of women who fished for Bass with their husbands. My wife always caught more fish than me. I imagine many of these women also out fished their spouses.

David A. Hubbard landed the world record Redeye Bass (sometimes called Shoal or Coosa Bass) from the Flint River in Georgia. His record fish was caught in 1977 and weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces. Some biologists consider the Shoal Bass a separate species related to the Redeye but I won't try to separate them here. The very next year, 1978, Philip C. Terry Jr. caught the world record Spotted or Kentucky Bass. His fish was taken from Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama and weighed 8 pounds, 15 ounces. This record would hold up until 1994 (details later in this section).

Travel to Cuba was opened by President Carter when he allowed travel restrictions to lapse in 1977. The first story on Cuba's Bass fishing was done by Ken Schultz, and published in the August 1977 issue of Field & Stream magazine. Ken traveled there with lure manufacturer and his good friend Wayne Dyer. At the same time another group with Erwin Bauer of Outdoor Life magazine, Dick Kotis of Arbogast, plus Bill Dance's TV cameraman and producer, Frank Vestal, were sampling the fishing. Bauer's article appeared in Outdoor Life in September. The September/October 1977 issue of Bassmaster had an article, "Treasure Lake: The Legend Lives," complete with addresses of tour companies who were taking anglers to Cuba. In the next issue, Grits Gresham's column questioned the wisdom of doing business with a communist country that had a policy of "exporting violence and terrorism to the rest of this hemisphere." Dan Snow who had earlier been instrumental in promoting the Mexican Bass lakes began taking groups to Cuba. Some tournament organizations jumped at the chance to sample Cuba's Bass fishing, while others simply ignored Cuba and didn't mention it in their magazines. Bob Reed, President of International Bass Association praised Snow for bringing American and Cuban anglers together in fellowship. In 1977 Snow conducted a Bass tournament in Cuba with both Cuban and American participants. The next year he brought Cubans to Texas' Lake Conroy for another match with American Bass fishermen. Bassmaster magazine carried ads for Cuba Bass trips until the March/April 1978 issue when Ray Scott took a stand against "trading Bass for communist bullets." In the same issue the magazine quit publishing ads for Cuba trips. I imagine that it was just about then that Scott's friend, George Bush, decided to make a run at the Presidency. The controversy continued and in 1982 the U.S. State Department issued a directive that severely restricted visits by American citizens.

The 1970s could be called the decade of the structure map, there were probably more fishing maps published in that period than in the previous 100 years. The 1980s became the decade of the fishing video. Videos will never replace books although I wouldn't mind if they replaced the beginner type how-to books. Seems like a novice angler could learn more from a video than reading a book.

South Africa became the new exotic area for Bass fishing in the early 1980s. Seems like every few years they need to come up with a new country to revitalize the Bass tour business. Fishing trips are being promoted but not to the extent they were in Mexico and Cuba. There are several books listed in Books of the Black Bass on Bass fishing in Africa, in addition to Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France -- for descriptions go to: EUROPE & AFRICA Bass fishing has also become terribly popular in Japan although it doesn't appear a lot of tourists are going there to fish. JAPAN

I'm doing quite a lot of revising on the entries for the 1980s and 90s so they don't appear here. Your comments on the history would be welcomed and appreciated. If you have an item that should be included please let me know.

Links to my other webpages

JAPAN

EUROPE & AFRICA

B.A.S.S. FEDERATIONS .

SMALLMOUTH BOOKSHELF

BASS CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS