The Fish That Changed America: True Stories about the People Who Made Largemouth Bass Fishing an All-American Sport

by Steve Price, Kevin VanDam (Preface by), Slaton L. White (Foreword by)

Overview

From boats and baits to rods and reels to tips and tactics, bass fishing has been a magnet of innovation for almost a century.

Bass fishing changed from pastime to business in part because of competitive tournaments and the publicity they generated. That publicity, in turn, sparked a demand for more and more information from the tournament fishermen themselves—how they caught bass—so in essence, the sport fed upon itself. Author Steve Price has interviewed dozens of anglers over the past few years, and he fits each of their stories into a complicated puzzle that forms a comprehensive tale of competitive record holders and fishing industry insiders alike.

The Fish That Changed America is not simply about tournament bass fishing, although some of the stories included here do involve competitive anglers. Rather, Price has tried to embrace a wider view of the entire sport and to show how different facets of bass fishing meshed so perfectly at the same time, leading to the state of the industry today. The participants—those who laid the foundation for what all bass anglers today enjoy—tell their own stories of what happened during those not-so-long-ago years. Many of the stories, such as the standing room–only funeral for a famous largemouth bass, touch on far-ranging topics that all anglers will enjoy.

Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for fishermen. Our books for anglers include titles that focus on fly fishing, bait fishing, fly-casting, spin casting, deep sea fishing, and surf fishing. Our books offer both practical advice on tackle, techniques, knots, and more, as well as lyrical prose on fishing for bass, trout, salmon, crappie, baitfish, catfish, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629149509
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	11/04/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Steve Price has been covering the sport of bass fishing for more than four decades, during which time he has written six books and more than three thousand magazine articles and hundreds of newspaper and Internet stories about the sport. His fishing features and photographs for Yamaha Marine Group have reached millions of readers around the world each month. He is a contributing editor to Field&Stream magazine and has served as a senior writer for B.A.S.S. Publications for more than thirty-five years. He was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in 2010.
Steve Price has been a fulltime writer and photographer for more than five decades, specializing in outdoor recreation, travel, American history, and nature photography. He has written more than 3,500 magazine articles for dozens of publications, several video scripts, and seventeen books ranging from freshwater fishing to African wildlife to Spanish mustangs. His photography has won national and international awards and been used by the National Geographic Society, Ford Motor Company, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and many others. He has traveled widely throughout the world, and currently serves as a Contributing Editor for Field & Stream and as a columnist for the Yamaha Marine Group. He recently re-located from his home in New Mexico where he worked with the Apaches, to Mena, Arkansas

Table of Contents

Foreword Slaton L. White xi

Preface Kevin VaaDam xiii

Introduction xv

Part 1 The Fish

Chapter 1 The Gamest Fish That Swims 3

Chapter 2 "The One Thing I Am Most Proud Of" Ray Scott 11

Chapter 3 "The Fishing Trip That Started My Lure Company" Virgil Ward 19

Chapter 4 "Leroy Brown Was Something Special" Tom Mann 25

Chapter 5 "I Had No Idea a Bass Could Do That" Glen Lau 31

Chapter 6 "Giving Casting Lessons to a Princess" Stan Fagerstrom 37

Part 2 The Tackle

Chapter 7 How One Fish Changed the Tackle Industry 45

Chapter 8 "We Wanted Anything Not or Good We Didn't Have" Trig Lund 57

Chapter 9 "I Never Had a Pocket without a Lure in It" Cotton Corded 63

Chapter 10 "It Was Just a Plain Accident" Bill Lewis 71

Chapter 11 "How the Plastic Worm Grew a New Tail" Glynn Carver 75

Chapter 12 "I Made a Lot More Lures That Didn't Work Than Did" Lee Sisson 81

Part 3 The Lakes

Chapter 13 The Largemouth's New Home 89

Chapter 14 "The Fishing Stories Were True" Jack Wingate 97

Chapter 15 "We Caught 'Em and Caught 'Em and Caught 'Em" Tommy Martin 103

Chapter 16 "This Place Is a Fish Factory" Jackie Thompson 111

Chapter 17 "One Year I Caught 1,700 Bass from the Same Spot" David Wharton 117

Chapter 18 "We'll Never See Fishing like That Again" Guy Esker 125

Part 4 The Boats

Chapter 19 Boats Built for Bass 133

Chapter 20 "Shipping Stump-Jumpers Was Harder Than Building Them" Dale Calhoun 145

Chapter 21 "Cupping the First Prop" Paul Allison 151

Chapter 22 "Back in Business in 40 Days" Forrest L. Wood 155

Chapter 23 "The Accident That Changed an Industry" Earl Bentz 161

Chapter 24 "I Told Ray His Program Would Never Sell" Bill Huntley 167

Part 5 The Pros

Chapter 25 Casting for Green Gold 175

Chapter 26 "I Dreamed I'd Hold Up Two Bag Bass? Scott Suggs 183

Chapter 27 "We Gotta Move That Log" 189

Chapter 28 "That's How Flipping Started" Dee Thomas 195

Chapter 29 "A Special Lure for a Special Tournament" Rick Clunn 203

Chapter 29 "I Slept in My Truck for Three Years" Takahtro Omori 207

Part 6 The Business

Chapter 31 The Business of Bass 215

Chapter 32 "It All Started in a Pickle Box" Bob Cobb 223

Chapter 33 "Catching Bass and Talking about Them" J.L. "Mac" McBride 229

Chapter 34 "Doing Nothing to Catch Bass" Charlie Brewer 235

Chapter 35 "I Just Wanted to Build a Golf Driving Range" Jimmy Houston 241

Chapter 36 "The Infomercial That Changed Marketing" 249

Part 7 The Trophies

Chapter 37 The Search for Giants 257

Chapter 38 "Searching for George Perry" Bill Baab 263

Chapter 39 "I Didn't Realize How Large She Was" Jed Diekerson 269

Chapter 40 "I Was So Excited I Could Hardly Breathe" 277

Chapter 41 "The Christmas Present I Lost" Billy Westmorland 285

Chapter 42 "I Tried Not to Got Too Excited" Manabu Kurita 293

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

"The Fish That Changed America by Steve Price is an exciting and detailed look at why anglers are so obsessed with bass fishing! The factual stories of how it all came to be and the lives of the pioneers involved, give me even more reason to love the sport!" —Michael Iocanelli, professional angler and TV personality

"No one but my good friend Steve Price could have written this comprehensive and highly readable book on bass and bass fishing. As a keen and longtime observer, he brings history to life through the unique first-hand accounts of the men who shaped the amazing growth of a great American sport." —Ray Scott

"If you fish bass, odds are you know who Steve Price is, because you’ve probably been reading his articles on the subject for years. His new book, The Fish That Changed America, is a dandy. Reading it is the next best thing to putting a 10-pounder in your live well." —Stan Fagerstrom

"If Price weren't already a Bass Fishing Hall of Famer, this book would make him worthy of induction." —BassFan

"The Fish That Changed America by Steve Price is an exciting and detailed look at why anglers are so obsessed with bass fishing! The factual stories of how it all came to be and the lives of the pioneers involved, give me even more reason to love the sport!" —Michael Iocanelli, professional angler and TV personality

"No one but my good friend Steve Price could have written this comprehensive and highly readable book on bass and bass fishing. As a keen and longtime observer, he brings history to life through the unique first-hand accounts of the men who shaped the amazing growth of a great American sport." —Ray Scott

"If you fish bass, odds are you know who Steve Price is, because you’ve probably been reading his articles on the subject for years. His new book, The Fish That Changed America, is a dandy. Reading it is the next best thing to putting a 10-pounder in your live well." —Stan Fagerstrom

"If Price weren't already a Bass Fishing Hall of Famer, this book would make him worthy of induction." —BassFan

From the Publisher