Guido Hibdon, winner of the 1988 Bassmaster Classic, two B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year titles and the man behind the famed Guido Bug soft-plastic crawfish bait, passed away Saturday in Missouri after a long illness stemming from a battle with colon cancer. He was 71.
Hibdon, born July 10, 1946, competed in 300 tournaments between B.A.S.S. and FLW (163 B.A.S.S. and 137 FLW), winning five Bassmaster events and two with FLW. He appeared in 10 Bassmaster Classics and six Forrest Wood Cups. He is one three anglers to win the B.A.S.S. AOY title in back-to-back years. Roland Martin and Kevin VanDam are the others.
He last competed in the 2015 Lewis Smith Lake FLW Tour before he and grandson Payden withdrew from the Tour due to financial constraints. His last victory came at the Lake Champlain FLW Tour in 2007. He was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in 2002.
According to an exhaustive In-Fisherman profile of Hibdon published in 2012, he started guiding at Lake of the Ozarks at age 13 along with his father and brothers.
Using live crawfish and creek chubs, he honed his fishing skills from shore with a cane pole and eventually a rowboat to take clients to the sweet spots. The years of guiding shaped Hibdon's knack for experimenting and introduced him to worm and jig fishing.
The Guido Bug phenomenon started as a science project for Guido's son, Dion, then developed into a commercial success as the crawfish imitator became a sought-after jig trailer, especially after Hibdon used it to win the Lake of the Ozarks Missouri Bassmaster Invitational in 1981, his second B.A.S.S. victory at his home lake. Initially, the Ditto Lure Company manufactured the Guido Bug, then Gambler Lures took over before Luck-E-Strike Lures handled those duties most recently.
He was also credited with being one of the fathers of sight-fishing and helped make tube baits mainstream among bass anglers.
During his AOY seasons in 1990 and 1991, he collected seven top-10 finishes in seven different states, including a win at the St. Johns River Florida Invitational in 1991.
He battled health issues through much of his career, overcoming a heart attack nine days after his Classic win at the James River in 1988. In November 1999, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and suffered another heart attack in 2001.
To read more about the impact Hibdon had on the sport and some of his competitors, click here.
