Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first BASS tournament – the All-American Invitational at Arkansas' Beaver Lake. What does founder Ray Scott recall most about that day in 1967?
An overwhelming feeling of paranoia.
"We had 106 (entrants) and I really didn't know any of them, and I was terrified about cheaters and any kind of dishonesty," he said Monday. "It was so bad that I didn't allow anybody in who was from a county that touched Beaver Lake.
"Also, if you'd ever worked at a marina on Beaver, or if you'd ever been a guide anywhere, you were ineligible."
He noted that the language in the rules read "guide" and not specifically "fishing guide." Because of that, he denied the application of a shady character who admitted he'd guided duck hunters in Tennessee.
He said he "wasn't smart enough at the time" to require that all competitors launch from the same marina, so they used six different facilities (a starter was posted at each). The weigh-in site was "a big piece of dirt" located 3 miles from the lake, so most of the anglers hauled their stringers of dead fish in the trunks of their cars.
As history-oriented BassFans know, Stan Sloan beat out fellow Tennessean and future bass-fishing legend Bill Dance in the 3-day event to become the first BASS winner.
To read more about that first tournament and the multi-billion-dollar sportfishing industry that Scott created, order Robert Boyle's biography, Bass Boss, at www.RayScott.net, or call (800) 518-7222.
