In October 1971, a young angler from Arkansas named Bobby Murray won the first BASS Masters Classic ever held by Ray Scott, at Nevada's Lake Mead. That was in the days when no one -- especially the anglers -- knew where the Classic was going to be held until they got there, so being versatile was everything.

A few months later, in February 1972, Murray won the Project Sports Inc. (PSI) bass fishing championship on Lake Lanier in Georgia. Back then, short-lived PSI was an FLW-type rival to B.A.S.S.

"Those were the two biggest fishing events that ever happened, and I won them back to back," Murray recalls. In doing so, he cemented himself into the "legends of bass fishing" category.

But today, bass pros have a popular saying that goes something like this: "Win one Classic and you're famous. Win two and you're a legend."

Well, Murray has done that too. In 1978 he won the Classic held at Ross Barnett reservoir in Jackson, Miss. And befitting his legend status, Murray this year was one of the first people elected to the new Professional Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in Hot Springs, Ark.

Though his days of fishing the tours are over (he retired in 1981), BassFans can find the always enthusiastic Murray at one of the many outdoor shows he attends on behalf of the PRADCO lure brands (Rebel, Cotton Cordell, Arbogast, Smithwick and many more), Triton boats and others.

Recently BassFan sat down with him to get his perspective on how things in bass fishing have changed over the years since he's been a pro.

BassFan: How is bass fishing different now than when you started in the sport?

Murray: "Well, at the first Classic I had a 15 foot boat and 33-hp motor, and it was the second-biggest rig there. The equipment has totally changed. When I started it was almost a gentleman's sport. We were fishing with direct-drive reels -- take that button off your baitcaster, and how good are going to be? (laughs) That was back in the mid-50s, when the push-button spincast reel came out. Before that no one could cast, but when those reels came out, that's when the sport fishing boom really hit. Everything changed. We went from solid glass rods to tubular glass to composite and then graphite. We got better line, better reels, everything. Public awareness of the sport of angling increased. Even the roads got better (laughs). Back then there were no interstates. We did all our driving down two-lane roads."

BassFan: How about tournaments?

Murray: "I belonged to the first bass club in the state of Arkansas. There were a few fishing derbies around, but everybody cheated. Everything was kind of wormy until Ray Scott. Ray was dedicated to making it a sport where everyone got the same fair shake, and when B.A.S.S. was formed, that was the birth of professional fishing today."

BassFan: What has been the biggest change in bass fishing?

Murray: "There were no electronics back then. Until depthfinders came on the market, everyone fished the bank or fished a point because they couldn't read the structure in the middle of the lake. I ordered my first depthfinder in 1968. I had to go to Little Rock and order it through Penny's because there wasn't one in the whole state. Electronics took catches up big-time. Until then there were schools of 5- to 8-pound bass that no one knew about. And after that, if you didn't catch a limit of 5-pounders you didn't know what you were doing."

BassFan: Is that about when catch-and-release really took off?

Murray: "Yes, as the catches went up -- when they really saw what we were able to do with hook and line -- people finally realized that we could literally affect a reservoir by the methods we were using. That's when catch and release came about. We realized we had to do something, and that we didn't have to kill the bass to compete. That was one of the most pivotal things Ray Scott ever did. Catch and release took the sport off the hot seat. It took a negative and made plus out of it."

BassFan: Is everything in bass fishing better or are some things worse?

Murray: "Everything about the sport is better, except that some of the fisheries in the country aren't as good. That has nothing to do with the professional angler. It's just that the everyday angler is much more knowledgeable. Now there are books, seminars, BASSMASTER Magazine, the ESPN block on TV. Before there was none of that. Everyone had to fish enough and experiment enough to develop their own philosophy about fishing. Plus, all of this country's reservoirs were built in late '50s and early '60s, so by the mid-'60s every lake was chock full of schools of 5-pound bass."

BassFan: How is the BASS Masters Classic different now than when you started?

Murray: "The first BASS Masters Classic was a secret. Now people plan their vacations around it. Back then it was a tournament on a mystery lake, and until it was over the only people who knew about it were the people on the airplane. Now it's the biggest freshwater event in the world. Everyone around the world knows about the BASS Masters Classic."

- End of Part 1 (of 2) -