Celebrating 40 Years

Monday, June 18, 2007
by Ray Scott

To be precise, June 6-7 was the date of my very first bass-fishing tournament – the All-American Invitational on Beaver Lake in Arkansas. It was a truly different tournament in the day of $2 derbies and rampant cheating. It was national in scope – anglers from l3 states came to fish. The entry fee was substantial for the time – $l00. Everyone laughed. Who's going to pay $l00 to catch fish? The purse was unheard of – $2,000 for 1st place. That was big-time.

Most of all, it was run by the strictest rules I could formulate (you mean I can't fish with my buddy?) These rules would form the foundation of virtually every major tournament trail today. I was nothing short of paranoid. I knew cheating would shatter my dreams quicker than anything.

Photo: Ray Scott Outdoors Don Butler, a lure designer and manufacturer (Okiebug) from Tulsa, supported Scott with his first tournament at Beaver Lake in June l967 and later signed up as the first member of BASS.

Actually, it was in March of l967 that I had my sudden vision of a professional bass tournament while I was rained out on White's Lake near Jackson, Miss. I knew I wanted to have it at Beaver Lake, inspired by a magazine article in Outdoor Life talking about the new impoundment in northwest Arkansas. From that time on, until the actual tournament dates, I was hustling for money and competitors – not to mention working out the logistical details of the tournament itself.

It took all I had to put my plans in motion and I was tapped out personally. I promised my wife I wouldn't put our home on the line and I didn't, but everything else was, including my successful insurance career which I'd put on hold.

I'd chosen Springdale, Ark. as my tournament headquarters, and I appealed to the Chamber of Commerce for vital sponsorship money. I'll never forget waiting outside the Chamber doors for the decision from the Board about the $5,000 I desperately needed. My heart sank when they told me they wouldn't give me the funds, although they did offer to help in other ways.

I was nursing my disappointment with a local realtor and marina operator, Joe Robinson, when local physician, Dr. Stanley Applegate, appeared to us. He was a board member but had missed the meeting. When he heard about the decision, he whipped out his checkbook. How much did I absolutely have to have to make my tournament work? I told him $2,500. He wrote a check. All he said was, "If it works, pay me back. If it doesn't, all I ask is that you never tell my wife I gave you the money."

Other angels came forward as well. Bass legend Jack Wingate of Lunker Lodge on Lake Seminole gave me a treasure trove of fishermen's names which I parlayed into multiples – a technique I'd mastered well as an insurance salesman.

I lost no opportunity to prospect. On a flight stopover in Memphis from Springdale to Montgomery, I phoned local marinas for names of good fishermen. One name kept popping up – one Billy Dance, a young furniture salesman. Bill would go on to catch the very first bass in a Ray Scott tournament – less than a minute after the opening shotgun blast, just yards from the marina. It was a solid 2-pounder, caught on a 7 l/2-inch blue Fliptail worm. Dance was already making history.

Bob Cobb, sports editor of the Tulsa Tribune (later to be the first editor of Bassmaster Magazine and producer of The Bassmasters TV series) helped my cause considerably when he helped whip up a rivalry between the bassmen of Tulsa and Memphis.

Don Butler, a Tulsa lumberman at the time, heard the call and gathered his forces. Dance helped keep the Memphis gang riled up. Don would later become a lure manufacturer (Okiebug). More important, he would become one of my best friends and faithful supporters, signing up as the first member of B.A.S.S. – a lifetime membership no less.
(Don passed away in December of 2004.)

When I drove home from Beaver Lake, I was on top of the world. I'd promised, and I'd delivered. My first tournament was attended by l06 anglers (six over my most optimistic goal). I was $600 in the hole, but the tournament had been a great success. I was a happy cowboy. I'd seen the future. And I had a little metal file box jammed with the names of 500 anglers who'd form the nucleus of a whole new sport.

They were out there like I knew they were. I'd tapped into a vast reservoir of anglers who wanted to know more, who wanted to be better anglers, who wanted to go rod-to-rod in honest competition. They were joined together by a common passion, understood only by those who share it. Out of that extraordinary passion the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society was born, along with Bassmaster Magazine and The Bassmasters TV show, the Federation Nation, CastingKids, and conservation and environmental victories.

Like the movie said, "Build it and they will come." And they came, 40 years ago this month. Happy anniversary to us all!

Note: To read more about the inspiring story of Ray Scott and the multi-billion-dollar sportfishing industry he created, order Robert Boyle's biography, Bass Boss, at www.RayScott.net, or call (800) 518-7222.