When Rick Moore stepped away from a distinguished law enforcement career in 2006, he may have thought his days of dramatic moments and heroic action were behind him.
Thankfully for a young Japanese angler, they were not.
Both ends of that premise deserve explanation, and we’ll give each their due. But first, let’s meet the man.
Service and serving
Born and raised in California’s Monterey County, Moore spent 31 years with the Salinas Police Department. Starting as a patrolman, he worked his way up through multiple roles, including 14 years on the SWAT team, before retiring in 2006 as Deputy Chief of the Salinas Police Department.
“We had a lot of gangs, a lot of homicides, a lot of shootouts,” Moore said. “Overall, in my law enforcement career we went from a cow town with lots of violence to a whole different world by the time I retired. I got to see that whole change for the good.”
It’s no stretch to say the discipline and discernment Moore perfected during his law enforcement career have served him well in the Bassmaster AmBASSador program (formerly known as the Bassmaster Marshal program).
Initially connecting with B.A.S.S. in 2015 when the Elites’ Western Swing visited the California Delta and Lake Havasu, Moore now begins his 12th year as an Progressive Bassmaster Elite AmBASSador and his 11th year for the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour.
“I had just retired and decided to get back into bass fishing,” he said. “When the Elites came out West that year, I thought, ‘This is a good opportunity to catch up.’ When I stopped bass fishing, there wasn’t a Senko and a lot of other stuff.
“I had started watching bass fishing on TV, but I thought this was a good opportunity to observe the latest techniques, especially on a body of water I was familiar with.”
Typically participating in six to seven events annually, including the Classic, Moore is recognized as a Super AmBASSador for his on-the-water blogging and BassTrakk update proficiency.
Answering the call to action
A lengthy law enforcement career like Moore’s holds countless memorable moments, but none so vivid as a day that could have ended very badly.
“Early in my career, in the mid-80s, a guy had kidnapped a girl in Mexico and brought her up to Salinas,” Moore said. “She was able to get a call in to our office to say she needed help, so the SWAT team got into a room, and he was decoyed out because he (supposedly) had a call at the front office.”
The plan was not without risk, but options were scarce. Moore positioned in a concealed spot and as the kidnapper and his hostage passed his location, his job was to grab the girl and basically pancake her to the floor while his fellow officers handled the bad guy.
“To this day, I remember he had his hand on .45 (caliber pistol) in his waistband, and he was making her walk right in front of him,” Moore recalled. “The whole time, I was thinking I was gonna take a bullet in the back, but it was successful. We rescued her and life was good.”
Flash forward four decades, Moore’s watching Elite pro Kyoya Fujita hunt down big Lake Fork bass when the unthinkable suddenly unfolds a rod length from his seat. That 2024 event brought cold conditions, so when Fujita overextended his reach for a big fish, he plunged head first into the lake — weighted by bibs and a heavy jacket.
“I really don’t know how he would’ve gotten out of the water, if I hadn’t been there to pull him out,” Moore said. “He had all the heavy clothes on. It would have been sobering.”
Return to the roots
Moore’s a lifetime angler who saw the Bassmaster Marshal program as a mechanism to reconnect with the freshwater scene he had tabled during his years of saltwater pursuits. He has competed on the WON (Western Outdoor News) Bass Tournament Series, but his is largely a recreational passion. Nevertheless, spending eight hours with top-tier pro anglers hastened his objective.
“I had gotten away from freshwater fishing for about 20 years because I would go to Cabo San Lucas for big-game saltwater fish — swordfish, marlin, tuna, sharks, wahoo,” Moore said. “When I retired, I thought, ‘Let me try bass fishing again.’”
Moore calls punching California Delta mats his favorite technique, although he caught his personal best 10-1 largemouth while winding a squarebill along shallow vegetation. Like most anglers, Moore constantly seeks knowledge and perspective to elevate his game and what was then the Bassmaster Marshal program fit the bill.
Every year has brought a plethora of lessons, but from square one, he realized that behind the mystique of professional fishing, stands a very relatable reality.
“They’re just fishermen; they struggle like all the rest of us,” Moore said. “It’s kinda like golf; it’s the top 10% in that tournament that look like they’re smoking ‘em and the rest of ‘em are in varying degrees of struggling.”
Why he does it
As Moore describes, the Bassmaster Ambassador comprises a give-and-take experience. On his end, he enjoys shooting photos and videos for Bassmaster LIVE, as well as the angler’s social media use.
What he gets out of the AmBASSador role is the privilege of seeing the sport from an angle few will experience. The action’s addictive, but Moore said the appeal runs deeper.
The Inspiration: He’s seen plenty of success and optimism on the water, but one of Moore’s most meaningful moments arose when a key fish catch dramatically altered an angler’s season.
Heading into the fifth event of the 2025 season with only three check cuts in the previous four, Pat Schlapper really needed a shot of encouragement. Fortunately, Day 2 of the Elite at Lake Fork delivered the boost he needed when a tiny fish and a giant ate the same squarebill.
The little one shook loose and Schlapper boated an 8-pound, 10-ounce kicker that would literally transform his season. The Wisconsin pro finished 32nd at Fork and went on to win the next Elite at the Sabine River and the season finale at the Upper Mississippi River.
“To watch that one day turnaround and what happened the rest of his season was eye-opening,” Moore said. “It was awe-inspiring how one day can completely change your momentum for the rest of the season.”
Moore said he enjoys candid glimpses of the soon-to-be hot ticket baits before their mainstream exposure. For example, he watched Fujita pitch hunks of tentacled plastic under trees well before the “dice bait” craze ignited.
“You get a jump on something before 90% of the field is using it,” Moore said. “Now, I have several of the dice bait brands, but way back then, you had to make your own when I first saw Kyoya use it. I made my own, but they’ve worked ever since.”
Along with baits and presentation, Moore said he’s constantly paying attention to how anglers employ modern technology.
“The second tournament where I served as a Marshal (Lake Havasu), Josh Bertrand used Garmin Panoptix (predecessor to LiveScope) and that was the first time I’d seen that technology,” Moore said. “Watching it advance and seeing how the guys use it has been interesting.
“When I was with Brandon Palaniuk several years ago, that’s when I really got a grasp on how to use Humminbird 360. I watched him do it and smoke ‘em, so I came home and put it on my boat, and I’ve used it ever since.”
As Moore notes, having a front-row seat to the sport’s top level short cuts the learning curve, while saving time and money. From observing and analyzing what he likes and dislikes about different electronics brands, to discovering the lithium batteries he installed on his rebuilt 84 Ranger boat, Moore makes the most of his time with pro anglers.
“You cut through a lot of that, and you don’t have to experiment,” he said. “The single biggest impact is that a lot of my equipment and how to use it has been accelerated. I really don’t feel I’ve made any mistakes because I ask questions and I see the latest and greatest.
“I think the opportunity is there for everyone. I have not met an angler yet that, if you ask them a question about their gear, their boat or their electronics, isn’t happy to tell what they have. You cannot get any better personal one-on-one information.”
