Respect the greats of yesteryear

While watching the Bassmaster The Cast program the other day, I came to the realization there will never be another angler comparable to those whom I consider the greatest of greats.

I’m talking about the guys from the 1980s and 90s.

My passion for the sport was ignited by guys like Rick Clunn, Shaw Grigsby, Larry Nixon, Ron Shuffield, Denny Brauer and of course Kevin VanDam, to name a few. I remember watching them on The Bassmasters on TNN (The Nashville Network) when only the winners and top performers were featured in taped tournament shows. You never heard about the guys who typically finished lower.

That’s no knock on the anglers of today. There are a lot of good ones, but those legends of yesteryear – who paved the way for what we enjoy today – stood above all others and will never be replaced.

Perhaps I hold them in such high regard because I’m the last among the Elites whose career began and spanned that generation to today’s new breed of angler. I’ve seen it all throughout my career, and I’m probably the only current Elite angler who can remember flipping a jig on monofilament line. 

Think about what they accomplished with what they had; they fished out of smaller boats with 150 horsepower outboards, limited gas tanks, wimpy 12- or 24-volt trolling motors and clunky batteries.

Tournament days were rarely canceled; if it was cold or stormy, they went. They fished in plastic rainsuits and without the sophisticated clothing we have today to keep us warm and dry. 

And they still caught ‘em.

The difference doesn’t end there. You can go through every piece of equipment they used then – shorter rods, heavy baitcasters, cheap monofilament line, crappy hooks on lures and hooks that had to be filed to sharpen. Today, you couldn’t file a hook to be as sharp as what my chemically sharpened Gamakatsu is right out of the package.

Shoot, in the early days, no one knew the differences in hook styles. There weren’t different reel speeds to make specific lures work better. Rods were heavier, less sensitive and certainly weren’t technique specific.

Sure, the winning weights weren’t what they are today, but they still caught numbers of fish and did it in a manner that is inconceivable by today’s standards.

More notably is they did it without the assist of today’s electronics or sophisticated tackle and relied upon intuition, information learned from elders and their on-the-water experience. They had to think through the process and rely on instincts to find fish without electronic mapping, GPS, the internet and sophisticated sonar.

They were crankers, flippers, topwater specialists and worm fishermen. The opportunities to watch Brauer flip bushes, Grigsby trick a bed fish or Clunn and VanDam power fish was mystical. It ignited the passion in me that has helped me become the angler I am today. 

They were individualists with special strengths. Sadly, electronic technological advances have short circuited the path to becoming an individualist. 

Don’t think for a minute I’m bashing technology. I have all of the top-end Lowrance electronics on my boat. I love them and embrace today’s technology like everyone else.

But the truth is sophisticated electronics have created shortcuts and have made fishing easier. While that’s a good thing, it also has fogged our ability to utilize natural instincts that led those anglers to become the true greats of yesteryear. 

I hope today’s young anglers take time to watch The Cast presented by Bass Pro Shops series and will gain the same appreciation for those great anglers’ accomplishments. They did it without today’s specialized gear and helped create the demand for the equipment we have today.