Swing-shotting almost worked
Jason Meninger’s pendulum presentation was a hit on Lake Lanier
Aug-08-2010 02:31 PM byGAINESVILLE, Ga. — The wheels fell off at 3:07 p.m. Saturday. The fat lady sang. At 3:07 p.m., Jason Meninger threw down the fishing rod with its trailing end of broken line, glanced at his watch and sighed in disgust. There wasn’t time to re-rig, and after a couple of cursory casts with lures that he figured wouldn’t catch the big spotted bass he needed to catch anyway, Meninger headed back toward Lake Lanier’s Laurel Park.
His role in the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup was over, at least for the fishing part. The weigh-in at the Gwinnett Convention Center Arena Saturday evening merely proved what Meninger already knew in his heart. His third-day catch of three fish that totaled a bit over 7 pounds wasn’t enough to keep him in the running, and six other anglers raced down the lake here Sunday morning to begin the championship round. Still, it had been a good ride for the 39-year-old, who reached the Cup in his rookie season with the FLW Tour.
Weeks ago, Hank Parker noted that Meninger was an angler to be reckoned with in the Forrest Wood Cup because “he has blood in his eyes, and he’s good.” Beyond the initial “Jason who?” everyone here came to understand in the past few days that Parker’s assessment was accurate. Though he wound up in ninth place after faltering in the final qualifying round, the Gainesville, Ga., angler made a strong showing in an event whose star-studded roster included several Forrest Wood Cup and Bassmaster Classic winners.
Not only did Meninger win some name recognition, but he also might have introduced a new fishing technique to the tournament world: “swing-shotting.” While drop-shotting was arguably the most productive way to catch bass here during the championship, Meninger employed a variation that involves casting a drop-shot rig out to a distance about equal to the depth he wants to reach and then letting it swing down in pendulum fashion toward the target.
“When bass are close to the bottom, they seem to take a drop-shot rig presented vertically a lot better; when they’re suspended, they like the rig to swing toward them,” notes Meninger. “Sometimes it has to do with the depth of the water; the fish are more skittish in shallow, clear water and don’t like a boat sitting over the top of them. At other times the spots just like the rig moving and coming toward them. I don’t know why that is, but it works for me on Lanier.”
If you watch the broadcast of the Forrest Wood Cup on Sunday, Oct. 10, on Versus, you’ll notice that instead of staring off into space while they’re cranking in lures, the finalists are looking down at something: their fish finders. The 2010 championship was won with electronics, and most of the top 10 developed cricks in their necks from staring down at their sonars to see what was going on down there. It was the same for Meninger.
“I had the sensitivity control of my Lowrance HDS turned up to about 91 percent and the color to about 85 percent,” says Meninger. “I could see my bait (a 3 ½-inch Jackall AYU Crosstail Shad or a 4-inch Morning Dawn Roboworm) falling; I could see the smallest branches of the trees or brush piles I was fishing in 30 to 38 feet of water; and I could see bass represented as green arches in those branches. You’re not looking for a lot of fish, because you won’t find them, but you’re looking for a few good bass. You’ve got to have the best electronics and know how to use them.”
Meninger had that part figured out, but what finally did him in was 5-pound-test line. He paired strong Spiderwire Camo Braid with a short leader of 5-pound-test Gamma Touch fluorocarbon so that he could feel bites better in the deeper water. Though he didn’t lose a keeper the first two days of the qualifying round, on Saturday he broke off two fish in the 3- to 4-pound range, including one just before quitting time that would have put him in contention.
“It is what it is with light line; you’re going to lose some better fish when they run into brush,” says Meninger. “Larry Nixon can use 10-pound-test line and be just as effective on Lanier; I can’t.”
Disappointed as he is, Meninger can look back on a great season. An advertising agency executive, he qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup in his first year on the trail and picked up some heavy-hitter sponsors along the way, including Ranger, Lowrance, Jackall, Realtree and Exmark Mowers. Just before the Cup, Meninger added Cabela’s as a sponsor.
Whether Meninger can retain his momentum into a 2011 tournament campaign remains to be seen, but he proved that he belongs there. And next year, at least people won’t be wondering who the heck Hank Parker was talking about.
Forrest Wood Cup: Day 4
Final Cup day one to behold
Aug-08-2010 01:13 PM byWow. Just, wow. That’s all I can say about day four.
From the perfect morning setting for takeoff, to the crowds of spectator boats, to the actual fishing, it was a great day to be on the water even though it was a little rough out there with all the pleasure boats.
We stopped and took photos with almost every pro, with almost all of them continuing to utilize the drop-shot to its fullest. Pros were spot-hopping like I had never seen during a tournament, with some only spending a couple casts-worth of time on an area before roaring off to another brush pile or tree. However, of all the pros we watched, one of them clearly stood out: Kevin Hawk. We pulled up on him around 10 a.m. and immediately were treated to him landing a giant spot. Thirty minutes later he boated his fourth keeper, and word when we got off the water was that he has a great bag of fish.
Of course, rumors also abound about Cody Meyer, leader National Guard pro Brent Ehler and Chevy pro Larry Nixon all having some good fish in their livewells, too. Nixon actually caught a 4-pound spot on his first cast! He was so excited after the catch that he was shaking, which caused him to backlash pretty bad on cast No. 2. But can you blame him?
That excitement is what the Forrest Wood Cup is all about. It’s an event that has to be experienced by any true fishing fan. And I have to say, Lake Lanier and the state of Georgia were great hosts (the lone exception being the wasp that stung me yesterday morning as I was backing down the boat. May that little pest fly straight into a bug zapper.)
But seriously, from all of us at FLW Outdoors Magazine, thank you for keeping up with our blogs and on-the-water-updates. I hope you enjoyed them as much as we did writing them.
Oh, and be sure to check out our October issue. We will break down the all top six pros’ patterns and let you in on everything that went down at the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Lanier.
Slam the hooks!
Forrest Wood Cup Trends: Day 4
Final day marked by tough bite
Aug-08-2010 01:10 PM by The day four trend? A tough bite. With the Forrest Wood Cup drawing to an end, Lake Lanier isn’t giving up anything easily. The Twitter buzz this afternoon is that the members of the final six have put a few more fish in the box than this morning, but it’s no doubt anyone’s game. This could play out as one of the closest Forrest Wood Cup finishes in history.
Today I got to see a bit more detail on how the top six made it into the final day, and they made it in with a variety of patterns. For example, Troy Morrow was bouncing around from spot to spot, spending only a couple of minutes on each spot before moving. It’s similar to the pattern he used to win the BFL All-American. In that event, held on DeGray Lake, Morrow rotated through about 70 brush piles. He used a crankbait, a Fluke and a worm. Today, I watched him rotate through brush piles, using a crankbait and an assortment of finesse lures.
Ronald Hobbs, on the other hand, ran far back into the backs of narrow pockets and flipped and pitched drop-shots (that’s right, drop-shots) and swimbaits to shallow cover and docks. He also worked the narrow ditch left over in the center of each creek from before the lake was flooded. He spent at least an hour in one such area working a pair of docks and a stretch of bank that was only about 40 yards long.
We’ll show the specifics of their patterns in great detail in the October issue of FLW Outdoors Magazine. We’ll also let you in on how the pros found all those brush piles. I guarantee you it’ll be a lesson in electronics and time management, because the search can be long and hard in the depths of Lake Lanier.
Thanks for tuning in to the Twitter coverage and blogs from the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup. Stay tuned to flwoutdoors.com and FLW Outdoors Magazine for more information in the coming days.
Forrest Wood Cup: Day 3
Aug-07-2010 02:39 PM byI have to run to the FLW Outdoors Expo, so I have to keep this short. But I wanted to highlight some possible happenings.
The pros have yet to weigh in yet, but if the word on the water is true, day four could have a dream lineup of pros.
Bryan Thrift continued to be hot, as did Chevy pro Larry Nixon, and we watched National Guard pro Brent Ehrler land a good spotted bass in the first 10 minutes of the morning. Considering the fished only seems to be getting tougher with the heat continuing to get turned up, we could be looking at two of the best anglers in the world possibly going head-to-head, with a legend like Nixon right on their heels.
All I know is I need to get over to weigh-in, because it’s sure to be exciting.
Slam the hooks!
Forrest Wood Cup Trends: Day 3
Heat, boat traffic converge on Cup
Aug-07-2010 02:36 PM byProbably the most notable difference between today and the first round of the Forrest Wood Cup was the increase in boat traffic on Lake Lanier. This lake is gorgeous, with its clear water and deep, jagged coves and creeks. And obviously, the locals like to get out on the water and enjoy it. The result of that, however, is what sometimes resembles a washing machine. Waves and wake make for rough boat rides and busy water. But I like that. It adds another challenge to this game for the best anglers in the world. The competitors that can handle the boat pressure and find a way to put together a good bag today just might be in the driver’s seat going into day four tomorrow, when everyone is down to his last chance.
To add to the challenge, the heat is back today. Not that it’s been cold, or even cool, the last two days, but it’s been bearable for summer in the South. Today, however, sunshine and little wind brought back the heat. I like that too, because it’s another factor these anglers must deal with to prove who is best.
As for how the top 30 did today, I’ll just tell you this. I am very confident there will be some drama and excitement at the top of the leaderboard today. I watched some good fish get caught by a top name in the pro fishing game, and I heard rumors of the same from another top stick. Get ready, because I think there’s going to be a superstar shootout tomorrow, and I can’t wait. Tune in to FLW Outdoors online weigh-in coverage to watch it play out. Or come down to the Gwinnett Center Arena and see it in person.
I’d also like to throw a shout out to any fishing fans following these blogs and our on-the-water Twitter updates that might be out there on Lake Lanier following and watching the pros fish this weekend. Today I ran into one gentleman and his son out on the water while shooting pictures for FLW Outdoors Magazine. They’ve been reading the blogs and are looking forward to the inside scoop on how the pros have been pulling spotted bass from Lanier’s deep brush piles. I told them we’d hook everyone up with that information in the October issue of the magazine. If anyone else out there is thinking of watching the pros tomorrow, stop and say hello to us. We’ll be the ones with the cameras. And don’t forget to be safe and give the pros plenty of room to operate.
Still the man
Larry Lewis of the Georgia Bass Federation has logged more than 34 years at the helm and isn’t ready to call it quits yet
Aug-07-2010 02:20 PM byGAINESVILLE, Ga. — The Bass Federation’s National Guard Junior Bass Championship staged simultaneously with the Forrest Wood Cup here on Lake Lanier ended with much fanfare and the crowning of champions in the 11-14 age group and 15-18 age groups. Shane Edgar, who isn’t much taller than the trophy presented to him by Federation President Robert Cartlidge, claimed the title in the younger division over five other sectional representatives while Greg Zellers was the winner in the older group. Edgar, of Glendale, Arizona, earned the right to compete for the national championship by winning the Western Division title. Zellers was the Northern Division titlist.
The Junior Championship was a celebration of youth and the promise of tomorrow’s talented anglers. Yet many of attendees on hand to witness the youngsters’ weigh-in here at Laurel Park no doubt paused to marvel at the gentleman from Georgia whose hair has gone white in the service of The Bass Federation (TBF).
For more than 34 years, Larry Lewis has served as president of the Georgia Federation, longer than any other leader in the organization. Now he’s three months shy of his 70th birthday and, while most men his age tend to look back rather than forward, Lewis still sees a role for himself in the TBF.
“These are exciting times for The Bass Federation, what with the huge push we’re making along with our partners, the FLW and the National Guard, to engage more youth in the sport,” says Lewis. “I’m going to stick around long enough to help in anyway I can. I’ve still got the energy and enthusiasm, but I know there’s going to come a time when somebody else is going to have to step up and take over. I’ve got a replacement coming along, but he’s not quite ready yet — neither am I.”
Among other things, Lewis is making final preparations for the big Camp Sunshine Benefit Bass Tournament the Georgia Federation holds every year at Lake Lanier. A fund-raiser for a youth camp that caters to terminally or seriously ill children, the tournament is co-sponsored by HD Marine of Buford and Wendy’s. It’s raised more than $800,000 for Camp Sunshine, at an annual clip of about $75,000.
Lewis has witnessed a number of major milestones in bass fishing, including the development of the Federation in the late 60s to the Great Schism of 2005, when The Bass Federation split with the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) Afterward, the TBF affiliated with FLW Outdoors, though another group of former state Federation members stayed with BASS and became the Federation Nation. The split followed the purchase of BASS by ESPN, and to this day Lewis thinks it could have been easily avoided.
“I was there when they (ESPN representatives) told us how it was going to be and if we didn’t like it, they were going to fire us and get some new people in to run the Federation,” recalls Lewis. “Of course, that was like telling 52 people who owned their own companies that they were fired. ESPN couldn’t fire us because they didn’t own The Bass Federation — we did.
“The best thing that ever happened to us is when we hooked up with FLW [Outdoors]. The FLW has provided more monetary support for our projects in the short time that we been partnered with them than BASS ever did. Still, if the ESPN people had just apologized to us at the time and acknowledged our right to choose for ourselves, the split probably would never have happened,” says the Roswell resident.
Lewis jokes that at every Georgia Federation meeting, he asks members to elect a new president and then he leaves the room. When he returns, he discovers that he’s still the guy calling the shots. It just proves that Lewis is too good to lose, and that Georgia fishermen are smart enough to realize it.
Forrest Wood Cup Trends: Day 2
All about the brush
Aug-06-2010 02:45 PM byThere is really only one trend from day two that sticks out to me as notable here at the Forrest Wood Cup, and that is that if you were to watch the FLW Tour pros fish, you might think it should be the FLW Crappie Tour. That’s what the fishing looks like.
I watched about a dozen pros fish today, and aside from a couple who were casting to schooling fish, most of them were either parked on top of a brush pile, fishing vertically, or making short casts with light spinning tackle to brush piles. Go to a one-pole crappie tournament on a reservoir in this country and it would probably look the same.
The brush-pile bite is the dominant pattern. I’m amazed at how well the pros can find these brush piles in a short amount of time and then determine which brush piles hold the “right” fish. The “right” fish would be the biggest ones and the active ones.
Saturday and Sunday, however, it might be a bit more difficult to fish some of those brush piles if they are on the main lake. The boat traffic today midday and early afternoon was getting heavy. It’s going to be busy this weekend, so I expect that will make it a bigger challenge to get on and stay on a good spot. But these guys are the best, so I suspect they’ll manage just fine.
Forrest Wood Cup: Day 2
Fans hit water to follow favorite pros
Aug-06-2010 02:42 PM byTwo days down, two to go.
The first cut day of the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup was an interesting one. Pros that excelled on day one were fishless on day two, and vice versa. However, a couple big name pros did what they always do: figure out a way to catch five good fish.
While the fishing seemed tough across the board regardless (we only witnessed a handful of fish caught), I was very impressed with the crowd of Georgians that turned out. And I’m not talking about at takeoff or weigh-in.
Every FLW Tour event has fans that take their enthusiasm to the water and watch pros from their boats. But usually that’s on the final day. Not at Lake Lanier. It seemed like almost every angler had at least one follower, and pros like Tom Mann Jr., Castrol pro David Dudley, National Guard pro Brent Ehrler and day one-leader Kevin Hawk had entourages of boats. At one point Hawk and Dudley were fishing a mere 50 yards from each other, and the armada of boats was pretty impressive. FLW Outdoors freelancer Rod Newell called me to see if I knew where Hawk was, and I simply told him, “Come a couple hundred yards and just look. There’s no way you’ll miss him.”
If fans are hitting the lake this hard already, I’m pretty excited to see how many spectators come out this weekend. I don’t know if any pro’s armada will get bigger than Folger’s pro Scott Suggs’ at the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Ouachita (estimates range from 30 to 60 boats the final day), but some pros may get close.
Slam the hooks!
The professor in his classroom
Wilson Frazier, the sonar whiz, puts in an appearance at the Forrest Wood Cup Outdoors Expo
Aug-06-2010 02:37 PM byI’m standing in the aisle of the FLW Outdoors Expo at the Forrest Wood Cup in the Gwinnett Convention Center, and everywhere I turn I catch glimpses of bass fishing history.
In the distance, under the Ranger Boats marquis, Forrest and Nina Wood are signing autographs. In the other direction, people are crowding into the booth of Karl White, the noted fishing tackle collector and authority, to ask him about the lures he’s got on display. Jimmy Houston walked through just a while ago; I heard that trademark cackling laugh long before I saw him. Hank Parker, hot and flustered from serving as the weighmaster at The Bass Federation’s Junior Bass Championship being held here concurrently with the Cup, just swept by – in a hurry as usual.
Everybody who’s anybody in the FLW ranks is here, as well as folks I didn’t expect to see. Wilson Frazier, an old tournament campaigner from the 70s and 80s, constitutes one such pleasant surprise. Frazier, who lives in Nashville now, is better known as “the professor” to the pros who have benefitted from his instruction over the years in the fine art of decoding what they see on a sonar screen and getting back to within casting distance of it if it’s worth a shot.
Frazier is here on business, like all of the 120-some-odd exhibitors who have booths set up in the Outdoors Expo. In the not-too-distant past the Texas native would have been standing by to troubleshoot any problems that anglers might be having with their Lowrance units, but such is the state of the equipment now that there isn’t much need of somebody with his technical talents. Now, mainly, he conducts seminars on how to adjust and interpret fish finders and take advantage of what they can tell an angler.
“What I teach you is what you are looking at, where you are looking at it, and how to get back exactly to where it is,” is the 68-year-old Frazier’s succinct sales pitch. He has one of those rare minds that can think multi-dimensionally. Figuratively speaking, he can see beyond a sonar screen, down through the wires and into the water. His understanding of the information that is displayed on the screen is equaled only by his ability to explain it to anglers in terms that they can understand.
Frazier has instructed, among others, Bill Dance, Ron Shuffield, Wes Strader, Mark Rose, David Fritts, Larry Nixon, Jay Yelas and Scott Suggs in the finer points of using sonar to locate and set up on deep-water bass around structure. His series of how-to DVDs (www.itainttv.com) on the subject are best-sellers. What he really teaches anglers is how to spend their time on the water more efficiently, and time is one of the most essential commodities to a fisherman, whether he’s in a tournament or just fishing for fun. Though marketing folk would have you think that finding fish and catching them is an easy process when you use a sonar of any type, it is seldom simple. When you do get to the point where you can figure it all out, however, it’s a beautiful thing. Frazier makes the learning curve shorter.
Wilson has toned down the outfits that he wears to “trade shows” these days. The gaudy clothing of yesteryear has made way for a more subdued wardrobe of regular street clothes with just a few well-positioned patches on his shirt, including one that proclaims him “The Professor.” No doubt he walks through the Outdoors Expo without being recognized by most, but Wilson Frazier has long been a man of substance in the fishing industry, and he’s a hall-of-famer to many of the Forrest Wood Cup contestants. After all, he helped a lot of them get here.
Forrest Wood Cup: Day 1
Drop-shots, aluminum and seeing double on top
Aug-05-2010 01:01 PM byAs if I had any doubts, Hotlanta is living up to its reputation.
I just got off the waters of Lake Lanier after spending most of the day taking photos and providing on-the-water updates of the first day of the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup. I smell like SPF-50 sunscreen, the top of my head has a pinkish hue, and I’m doing my best to turn my hotel room into something a penguin could call home. Basically, it was an awesome, albeit hot first day. The weather people are saying it was 95 degrees, with the heat index of a blow torch. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be thanks to a lot of chasing pros and a whisper of wind.
It’s not hard to figure out, though, that the heat is making for some tough conditions for both the anglers and the fish. We saw maybe a dozen fish caught and heard of few stellar days for the pros by the time we got off the water around 1 p.m. So it’s shaping up to be a grind of a championship, which should make things very entertaining in a couple days.
However, there were a couple noteworthy things we did notice out on the water. In no particular order:
Drop-shots, drop-shots and more drop-shots
Lanier is best known for its spotted bass, and spots are known for loving drop-shots. Sure enough, there wasn’t a single pro we watched today who didn’t utilize the finesse tactic. Some guys casted them, but most vertically held them over brush piles.
However, while almost all were using the technique, we did notice a pattern on who caught fish and who didn’t. I don’t want to give it away yet, but I promise to elaborate in my blogs over the next few days.
Aluminum oddball
We reported in FLW Outdoor Magazine’s championship preview that shoal bass could play a role. Sure enough, pro Ott Defoe of Knoxville, Tenn., ditched his bass boat for an aluminum johnboat to try and head way up the river and have an entire population of bass all to himself. We’ll have to wait and see if the move paid off today, but if it did, he should be in contention. The problem will be that he won’t be able to use his aluminum boat the final day if he makes it that far.
Double topwaters
It didn’t take Living the Dream pro Jay Keith long to catch our attention. This is his first FLW Tour-level event, so we stopped to get some photos. The new boat was nice, but what we noticed was his topwater setup: He was throwing a pair of poppers at the same time. I’d heard of anglers doing this before, but I had never seen it until now. Let me tell you, it looks awesome! Rest assured, we will be doing a write-up on the technique in an upcoming issue of FLW Outdoors Magazine.
Slam the hooks!
Forrest Wood Cup Trends: Day 1
Opening day challenges expectations
Aug-05-2010 12:55 PM byDay one of the Forrest Wood Cup was full of “unexpecteds” for me. First of all, the weather wasn’t near as brutal as I expected. It was hot, but hazy skies and a steady breeze stuck with us through midday. And as much as guys were moving around, I was able to soak up plenty of breeze while I chased them around the lake, which brings me to another trend.
I fully expected the competitors to work larger structures, such as large points or drop-offs, spending a good deal of time looking for the sweet spot on each larger spot. What I found, however, was that most of the anglers I watched were targeting very specific spots. Primarily, they targeted brush piles, rock piles and other small, specific pieces of structure. I watched National Guard pro Scott Martin spend about 25 minutes on one spot, but most competitors pulled up, fished a few minutes and left.
What was even stranger was that in all that water, several places were hit by multiple anglers within a few minutes of each other. One would leave, another would come in and fish the same spot, and another would replace him after he left. I knew these guys were good at finding fish, but it’s almost as if they found the same fish. Perhaps no fish is safe with multiple FLW Tour pros targeting each one.
Unfortunately, it was a slow morning for many of the pro competitors I watched. Spinning tackle and finesse gear were the dominant tools of day one for guys trying to tempt five keeper bites. There were steady rumblings that the bite might pick up later in the day. If that’s the case, and the bite is all about timing, then I understand the strategy of bouncing around from spot to spot in search of an active school of fish. I guess I’d say most of the guys were fishing fast with finesse gear. It’s an interesting combination.
Another unexpected trend was the success of many of the co-anglers. I would have guessed that this would be a difficult tournament for a co-angler because the pro can often hold the boat in a way that makes it difficult to reach the sweet spot from the back of the boat. However, the biggest fish I saw caught this morning was caught by a co-angler, and I ran into about a half-dozen co-anglers with two or three keepers in the livewell before 1 p.m. I only talked to two pros with three keepers by that point and a handful more with just one or two. I think we’ll see some quality co-angler limits at this event, and there will definitely be good competition among those who fish from the back.
As this event continues, I’m anxious to see how the pressure in a relatively small area of the lake will affect the fishing. I drove through a lot of water in the large creeks and rivers between takeoff and the main lake today without ever seeing a competitor, then all at once found a dozen of them bunched in a group on the main lake. In fact, the gentleman with me, a representative from Damiki Tackle, pointed out loads of good-looking lay-downs, docks and other obvious cover in areas that weren’t being targeted by anyone. And I know from checking the contour map that there was plenty of offshore structure in those areas. Maybe by the end of the week the field will spread into the larger creek and river arms. Or maybe the best fish are just concentrated in a specific area of the lake. We’ll find out soon enough when we get to weigh-in.
It started with a Crazy Crawler
Famed lure collector Karl White takes a sampler of his collection to the Forrest Wood Cup Outdoors Expo
Aug-03-2010 08:45 AM byKarl White never met a lure he didn’t like. In fact, considering that he possesses many thousands of lures in his famous collection, it’s safe to say that nobody comes close to matching the Oklahoma man’s fondness for fishing lures.
White is one of the seminar speakers at the Forrest Wood Cup in Duluth, Ga., this weekend, and while he won’t be showing off all his collection at the Outoors Expo in the Gwinnett Center, he’ll have a lot of them on display.
“I thought that the folks who visit the Expo would like to see a collection of some of the more famous bass-fishing lures of the last century,” says White. “I’ve divided them up by the decades in which they were first offered and became famous. A lot of people will see lures that will bring back happy memories, no doubt.”
Lures on view in White’s booth at the Expo will include various Heddon, Creek Chub, Paw Paw and Shakespeare, in various configurations and that are surprisingly reminiscent of some of today’s most popular plugs. Though modern luremakers like to brag that their latest offerings are unique in design and action, White’s collection might convince visitors to the show that there’s really nothing new under the sun when it comes to enticing bass.
As fascinating as his collection is, White’s lifelong quest for the rarest of fishing lures encompasses a tale just as captivating. Like any good story of American determination applied toward a goal, White’s started out humbly.
One day when he was a boy, White slung a cane pole over his shoulder and went fishing at the Dolese Sand Pit near his grandmother’s house. He was using worms, but met a teenage boy there who had a bass plug tied to the line of his rod and reel. White had never seen an artificial lure used to catch fish, and as he unwrapped the line from his pole, he figured he was about to teach the other angler a lesson in how well live bait beats fake plugs. Yet within a few minutes, the teenager yelled “Hooked!” as a bass came splashing to the surface. He might as well have been talking of White, too, because the latter’s fascination with lures began then.
Determined that he would buy a lure just like the one his older fishing companion used to catch the small Oklahoma largemouth, White started saving the meager allowance his grandmother gave him. A nickel at a time, he collected his money and finally had enough to buy a Heddon Crazy Crawler like the one he had picked out of a mail-order catalog. The youngster sent his funds with his mother to purchase the Crazy Crawler from a local tackle store, but, much to his dismay, his mother returned without the lure. Its asking price had gone up by ten cents. Two more weeks went by before White possessed his first fishing lure.
White’s collection gradually grew throughout his youth and swelled after he reached adulthood. He went to University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, and double-majored in Biology and Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics. After graduation and a stint in the U.S. Army, he floated from job to job. While in the Army, he had served in a number of outpost areas and worked on projects that involved the application of the things that he had learned in college.
Eventually, he was employed by Stemen Laboratories in Oklahoma City and assigned to work on allergy treatments. After five years, White owned the fledgling company and had changed its name to Crystal Laboratory. He operated Crystal Laboratory for almost 40 years before selling it to another company. During all that time, White travelled the country with his wife Beverly and was able to track down and purchase other lure collections as well.
Today, the Karl White Lure Collection numbers more than 20,000 pieces, some of which are color sets that include 10 to 15 individual lures. The collection has been declared the most comprehensive and complete collection in the world by fishing tackle experts. At one time three-fourths of his collection was displayed in a 10,000-square-foot building, but the whole collection has never been displayed at one time. That might change soon, however, as White is negotiating a deal with a major company to house his entire collection.
Not only is he a respected lure collector, but Karl White is regarded as the most knowledgeable fishing tackle expert in the country. If you have the chance to visit with him during the Forrest Wood Cup, you’ll understand why he deserves that designation.