168 Fun Facts About Bass Fishing

Black bass such as the largemouth actually belong to which family?

Sunfishes (Centrarchidae): the word 'bass' comes from a medieval English name for the perch, yet black bass are neither perch nor true bass but big cousins of the bluegill.

At the first Bassmaster Classic in 1971, who rode in each competitor's boat and fished alongside him?

An outdoor writer: Ray Scott invited the press along to interview, photograph and fish beside the 24 qualifiers, reckoning that reporters in the boats would win his new championship more coverage.

How far back does the upper jaw of a largemouth bass reach?

Past the eye: the upper jaw runs beyond the eye's rear edge, which gave the fish its name and lets anglers tell it from a smallmouth, whose jaw never reaches that far.

Which of these is a common nickname for the largemouth bass?

Bucketmouth nods to the largemouth's huge gape; bronzeback is the smallmouth, rockfish the striped bass, and the warmouth is a separate, smaller sunfish.

George Perry caught his 1932 world-record largemouth on a Fintail Shiner, a wooden lure made by which company?

Creek Chub: collectors long credited its Wigglefish, until a taped 1973 interview surfaced in which Perry named the Fintail Shiner, the only lure he and his partner had that day.

How much did George Perry's 1932 world-record largemouth weigh?

22 lb 4 oz: it beat the old record by more than two pounds and has never been topped; a later fish from Japan was a shade heavier at 10.12 kg against 10.09, yet counts only as a tie.

In which US state was the 1932 world-record largemouth bass caught?

Georgia: George Perry, a young Telfair County farmer, was fishing to feed his family in the Depression, so the record bass was cleaned and eaten the day he caught it.

What was George Perry's only reward for his 1932 world-record largemouth?

$75 of gear from Field & Stream: someone in town mentioned the magazine's big-fish contest, which is the only reason Perry had his catch weighed and measured at all.

Which Japanese lake produced the 2009 largemouth that tied the world record?

Biwa: Manabu Kurita's bait was a live bluegill, an American import like the bass itself, and the two species now crowd the native fish of Japan's largest lake.

The largemouth is the official state freshwater fish of Florida and which other state?

Alabama: the tarpon had held its state-fish title since 1955, so in 1975 the largemouth was added beside it as the official freshwater fish.

The smallmouth bass is named in Latin for a French geologist who also gave his name to which mountain range?

The Dolomites: Déodat de Dolomieu had just been freed from 21 months in a Sicilian cell when a friend named the fish in his honour, and he died before the description reached print.

Compared with largemouth, smallmouth bass prefer what kind of water?

Cooler and clearer: smallmouth keep to rocky lakes and current-swept rivers, and in summer heat they slide into deeper, faster water while largemouth hold in warm, weedy shallows.

The world record smallmouth, 11 lb 15 oz, came from which reservoir in 1955?

Dale Hollow: David Hayes caught the fish there in July 1955; the IGFA struck the record in the 1990s over a tampering claim, found the claim untrue and reinstated it in 2005.

Which black bass is the official state fish of Texas?

Guadalupe bass: Texas honoured a fish found nowhere else, a black bass that never grows large because it is built for small, fast-flowing streams rather than lakes.

Which parent guards the nest and fry after black bass spawn?

The male: he sweeps out the nest, drives his mate away once she has laid, then guards the eggs and the newly hatched fry alone until they scatter.

Which part of a bass do anglers grip to lift it from the water?

Anglers 'lip' a bass by its lower lip because its teeth are too fine to cut skin; a heavy fish should be held horizontally to avoid straining the jaw.

A cross between a striped bass and a white bass is commonly called what?

A wiper: the name blends white bass and striper, and fish farmers favour the cross because it stands warm water and low oxygen better than either parent, so it is easier to raise in ponds.

Which 23-year-old club angler in 1994 became the first amateur qualifier to win the Bassmaster Classic?

Bryan Kerchal qualified through his local bass club, then beat the pros by working a plastic worm around boat docks; he died in a plane crash about five months later.

Where was the first B.A.S.S. tournament held in June 1967?

Beaver Lake, Arkansas: Ray Scott wanted bass fishing to stand on a par with golf, so he ran his All-American there under strict rules, a break from the loosely run local derbies of the day.

Where was the first Bassmaster Classic held, in 1971?

The 1971 Classic was fished on Lake Mead, Nevada; Bobby Murray of Arkansas won its $10,000 first prize.

Until 1977 the Bassmaster Classic used what kind of venue?

A 'mystery lake' revealed only in the air: anglers boarded a flight not knowing where they would fish, so nobody could scout the water; the venue was announced from 1977 so fans could attend.

How did Jim Bitter, leading the 1989 Bassmaster Classic, lose it on the final day?

He dropped a bass overboard: Bitter had just unhooked and measured the keeper when it slipped away and flopped back into the river, and he lost the title by only a couple of ounces.

Pro bass legend Kevin 'KVD' VanDam hails from which Michigan city?

Kalamazoo: VanDam made speed his trademark, firing fast-moving spinnerbaits and crankbaits to cover far more water than his rivals, a style known as power fishing.

In 2019, at age 72, Rick Clunn became the oldest angler ever to do what?

Win a Bassmaster Elite Series event: Clunn sealed it with two nine-pound bass on the final day, three years after telling fans never to accept that their best moments are behind them.

Which legend holds a record nine B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year titles yet never won the Classic?

Roland Martin: he is credited with coining 'pattern fishing' in 1969, the idea that bass found under one set of conditions will be holding in similar spots all over the lake.

TV host Bill Dance is instantly recognizable by his sunglasses and a cap from which university?

Tennessee: Dance wears the Volunteers' orange and white on air, and he was headed for a career in medicine until he came upon a grisly motorcycle crash and changed his mind.

What set Major League Fishing apart from traditional tournaments at its launch?

Every bass was weighed aboard and released: a referee in each boat scored the catch on the spot, so anglers watched a live leaderboard instead of waiting for a dockside weigh-in.

In a typical multi-day bass tournament, how many fish does each angler weigh per day?

Their best 5: the fish must reach the scales alive, since a dead one draws a weight penalty or is not weighed at all, and the catch is released after the weigh-in.

Where did Johnny Morris first sell the fishing tackle that grew into Bass Pro Shops?

His father's liquor store: Morris set up a small tackle display at the back of a Brown Derby shop in Springfield, Missouri, and passing anglers were soon phoning in orders from home.

Which outdoor retailer did Bass Pro Shops acquire in 2017?

Cabela's: Bass Pro agreed a multibillion-dollar deal for its Nebraska catalog rival in 2016, and many Cabela's stores have since been rebranded as Bass Pro Shops.

Before Bass Pro Shops turned it into a megastore in 2015, the Memphis Pyramid served as what?

A basketball arena: the 20,000-seat Pyramid housed the University of Memphis and then the NBA's Grizzlies until both left in 2004, and it stood largely unused for a decade.

Which lure company is said to have begun when a beekeeper's whittled stick, tossed into a millpond, drew a bass?

Heddon: James Heddon is credited with the first wooden-bodied lures, and the surface bait he built after that splash went on sale under the name of his home town, Dowagiac.

Lauri Rapala carved his first lure in 1936 in which country?

Finland: Rapala, a commercial fisherman on Lake Päijänne, saw that predators picked off the minnow that swam with a wounded wobble, so he carved a cork lure to copy it.

Rapala broke through in America via a 1962 Life magazine issue that also covered what?

The death of Marilyn Monroe: the August 1962 issue became Life's best seller, and the surge in American orders that followed led the Rapala family to open a second factory the next year.

What is a bass spinnerbait built around?

A bent wire arm with a blade: the frame opens like a safety pin, with the hook on the lower arm and a blade spinning above it whose flash and throb mimic a small fleeing fish.

What gives a crankbait its wobble and controls how deep it dives?

The bib or lip under its head: water pressing on it drives the lure down and sets it wobbling, so a large lip digs metres deep while a small one keeps the bait near the surface.

A Texas rig pairs a soft-plastic lure and an offset hook with which weight?

A sliding bullet sinker: its pointed shape slips through weeds ahead of the bait, and with the hook point buried in the plastic the rig is far less likely to hang up on debris.

Which of these is a topwater lure style?

A popper has a cupped face that spits and gurgles when it is twitched across the top, like prey struggling at the surface, so the strike comes in full view.

Which feature of the 1948 Skeeter, often called the first bass boat, earned it the mosquito's nickname?

A long, pointed bow: Holmes Thurmond's low, quick boat reminded anglers of a needle-nosed mosquito, 'skeeter' in American slang, and the nickname became the brand.

Which company's 'Little Green Box' of the late 1950s was the first sonar fish finder sold to American anglers?

Lowrance: Carl Lowrance and his sons were keen skin divers who had seen that fish gather in a few spots, so they built a portable sonar to find those spots from the surface.

Which Japanese-born angler in 2004 became the first non-American to win the Bassmaster Classic?

Takahiro Omori passed up university and worked restaurant jobs to chase a career as a bass pro; after his win, no other foreign-born angler took the Classic for nearly twenty years.

In Japan, introduced black bass have been officially designated as what?

Nuisance fish subject to eradication: Japan's Invasive Alien Species Act took force in 2005, after bass released for sport had cut deep into native fish such as bitterlings.

What marking runs along the side of a largemouth bass?

A dark horizontal stripe: a line of dark blotches runs from gill to tail along the green flank, a marking echoed in the fish's Texas nickname, lineside bass.

What does a largemouth bass's swim bladder control?

The gas-filled swim bladder regulates buoyancy, letting a bass hover at any depth; a fish hauled quickly from deep water can suffer barotrauma as the bladder over-expands.

George Perry's 1932 world-record largemouth came from which body of water in Telfair County?

Montgomery Lake is no true lake but a narrow oxbow slough off the Ocmulgee River, today part of Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area.

Under IGFA rules, by how much must a new largemouth bass beat the world record to replace it?

Two ounces: that is why Manabu Kurita's 2009 bass, at 10.12 kg about an ounce heavier than George Perry's 10.09, shares the record instead of holding it alone.

What did wealthy 19th-century US sport anglers mostly confine themselves to, ignoring bass?

Fly rods for trout and salmon: the bias lasted well into the next century, with trout still leading the outdoor magazines in 1932 and bass still dismissed by some as 'trash' fish in the 1960s.

Which soft-plastic stick bait is most closely tied to the wacky rig?

Senko: Gary Yamamoto's plain stick of plastic is hooked through the middle rather than at one end, so both tips flutter as it sinks.

What mainly triggers largemouth bass to move onto their spawning beds each spring?

Water warming to about 60°F: that is why the spawn can start in February in Texas yet run into early July in the northern states and Canada.

Why do fisheries agencies in warm states stock the Florida strain of largemouth bass?

It grows bigger: the Florida fish outgrows the northern largemouth in warm water, which is how stockings helped turn Lake Fork into one of the country's premier trophy bass lakes.

In parts of the South, the largemouth bass has long gone by which misleading name?

Green trout: Southerners called the fish a trout so early that the specimen behind its old species name salmoides, 'trout-like', reached France from Charleston labelled as one.

In heavily weeded waters, largemouth bass tend to grow how, according to prey studies?

Bass grow more slowly in heavily weeded water because dense cover makes prey hard to catch; with too little cover they can devastate prey and starve.

Which sex of largemouth bass grows larger?

Female: she rarely lays all her eggs at once, instead spawning in bursts, often in more than one nest, over a few days.

What does Micropterus, the scientific name of the black bass genus, mean?

Small fin: the naturalist Lacépède worked from a specimen with a torn dorsal fin and took its loose rear rays for a separate little fin, so the name records an injury.

Which invasive Great Lakes fish raids smallmouth bass nests yet has become a staple of the bass's own diet?

Round goby: gobies swarm a nest the moment its guardian is pulled away, which is why Ohio began closing Lake Erie's smallmouth harvest each May and June in 2004.

Black bass stocked for tourist anglers in 1958 helped wipe out a flightless grebe on Lake Atitlán, in which country?

Guatemala: Pan Am pushed the stocking to lure visiting anglers, and the bass devoured the small native fish the grebe fed on, which helped push the bird to extinction.

Which state was the first to make bass fishing an officially sanctioned high-school sport?

Illinois: the lead came from the Midwest rather than the Southern heartland of the sport, with a state championship series that other states soon copied.

Biologists treat a thriving smallmouth bass population as a natural indicator of what?

Clean, unpolluted water: smallmouth will not tolerate pollution or silt, although they are still tougher than most trout.

By what other common name is the spotted bass widely known?

Kentucky bass: the state made the 'Kentucky spotted bass' its official fish in 1956, although the species ranges from the Ohio valley to the Gulf Coast.

Which feature inside the mouth helps anglers tell a spotted bass from a largemouth?

A rough patch on the tongue: anglers run a thumb over it to feel the small bed of teeth, since a largemouth's tongue is smooth and the two fish look much alike.

Who invented the modern plastic worm in Ohio in 1949, a lure credited with revolutionising bass fishing?

Nick Creme first sold his worms by mail, and the lure only took off years later, once Southern bass anglers and the early tournament pros adopted it.

The Guadalupe bass is native to which upland region of central Texas?

Edwards Plateau: the fish is built for the plateau's clear, fast-flowing streams, so it gives way to largemouth wherever the water turns still.

What happened after smallmouth bass were stocked in the Guadalupe bass's home streams?

The two species interbred: hybrids now turn up in Canyon Lake and the San Marcos system, and the crossbreeding ranks among the chief threats to the pure Guadalupe bass.

What nickname do fly fishers give the current-loving Guadalupe bass?

Texas brook trout: like a brook trout it holds in swift water and feeds heavily on insects, which is why fly fishers prize it.

Which Arkansas angler won the very first Bassmaster Classic in 1971 and took a second title in 1978?

Bobby Murray ran from cove to cove with a spinnerbait in 1971, caught his bass barely two feet down and kept the whole purse, since the first Classic was winner-take-all.

Which sonar technology, sold to anglers since 2015, shows a fish reacting to the lure in real time?

Forward-facing sonar: B.A.S.S. limited its top anglers to one live transducer and 55 inches of screen for 2025, then allowed the technology at no more than five of its nine Elite events in 2026.

Which bay is the spawning ground and nursery for most of the Atlantic coast's striped bass?

Chesapeake Bay: 70 to 90 percent of Atlantic stripers spawn in its tidal rivers, so fish tagged there have turned up as far away as Canadian waters.

The shoal bass's scientific name, Micropterus cataractae, points to which kind of habitat?

Waterfalls: 'cataractae' means 'of waterfalls', for the rocky rapids the fish needs to spawn, which is why dams that drown a river's shoals have made it scarce.

Which relatively undammed river holds the most plentiful shoal bass?

The Flint: with few dams it still has the rocky shoals the fish needs to spawn, and a share of the state record, an 8 lb 5 oz shoal bass, came from the river in 2022.

Which state has produced most of the giant largemouth in the IGFA's line-class record book?

California: its bass grow fat on the rainbow trout stocked in the same lakes, and Castaic Lake alone gave up fish of 19, 21 and 22 pounds between 1989 and 1991.

The Suwannee bass, one of the smallest black bass, is native to rivers in which two states?

Florida and Georgia: it keeps to spring-fed limestone stretches of the Suwannee and Ochlockonee systems and is absent from the acidic water draining the Okefenokee Swamp.

In the tidal lower Suwannee, what unusual prey does the Suwannee bass take?

Blue crab: crayfish dominate this bass's diet everywhere else, so where the tide pushes upriver it turns to the crustacean on hand.

Which 1881 classic did James A. Henshall, honoured in Micropterus henshalli, write?

Dr James A. Henshall, a Cincinnati physician, published the Book of the Black Bass in 1881, declaring the bass 'inch for inch and pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims'.

Which two future US presidents stood on stage as Rick Clunn won the 1984 Bassmaster Classic?

Bush Sr. and Clinton: the vice president and Arkansas's governor flanked Clunn as he told the crowd that only in America could a man follow his dream of chasing little green fish.

Greg Myerson's 81 lb 14 oz striped bass, which set the rod-and-reel world record in 2011, was caught off which state?

Connecticut: the fish took a live eel off Westbrook and toppled a record, caught from a New Jersey beach, that had stood for nearly 30 years.

Which state's official state fish is the rockfish, its own name for the striped bass?

Maryland: lawmakers honoured the rockfish in 1965, declaring it a simple act of justice to this 'fine old Maryland fish' and its 'unexcelled delicacy'.

Striped bass were stocked in many reservoirs partly to control which prey fish?

Gizzard shad: agencies stocked stripers in big reservoirs to prey on the shad and for sport, yet few of those lakes let the fish breed, so most must be restocked every year.

A 2007 executive order made striped bass a protected game fish in federal waters along with which other species?

Red drum: George W. Bush's order told agencies to keep both fish off the commercial market when caught in federal waters, where striper fishing was already closed.

Which state names the white or sand bass as its official state fish?

Oklahoma made the white bass, known locally as the sand bass, its state fish; each spring schools of males push up reservoir tributaries as much as a month ahead of the females.

After spawning, what care do white bass give their eggs and young?

None; both adults leave: white bass build no nest, and a big hen simply scatters up to a million sticky eggs over gravel before the school drifts back to deeper water.

Which South Carolina lakes, by trapping sea-run stripers behind their dams, first showed striped bass could live landlocked?

Santee Cooper: stripers cut off by the dams of Lakes Marion and Moultrie kept spawning in the rivers above, and once biologists noticed, states began stocking reservoirs across the country.

Peacock bass belong to which family of fishes, unrelated to true basses?

Cichlids: Florida released butterfly peacock bass into Miami-area canals in 1984 to eat exotic fish such as the spotted tilapia, and cold water keeps the Amazon natives from spreading north.

Peacock bass take their English name from which feature?

An eyespot on the tail: the black spot ringed in gold looks like the eye on a peacock's feather, and it is thought to put off fin-biting piranhas.

The Bassmaster Classic is widely nicknamed after which other championship?

The Super Bowl: the 'Super Bowl of Bass Fishing' earns the name with weigh-ins that fill sports arenas and a week of crowds that tops 100,000.

Who became the first B.A.S.S. member by paying $100 for a lifetime membership in 1968?

Don Butler, a lumberyard owner, said he joined mostly to encourage the founder, then won the 1972 Bassmaster Classic on a spinnerbait he designed himself.

B.A.S.S. made national news by suing more than 200 companies over what?

Water pollution: the anglers' lawsuits put the young society on national news and have been credited with helping spur the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Kim Bain-Moore, the first woman to fish the Bassmaster Classic, came from which country?

Australia: Bain-Moore earned her 2009 berth as the women's tour's Angler of the Year, a route only one more woman used before the tour closed.

The 1980 Bassmaster Classic was held on which waterway at Alexandria Bay, New York?

The Saint Lawrence: after nine Classics in the South and West, the tenth went north for the first time, to the Thousand Islands of upstate New York.

Which Louisiana city hosted the Classic on the Red River in 2009 and 2012?

Shreveport: when the Classic first came to the Red River in 2009, a woman fished it for the first time, after 38 Classics contested only by men.

Who caught the largest bass in Bassmaster Classic history, an 11 lb 10 oz fish on Lake Toho in 2006?

Preston Clark's 11 lb 10 oz largemouth from Lake Toho in 2006 is the biggest bass ever weighed at a Classic; Paul Mueller's 32-3 bag at Guntersville in 2014 is the heaviest single day.

Which angler set the Classic's heaviest total weight, 76-15, on Lake Ray Roberts in 2025?

Easton Fothergill's total beat Rick Clunn's 75 lb 9 oz, a Classic record that had stood since 1984.

On day two of his first Classic win in 1976, what did Rick Clunn leave behind in his hotel room?

His tackle box: Clunn was nearly at the water before he noticed, went back for it, and still weighed 33 lb 5 oz, then the heaviest one-day catch in Classic history.

Which angler finished second at the Bassmaster Classic a record four times without ever winning?

Aaron Martens was runner-up in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2011; in 2004 a rival's final-hour flurry of keepers beat him on Lake Wylie.

Which angler erased a record final-day deficit of nearly 14 pounds to win the 2017 Classic on Lake Conroe?

Jordan Lee began the last day 13 lb 14 oz behind, the biggest final-day comeback in Classic history; just three years earlier Randy Howell had charged from 11th place to win.

Which tackle brand, maker of Trilene line, began in 1937 with an Iowa teenager tying flies from dog hair?

Berkley: founder Berkley Bedell was still in high school when he started the business, and decades later he represented Iowa in the US Congress.

In 2012 Andrew Upshaw became the first angler to reach the Bassmaster Classic through which route?

College fishing: Upshaw's Stephen F. Austin team won the national title, then he had to beat his own teammate in a fish-off for the single Classic berth.

Which Classic champion became the first angler pictured on a Wheaties box, in 1998?

Denny Brauer won both the Bassmaster Classic and FLW's Angler of the Year title in 1998, which put him on the cereal box alongside champions like Michael Jordan.

Kevin VanDam won the 2005 Bassmaster Classic with its lightest winning weight ever, under 13 pounds, in which city?

Pittsburgh: anglers fished where the Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form the Ohio, and 12 lb 15 oz over three days was enough to win.

Which lake is joined to Kentucky Lake by a canal, with Land Between the Lakes lying between them?

Lake Barkley: the canal joining the two lakes turned the land between them into one of the largest inland peninsulas in the United States.

On which tour did Kevin VanDam fish his final season in 2023?

Bass Pro Tour: VanDam was a founding member of Major League Fishing and announced in February 2023 that its season would be his last.

Which north-flowing Florida river hosted Bassmaster Elite Series events in 2016 and 2019?

The St. Johns falls less than 30 feet from headwaters to sea, so it drifts north at about a third of a mile an hour and is often called lazy.

Which two-time Classic champion first won the Grand Slam of Classic, AOY and SuperBass?

Hank Parker left the tour after 13 straight Classic appearances and is now better known for his long-running TV show, Hank Parker's Outdoor Magazine.

Paul Elias won the 1982 Classic with which signature trick for making a crankbait run deeper?

Kneel and reel: the tactic got Elias's diving crankbaits down to bass on a submerged river ridge, and it made him a recognised master of deep cranking.

In which city is Major League Fishing headquartered?

Tulsa is home to a league that began as a TV show: its first event was filmed at Amistad Reservoir in 2011 and the results stayed secret until it aired in 2012.

Which two pros originally came up with the idea of Major League Fishing?

Boyd Duckett and Gary Klein represented the touring pros' association when it met a television partner in 2010 to plan the league's first competition.

Which TV network partnered with touring pros to launch Major League Fishing?

Outdoor Channel built the league with the pros' association in 2010 and owned half of it when Major League Fishing bought rival FLW in 2019.

What is the name of Major League Fishing's championship event held since 2019?

REDCREST's first champion, Edwin Evers, had already won the Bassmaster Classic in 2016, so he took the biggest title on both rival tours.

FLW takes its initials from Forrest L. Wood, founder of which boat company?

Ranger began as a winter boat-repair sideline to keep Forrest Wood's fishing guides busy, and the firm went on to sponsor the tour that carries his initials.

Under what name was FLW founded in 1979 by teacher-turned-salesman Mike Whitaker?

Operation Bass ran one-day weekend tournaments for anglers who could not take time off work or pay high entry fees, the so-called weekend warriors.

Which giant retailer became title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997?

Walmart's arrival opened the door to more than 50 consumer brands, from General Motors to Kellogg's, that went on to sponsor FLW events.

Which Minneapolis businessman bought FLW in 1996 and owned it until his death in 2019?

Irwin L. Jacobs, whose Genmar group built bass boats, bought the tour to reach the buying power of America's 50 million anglers.

To which city did B.A.S.S. move its headquarters from Celebration, Florida in 2011?

Birmingham became home in 2011 after new owners Don Logan, Jerry McKinnis and Jim Copeland took over the society and moved it out of Florida.

Who won the first B.A.S.S. tournament in 1967, which offered $2,000 and a trip to Acapulco?

Stan Sloan of Nashville, later founder of Zorro Bait Company, won the 1967 All-American on Beaver Lake; the 106 entrants each paid $100 to fish.

Which pro became the first angler to win $1 million in prize money on the B.A.S.S. trail?

Larry Nixon got there first, helped by four Megabucks titles, three of them in a row, on top of Angler of the Year crowns in 1980 and 1982.

Which Canadian angler won back-to-back Bassmaster Angler of the Year titles in 2024 and 2025?

Chris Johnston of Peterborough, Ontario, won Angler of the Year in 2024, the first Canadian to do so, and repeated in 2025; his brother Cory also fishes the Elites.

Who won the very first B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year award, in 1970?

Bill Dance won the inaugural Angler of the Year title in 1970 and added two more in 1974 and 1977 before leaving competition for television.

The 2000 Bassmaster Classic was fished on one of the Great Lakes, with boats launching from which city?

Chicago: with heavy swells on the open lake, Woo Daves won by working one narrow channel beside a downtown breakwater on delicate six-pound line.

How did Johnny Morris first reach Bass Pro Shops customers beyond Springfield, starting in 1974?

A mail-order catalog: anglers who had shopped in Springfield kept phoning for more lures after they went home, so Morris put his tackle in print.

Which Bass Pro Shops brand, launched in 1978, was the first boat, motor and trailer package for anglers?

Tracker Boats grew from Morris's hunch that anglers wanted one stop for a fully rigged, ready-to-fish outfit instead of matching boat, motor and trailer themselves.

On which Ozark reservoir did Johnny Morris open Big Cedar Lodge in 1988?

Table Rock Lake: the lodge Morris opened there grew into a golf resort whose Top of the Rock course was designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Which Springfield museum and aquarium did Johnny Morris reopen in 2017 after a decade-long expansion?

Wonders of Wildlife first opened in 2001, closed in 2007 and came back ten years later with 1.5 million gallons of aquariums and 35,000 live animals.

Buck Perry, inventor of the Spoonplug lure, is widely called the father of what?

Structure fishing grew from Perry's observation that schools of fish follow predictable paths along the bottom between deep and shallow water.

Why was Dottie, a 25-pound largemouth caught at Dixon Lake in 2006, kept out of the world record book?

It was foul-hooked: the hook had lodged in the fish's side, not its mouth, and after a storm of criticism Mac Weakley chose not to apply for the record.

Lauri Rapala's first lure was carved from cork with what tool?

A shoemaker's knife shaped the cork; Rapala then wrapped it in foil and coated it with melted photographic negatives because he could not afford lacquer.

Ray Scott made tournament anglers wear life jackets and pushed to make which boat safety device standard?

The kill switch campaign sat alongside his rule that anglers wear life preservers whenever their outboards were running, and he later helped pass an Alabama boating safety law.

Which fishing-line brand belongs to the Rapala VMC group?

Rapala VMC bought the Sufix line brand in 2008; the group also owns knife maker Marttiini and the lure brands Blue Fox and Storm.

Shimano, a leading maker of bass reels, earns most of its revenue from parts for what?

Bicycles: when America's 1970s bike boom outran what Europe's parts makers could supply, Shimano stepped in to fill the gap.

Fishing a plastic worm in and around heavy cover such as weeds and trees is called what?

Flipping and pitching are short, accurate underhand presentations that drop a Texas-rigged worm or jig into weed mats, laydowns and dock posts without a long cast.

Which round spinnerbait blade is built for maximum vibration in murky water?

The round Colorado blade displaces the most water and thumps hardest, so anglers pick it for murky water, cold water or night fishing.

Which sensory organ do spinnerbaits provoke with their turbulence?

The lateral line, a row of vibration-sensing pores along the flank, lets a bass 'feel' a thumping blade from a distance, even in muddy water.

Which Heddon lure is the classic 'walk-the-dog' topwater?

The Zara Spook began as a wooden lure called the Zaragossa; when Heddon moulded it in plastic in 1939 it added 'Spook', its label for plastic lures.

Which jighead shape is built to drag across rocky bottoms without rolling over?

A football jig's wide, oval head straddles rocks and drags over gravel without rolling, making it the standard for deep structure fishing with a craw trailer.

The Red Man Tournament Trail, launched for weekend bass anglers in 1983, was named for a brand of what?

Chewing tobacco: Pinkerton Tobacco's Red Man brand backed the trail, an early case of a company from outside fishing sponsoring bass tournaments.

After starting out in plywood, Skeeter moved to building its bass boats from which material?

Fibreglass: after the switch, Skeeter turned to tournament-ready bass boats just as the sport's boat boom was taking off.

Which company acquired Skeeter Fishing Boats in 1996?

Yamaha Motor bought Skeeter in 1996 and pairs the hulls with its own outboards; Brunswick owns Mercury, while Bass Pro's group holds Ranger, Nitro, Tracker and Triton.

In which Arkansas town did Forrest and Nina Wood found their boat company in 1968?

Flippin was also Forrest Wood's birthplace, and the boat works became the largest employer in north-central Arkansas.

Rick Clunn quit which desk job in the 1970s to chase a living as a bass pro?

Computer programmer: Clunn left Exxon, guided on Lake Conroe while his savings dwindled, and earned $275 from his first Bassmaster event in 1974.

O.G. Schmidt built the first electric trolling motor in 1934 using the starter motor from what?

Schmidt adapted a Ford Model A starter motor and a flexible shaft into the first electric trolling motor in Fargo in 1934, naming the firm Minn Kota for the Minnesota–North Dakota border.

Fishfinders were derived from which navigation instrument?

Fishfinders grew out of the fathometer, an echo-sounding depth instrument for navigation; the transducer sends a sound pulse and times the echo from bottom or fish.

Which sports network owned B.A.S.S. from 2001 until a group of investors bought it in 2010?

ESPN bought the society in 2001 and added an outdoor sportsman category to its ESPY awards the next year, won by a bass angler.

Which state first used catch and release as a management tool in the US, in 1952?

Michigan introduced catch-and-release 'no-kill' trout regulations in 1952 to cut the cost of stocking hatchery fish, the first US state to use release as a management tool.

Which fly angler coined 'Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once'?

Lee Wulff set out the case for release in his Handbook of Freshwater Fishing; Don Martinez, a Montana fly-shop owner, pushed the same idea in his newsletters.

Which lake, the largest in Florida, covers about 730 square miles?

Lake Okeechobee is too wide to see across, yet it is exceptionally shallow for its size, averaging only about 9 feet deep.

Toledo Bend Reservoir lies on which waterway between Texas and Louisiana?

Toledo Bend impounds the Sabine River along the Texas–Louisiana line; at about 185,000 acres it is the largest man-made lake in the South.

Sam Rayburn Reservoir was known by what name until 1963?

McGee Bend was renamed to honour the recently deceased House Speaker, and at the 1965 dedication President Johnson gave the main address by telephone.

Sam Rayburn Reservoir impounds which East Texas river?

The Angelina, the main tributary of the Neches, fills the largest lake lying wholly inside Texas; bigger Toledo Bend is shared with Louisiana.

Lake Fork, the East Texas trophy bass lake, officially serves as a water supply for which big city?

Dallas: the lake is a city water supply, yet its builders left much of the flooded timber standing and stocked Florida-strain bass before it had even filled.

Which northeastern bass lake was officially one of the Great Lakes for a few weeks in 1998?

Lake Champlain: a line in a federal funding bill gave it the title so its states could seek Sea Grant money, and Midwestern outrage had Congress take it back.

Which invasive fish, imported by Southern fish farmers in the 1970s, has spread into Kentucky Lake?

Asian carp were brought from China to clean commercial fish ponds, then multiplied through the Mississippi basin and now compete with the lake's native fish.

Which waterway is impounded by the 1958 dam near Branson, Missouri?

Table Rock Dam, completed in 1958 just upstream of Branson, impounds the White River; its cold tailwater created the trout fishery of Lake Taneycomo below.

French explorers named Lake St. Clair in 1679 after sighting it on whose feast day?

Clare of Assisi's feast fell on 12 August in 1679, the day La Salle's expedition sighted the lake; the Church now keeps it on 11 August.

Largemouth make up two-thirds of the catch on which lake, the largest natural freshwater lake wholly inside California?

Clear Lake has held water for nearly half a million years because the block of rock beneath it tilts as fast as sediment fills the basin.

Which Confederate veteran and poet names the reservoir behind Buford Dam near Atlanta?

Lake Sidney Lanier honours the Georgia poet, a Confederate veteran who wrote 'The Song of the Chattahoochee'; Buford Dam impounded the river in 1956.

Whose 22.01-pound Castaic Lake largemouth of 1991 fell just short of the world record?

Bob Crupi weighed the 22.01-pound largemouth at Castaic Lake in March 1991 and released it alive, a few ounces short of the record set in 1932.

Which river, a tributary of the Cumberland, was dammed in 1943 to create Dale Hollow Lake?

The Obey's rising water drowned the town of Willow Grove, bought out by the government in 1942; its former residents still gather every Labor Day weekend.

Which smallmouth specialist from the town of Celina hosted the 1980s TV show Fishing Diary?

Billy Westmoreland started guiding as a boy, by legend at just 13, and Bassmaster's writers leaned on him for anything about what he called 'them old brown fish'.

Japan's largest lake, home of the record-tying largemouth, is named for its resemblance to what?

A stringed instrument: the outline is generally believed to have suggested a traditional Japanese lute, though before the Edo period the lake was known as the Freshwater Sea.

The Bassmasters, B.A.S.S.'s tournament TV series, first aired in the mid-1980s on which cable network?

The Nashville Network: the series grew out of the films Bob Cobb made of each Classic, and it carried tournament bass fishing to a national cable audience.

Which soft-plastic rig hangs the hook above a sinker tied at the line's end?

A drop shot puts the sinker at the line's end and the hook a foot or more above it, so the bait hovers off the bottom instead of lying on it.

Some anglers add a bead to a Texas rig so the weight clicks against it, imitating what?

The glass bead clicking against the bullet weight mimics the clicking of a crayfish's claws, drawing bass to the bait; a toothpick or bobber stop can peg the weight instead.

The reel maker Abu Garcia began in 1921 as a watch and taximeter factory in which country?

Sweden: the firm was AB Urfabriken, 'Watch Factory Ltd', and it turned to reels during World War II when demand for its timepieces and meters fell away.

Which firm, alongside Denison-Johnson, introduced the first commercial spincast reels in 1949?

Zero Hour Bomb, soon shortened to Zebco, sold a reel whose enclosed spool spared anglers the backlash that plagues baitcasting gear.

Which TV angler is known for his bowl haircut and an unmistakable giggle?

Jimmy Houston's giggle fronted Jimmy Houston Outdoors for decades, and he backed it up on the water with Angler of the Year titles in 1976 and 1986.

Which teardrop-shaped spinnerbait blade splits the difference between Colorado and willowleaf?

Indiana: the blade is a hybrid of the other two shapes, and it is said to take its name from Hildebrandt, an Indiana lure maker that popularised it.

The Bassmaster Classic moved from autumn to summer in 1984 and then to which season in 2006?

Late winter paid off at once: the 2006 Classic on Florida's Lake Toho produced the biggest bass in the event's history, 11 lb 10 oz.

Which Texas programme, begun in 1986, asks anglers to loan it their largemouth of 13 pounds or more for breeding?

ShareLunker spawns the loaned giants and stocks their offspring back into the state's lakes, so one angler's catch can seed many more.

Which father and son have both won the Bassmaster Classic?

Guido and Dion Hibdon: Guido won on the James River in 1988 with his son fishing his first Classic in the same field, and Dion took the title himself nine years later.

Which French spinning reel had Garcia been importing since 1947, before it took on ABU's products?

The Mitchell 300 came first; Garcia added ABU's reels, including the Ambassadeur, in the 1950s, and the two names were later joined as Abu Garcia.