[jerrl]

The best bass fisherman I have ever seen was a fellow from Southeastern Missouri. I will just call him Terry. Not his real name but close.

I have seen Terry fish a milfoil edge with a crank bait, catching dozens of nice bass when the guy in the back (me) fishing an identical bait could only catch grass.

I have sat in my boat and watched Terry catch multiple limits of 6lb plus bass out of the back seat when I never had a bite.

Why isn't this guy on TV winning the B/M Classic? Simple, he is just unable to mentally deal with those rare occasions when he catches little or nothing and others step to the scales with good catches. I have seen people like Rick Clunn, Roland Martin, or Paul Elias go zero at the scales and grin about it. But not Terry, he would be devastated.

One year we did talk Terry into entering a big tournament in Florida. It was a 4 day deal with all the big names entered and had a $1,000 entry fee. After day 3, Terry was in 4th place and he drew one of the` premiere names in the field, a past 2X winner of THE classic and a real prima donna. This guy insisted on running way on the other side of the lake away from Terry's fish. To make a longer story shorter, Terry still finished in 2nd place only ounces from first. To my knowledge, Terry has never entered another big time tournament.

The point of this story... You can't be the best without taking the same risk of loosing.

 

[Lawdog]

Who is the best bass fisherman you've ever

jerrl,

The best bass fisherman I've ever known was a guy I met when I was 11. Charlie(he's real name) was a commercial salmon fisherman from over on the coast. He is the one that really taught me about fishing. Took me under his wing and became an unofficial family Uncle. That man could catch fish when no one else was catching anything but cold. His two favorite lures for bass were spinnerbaits and jigs. Charlie was everything a outdoorsman should be. Hunter, fisherman and woodsman. Charlie left us to fish with another well known fisherman in that great body of water on high. Now I try to pass on what he taught me. Lawdog

 

[Skipper]

This is a tough call

I've known a lot of really good bass fishermen over the years.

My Dad: He's the big bass king. When dad and I go fishing, I can fish circles around him all day or week long. On a regular basis, I out catch him 2 to 1 or better, but I can always count on that "Get the Net" from him. I don't know how many times I've caught 20 fish and he's caught 5 but 1 of his was 8 lb or better. He just kinda fishes and fishes, and you turn around and on the end of his line is the big fish of the day.

Rex Huff: Rex is about my age, and could compete with the best. He finished 2nd in the first M1 tourney, but chooses not to tour because of business and family obligations. Trust me, he could hit the road on the top 150 any day he chose to.

Finley Murphy, Mike Boggs, Tony Jackson, Robert Ballou, Terry Disney, Joel Wells and more are some of the better locals in this area. They could tour as well and would do well. IMO, it takes a special person with a special set of personal circumstances to hit the road on the BASS or FLW tour. They aren't necessarily the best fishermen, just ones who have the opportunity.

My vote for the best all time fisherman I have known is going to go to a man who's now deceased by the name of Carl Morton. The guy loved fishing. The last week that he was alive, I saw his truck parked by the river. I'd say the bass that man caught out of the Cumberland river wouldn't fit in the bed of a tri-axle coal truck. Carl taught me a lot about that old river.

Skipper

 

[D MAN]

Who is the best bass fisherman you've ever

Well I guess I have a few years on you guys but the two fisherman that I can recall seeing first on the TV and the best to me are "the flying fisherman" remember the guy with the float plane?? Flying in to fish off the planes floats boy that was awesome all those unaccessable lakes. And my all time favorite is Jerry Mc Kinnis on ESPN I can remember him saying he made a new fishing boat every year out of wood of course it was before all these glass boats were available I guess funny how time flies by. But its still good to see him on ESPN. BigBill