Dennis Lee, right, a fisheries biologist with the Department of Fish and Game, was a proponent of bass fishing tournaments and a very good angler in his own right.
The “Two for One Draw” concept fol- lowed a year later. A competitor could fish one day and go home possibly with a trophy and a check, or add his weight to day two for the possibility of more prize money. It was a popular event for the working man who could not fish both weekend days. In the early years we maintained we were the working-
man’s circuit. We developed three levels of team competitions: Super Teams (higher entry fee elite teams), regular Regional Team divisions and the Future Pro entry level teams that Vince Harris, our director at the time, con- tinues on with today very successfully. We also filled a void in time by starting the Las Vegas Open to continue the tradition of the US
Open on Lake Mead. We hired showgirls to honor the legacy of fanfare which Rich Schultz and Don Doty started with U.S. Bass. Our pace of growth was exciting, but there were restrictions in several forms that caused roadblocks. The Department of Fish and Game in its dedication to environmen- tal preservation had established certain regu- lations on bass tournament fishing. West Coast Bass was fortunate enough to find an ally in the form of a Chief Fisheries biologist, Dennis Lee, an accomplished angler himself and an integral part of our growth and the growth of the sport in general. Our research together tracked tournament-caught fish mortality rates and proved that competition would not hurt the species in the long run, allowing tournament bass fishing to endure. And you know those 10-plus-pounders weighed in at today’s events, especially in the Delta? Before the 80s, the largest fish to be caught in the many northern rivers and lakes was 5 to maybe 7lbs. It was Dennis Lee, who with funding and some labor from West Coast Bass, transported and distributed fin- gerling Florida Bass in our waterways, setting off an evolutionary sequence responsible for the nice bags you bring to the scales today.
30 SILVER EAGLES _ July 2011