A Gathering Of Eagles, Page 6

A Gathering Of Eagles, Page 6

Dave Gliebe, left, one of the top anglers ever to come out of the West, took the Eastern circuits by storm with the flipping technique. Fred Borders provided the kind of tough competition Western anglers measured themselves by. Byron Velvick won two U.S. Opens and still competes at a top level nationally.

THE LEGACY OF WESTERN BASS FISHING:

A PARADE of

By George Kramer

GREAT ANGLERS

boundaries as far as you might wish to draw the line, there have been literally thousands of anglers who established this legacy. There is no way to properly name and laud every angler who drove long, fished hard, sacri- ficed time (and sometimes much more). That some were more “successful” figures than others is not the point. Like the “prac- tice squad” or the role of any other members of a major sports team, the greater body of competitive anglers was the “mountain” that the top fishermen had to overcome by refin- ing their skills in order to earn that recogni- tion. And lest we forget, that mountain of

ith Internet and cable TV access today, we view tournament bass fishing much differently than we did 20, 30 or even 40 years ago. It’s pretty obvious, the modern sound-bite, floating billboard, $3000 entry fee game is nothing like we envisioned when that first “membership packet” arrived in the mail. Yes, back then we were already fishermen. And many of us fancied the ego-satisfying nature of the competition. More than that, a good portion of us (to some degree publicly or privately) aspired to something even bigger.

But how much bigger? Where once we fished for plaques, lures and the recognition of our peers, there has evolved a sport where a few have actually won as much as a million dollars or more during their individual careers. And yet, the modern world intent on instant heroes and instant in- formation is hardly aware of those upon whose shoulders is built our strong regional foundation of modern competitive angling. Indeed, I make the comparison of the Western influence in pro fishing to place- kicking in professional football. Many of us are old enough to remember when a new

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breed of athlete entered the NFL ranks and color commentators uniquely categorized them as “soccer style” kickers. You don’t hear that reference any more. By the same token, within the upper crust of touring pros among Bassmaster ranks or the later- arriving FLW circuit, our guys are no longer dismissed as finesse guys, sissy fishermen, California or Western fishermen. All they show are their names and their rankings— because that’s all that needs to be said. But it had to start somewhere. In the West, particularly in California, but also in Arizona and Nevada and beyond those