Warriors on the Water A Collection of Memories, Stories, Thoughts and Opinion from a Bass Fishing Weekend Warrior By Bill Barlow Published by Bill Barlow West Grove, PA 2012 i
Copyright 2012 Bill Barlow All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in review, without permission in writing from the author. ISBN 978-0-578-10376-1 First printing April 2012 Printed in the U.S.A. by Instantpublisher.com ii
Dedicated to my Wife Linda L. Barlow For all the support and help with my Bass Fishing Experience iii
Table of Contents Forward Page 1 About the Author Page 3 The Bass Page 9 Personalities Page 13 Bass Clubs Page 19 The Unwritten Rules Page 30 The Pros Page 45 Early Equipment Page 61 Does Age Make a Difference? Page 71 Athletic Page 76 Burn Out Page 78 Good Luck & Bad Luck Page 82 Expenses Page 92 Mounting Fish Page 103 The Net Page 106 The Magic Lure Page 109 The Whammy Page 112 The Internet Page 115 Off the Wall Experiences Page 120 Bass Boats Page 132 Never Quit Page 144 Bass Federations Page 146 FLW vs. BASS Page 151 In Memory Page 154 Conclusion Page 171 iv
FORWARD My name is Bill Barlow and I have been a Bass Fishing Warrior for over 35 years. I retired in 2002, after 33 years of teaching Industrial Arts/ Technology Education. Over the last three decades I started to realize that I had accumulated a lot of memories and stories. Having some time on my hands I came up with the idea of writing down many of my experience over the last thirty seven years chasing that magical fish, THE BASS. Today one can go into any book store or online and find hundreds of books about Bass Fishing. Most deal with how to catch & pattern bass. Some are documentary. I have yet to find a book that deals with the normal everyday Weekend Warrior and their experiences and thoughts that all of us can relate to. We are the major driving force to the bass fishing industry. This Book is not intended to teach one on how to be a better fisherman. It is to share experiences, thoughts, stories and opinions about bass clubs, weekend tournaments, ups and downs, dreaming about everything conceivable from being a pro to inventing the magic lure and much more. Even though this book is not intended to be a learning tool there will be suggestions that may light a fire or generate some knowledge. Hopefully the younger generations will enjoy this information as they break into the sport. The older veteran bass fishing warriors will be reminded of many of the same experiences that I have had. 1
As you read this book, keep in mind that I am not an English major or a computer wizard. I am a bass fisherman! I will be mentioning many of my friends in this book however I will not use last names. I just want to keep their private lives private. BILL BARLOW aka Balsa Red sky morning sailor warning Red sky night sailors delight 2
About the Author I was born on December 18 th 1946 in Jefferson North Carolina. My parents are Josephine and Quayle. I have one brother Phil and one sister Nancy. About the time I reached the age of 5 years old our family moved to Pennsylvania and I started school. We settled into a small house in Downingtown PA. It did not take too long to discover Beaver Creek where I wet my first line. In my early years I had a cheap metal rod & reel from Sears that my Aunt Doris bought me. I used black braided line and was lucky to have a hook. I usually used a ¼ x 20 nut as a sinker. Artificial baits were out of the question at that time. I did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. From that creek I mostly caught sun fish, suckers, and cat fish. Favorite bait was either bread or a grasshopper. I never seemed to be able to dig worms. I was young then and self-taught. No one in my family fished. My first experience with Bass was when a neighbor kid showed up one day with a Heddon Lucky 13 and proceeded to catch one bass after another. That drove me crazy. Not too long after that I caught my first bass. It was a largemouth and measured 12 inches. It must have been on a bed for I saw the fish and just dropped my grasshopper down in front of him. He ate it and he 3
was mine. I still remember taking that fish home and my Mother cleaning it and cooking it for me. After that day I was Hooked. I continued to fish but eventually grew out of it for a while. As I entered High School I became interested in girls, shop class and cars. I then moved on to college, met my future wife and shortly after graduating married Linda. Presently we have been married for 42 years and have raised three wonderful Daughters. Their names are Chrystal, Casey and Brandi. They have produced a total of 11 Grand Kids. After being married for a short time, I decided to get back into fishing. I never forgot that first bass and fishing was still in my blood. My first purchase was a Garcia Mitchell 300 spinning reel and a fiberglass rod. This time I started to pick up a few artificial baits. To my knowledge the first two were a Lazy Ike and Mepps Minnow Spinner. Most of the bass I caught were on that Mepps minnow spinner. I fished larger creeks such as the Brandywine and farm ponds. I did have a short period where I trout fished. I did not like it for several reasons. In PA there is an opening day and everybody crowds the streams. The state has a program where they stock their trout. In my opinion it is not natural!! It is an artificial Put & Take Most of the trout fishermen buy a license, fish opening day and maybe a few days after and then put the poles back in the garage never to be touched again until next year. The newspapers make a big deal out of it showing dead trout hanging on a stringer. I never believed that many of 4
these fishermen were really good anglers but I did believe that if they liked what they were doing they should keep on doing it. Fishing is what you want it to be. After that I stuck with the Bass. Getting more interested I started to read articles in numerous magazines about bass fishing. One day I noticed an ad for the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society. Guess what, I Joined!! I received my first magazine in March of 1975. Up until 2005 I had every issue of Bassmaster Magazine and every issue of Bass Times. What a wealth of information. I eventually decided to sell my collection and a fellow from Virginia bought them. It would have cost a fortune to ship them so we decided to meet in Maryland at the Annual Bass Expo Held in Timonium Md. He got a good deal and I created some room. Sometimes I wished I would have kept them. Lately I have noticed that those early Bassmaster magazines from the seventies are selling on ebay for $12.00 to $14.00 per issue. After joining B.A.S.S., I started to read about bass clubs and state federations. I thought this is a no brainer I have to find a club. I eventually contacted a representative from the PA BASS Federation and he gave me two clubs in my area. They were the Octorara Bassmasters and The Delaware Valley Bassmasters. I attended a meeting with each club and decided on the Delaware Valley Bassmasters. I joined in March of 1976 and spent 25 years fishing with them. I eventually resigned (reasons for which will be covered later) and joined the Brandywine Bassmasters. I will speak in greater detail about these clubs throughout this 5
book. Over the years I have also fished Numerous PA Bass Federation Nation and TBF Tournaments, A few Draw Circuits and a few Buddy Circuits. I have also Fished in seven B.A.S.S. Tournaments as a Co Angler finishing in the money 5 times. Fishing with the pros is a Chapter in its own. As of this writing I am still bass fishing and just came off the best year of my career at 65 years of age. I am also breaking a Grandson into bass fishing. Presently we fun fish and enter a few local buddy tournaments together. Hopefully this year (2012) another one of those grandkids will get involved. One thing I forgot to mention is that even though our Daughters never showed an interest in Bass Fishing they did enjoy blue gill & perch fishing and tubing behind the bass boat. 6
We even take pictures of small fish. Sometimes, size does not matter! 7
This was from the 70 s. Thank God we don t look like that anymore! 8
The BASS Whether it is a SPOT, LARGEMOUTH, or a SMALLMOUTH we can all agree that they are unique. People often ask me What is so special about the Bass? I usually reply that you have to experience the challenge of finding and catching this predator to understand. I then try to make some analogies about the bass. First of all bass fishing is addictive! Many serious bass fishermen have lost their jobs, home and wife over a fish they do not keep. Living in the north we all go through Cabin Fever or withdrawal during the winter. Many northern anglers needing a fix head south just to get on the water. Cabin fever does not affect me as much as it used to. I use the time to service reels, organize tackle, buy tackle, work on boat, make improvements and just read and plan for the next season. I often refer to the bass as blue collar. He is the bar room bouncer of fresh water fish. Keep in mind all my analogies are my opinion. They will not threaten you but will give you a good fight. I believe that if a bass rode a motorcycle it would be a Harley. They are survivors. Whether water temperatures are high or low they will adapt. There only real threat is MAN and his toxic poisons being dumped into our water. They are territorial and will make home by a rock, clump of grass, stump, dock or even an old tire or washing machine. To them cover is cover. One of my buddies, Bill W. who now lives in GA had an aquarium with 9
some small bass in it. None of the bass were over 8 inches. One evening I was at his house to watch him feed those bass. He dropped some small gold fish in there and in a matter of seconds they were gone. They could inhale those gold fish so fast that it would take slow motion film to even see it. I might mention that my buddy was breaking the law. In PA it is illegal to keep game fish in an aquarium at home. On the other hand you can go to Bass Pro Shop in Harrisburg and see Largemouth and Smallmouth in their aquarium. We all know that bass eat just about everything, but I once witnessed a kid catching bass on gummy bears. While on the subject of eating, one thing is certain. Bass do not feed all day. We do not eat all day either. If I finish a big meal and an hour later someone offers me a piece of pie I will have no problem finding a place for it. I believe the bass does the same thing. It may not be feeding time but put a worm in front of his face or invade his territory with reaction bait and see what happens. I do realize that this is not 100% guaranteed. The only thing that is certain about a bass is that Nothing is certain. Another thing that the non-bass fisherman does not understand is that just about all serious bass fishermen do not use live bait. They prefer artificial baits. By using artificial lures, we have decreased our ability to catch bass on many occasions. There is a small lake I used to fish on a regular basis and one thing I noticed is that those guys & gals fishing minnows in a grass bed would out fish the guys using artificial baits. Like anything else there are exceptions to the rule. In Florida it seems all the 10
Trophy Bass guides use those big shiners over fake baits. I could never fish live bait. Not only do I like the challenge of catching them on artificial baits, I like the attention that I must give to the particular situation regarding the best bait to use for the given conditions. It is no secret many of us have fished a tournament where we have made several thousand casts for five or six bites. We still go home happy; well I guess some of us do. When you compare the three major type of bass there is one conclusion that most bass fishermen will agree on and that is the strength of the smallmouth. Even though largemouth grows too much larger sizes, the smallmouth makes up for it with his battle. There is nothing like the battle of a four pound smallmouth on light line using a spinning rod and reel. I truly believe that weight for weight, there is no comparison to any other fish when it comes to the battle between you and him. I once read a comment from one of the B.A.S.S. elite pros while at a tournament on Oneida Lake, NY. He stated that even though he was fishing for $100,000.00 he was going to pass up the largemouth bite for the smallmouth because they were so much fun and that he did not get to fish for them that often. He also said that he was on good fish and there was a possibility he could win with those brown fish. Being from SE PA, we are blessed with very good smallmouth fishing on the Susquehanna River. My very good friends from Susquehanna Tackle do a lot of guiding there and if you are ever in the area, look them up. You will not be sorry! 11