Season at a Glance: 1972 Bassmaster Trail – Part One

Today in Season at a Glance: The The 1972 Bassmaster Trail – Part One, we’ll look into the first half of the 1972 season and some of the firsts and records associated with it. To begin with, Ray Scott instilled the “Don’t Kill Your Catch” philosophy that changed the way bass anglers thought about their catch. Prior to ’72, bass anglers everywhere caught a fish, placed it on a stringer and drug it around the lake until they got off the water or weighed the fish in at a tournament. Scott knew that with the success he was having with the 5-year-old Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, if he didn’t do something with regards to fish care at the events, lakes, marinas and residents wouldn’t welcome them in the future.

It was pretty simple situation for Scott to solve. He made a decree at the beginning of ‘72 that all B.A.S.S. events would be “Catch and Release” events. He invested in the production of a 525-gallon aerated livewell, which he coined “Big Blue,” and each fish that came to the dock would be promptly weighed and placed into Big Blue so they could later be released.

Scott had also contacted the boat manufacturers telling them of the new requirement and to start putting aerated livewells in the boats.  Here’s what he had to say: “Our response from the bas boat builders has been gratifying. We can expect the industry to make strides soon in improving bass boat livewells.”

The Fish and Game departments at the time made a guess that the live-release rate would never get above a 50 percent. After the first three events that year, the live-release rate was just above 80 percent – an unimaginable feat considering there were few livewells in boats and most anglers still used a stringer for their catch.

Today the thought of putting a bass on a stringer is considered a heresy and fish care has become as important as catching fish. If one looks at the populations of fish in lakes around the country, it’s evident that they’re better than they were back in the 70s and 80s. A lot of this, in my opinion, has to do with Scott stepping up to the plate and making fish care mandatory. What’s even more impressive was he did this during a time when anglers went to a lake to catch dinner, not catch bass for sport.

As much talk of the new important rules in the March/April and May/June 1972 issues of Bass Master Magazine, The July/August issue had only three pages dedicated to talking about the first three events of the season, and only one picture.  Because of this, this edition of Season at a Glance will be short some of the content you’re used to seeing.

Another interesting thing about the 1972 Tournament Trail reports was the lack of points reported.  Previously Bass Master had given 10 points per ounce to an angler’s weight and reported it in the Scorecard.  This year, all that was reported was total weight.  I’m not sure if they did away with that but if any of you have a 1972 Rules list, please let me know.  Bass Master still awarded 35 points for first on down to 1 point for 35th place for the AOY competition and we’ll be reporting that in this series.

So, on to the tournament season.

Another interesting fact about this event was Tom Mann became the second angler in the history of B.A.S.S. to win an event “from first cast to last.” Who was the first angler to win wire-to-wire?

Lake Ouachita

In May the anglers headed to Arkansas for the Arkansas National held on Lake Ouachita. Of the 159 anglers present, 39 limits (10-fish) were scored. Bobby Murray, the 1971 Classic Champion, won the event by weighing his best limit for the event the last day (17-12) for a total of 48-06. His last-day heroics moved him from the third spot, just nudging out Roland Martin (46-13). The remainder of the top 5 were: Joe Wilson (44-09), Smallmouth legend Billy Westmorland (42-02) and Tom Mann. Missing from the top 5 was Bill Dance who finished the event in 36th place – one spot out of the money and points.

Most contestants reported catching a majority of their fish on plastic worms and Murray said he caught his fish on 5-inch plastics and a Cotton Cordell “8-inch Boy Howdy” topwater bait.

Another interesting caveat that happened at the event is something tournament anglers today take for granted. Murray reported that a lot of his fellow competitors “wore out their fishing spots.”

Here’s what he said.

“I had fish located in five areas and didn’t wear any spot out. I believe this helped. Some of the guys just wore out their fishing spots, catching 30 to 40 fish a day. In the finals they ran out of fish.”

Today’s tournament angler would never think to stick so many fish in a single area during an event unless they had backup. Murray was a pretty savvy angler back then.

Another interesting thing about the Ouachita event was never before had a local angler won an event on his home water. Bobby Murray broke that “home waters jinx” as Bob Cobb put it back then.

“Fishing a national tournament on your home lake is just tougher, Murray said. “Nostalgia is your biggest problem in fishing a contest on your home lake. You tend to stop at spots where you’ve caught good string of fish in the past and often when the bass won’t hit there you stay too long, wasting valuable time.”

Nothing could be further from the truth still today.

Now, after three events of the 1972 season, Martin and Mann have finished in the top 5 each event. Now it’s starting to look like a two-horse race for the Bass Master AOY award.

The Ouachita Scorecard and Angler of the Year race are shown in the tables below.

Part Two of this series will cover the following three events of the year while Part Three will cover the 1972 Bass Master Classic.

Part Two of this series will cover the following three events of the year while Part Three will cover the 1972 Bass Master Classic.