Season at a Glance: 1978 Bassmaster Trail – Part One

Before the 1978 Bassmaster Trail season ever started, rumors started to propagate from its Montgomery, AL headquarters. Between the end of the ’77 season and the start of the ’78 season, Ray Scott was looking to change the rules of the cast-for-cash sport. By the start of the 1978 season, those rumors were verified.

B.A.S.S. president Ray Scott decided to implement four rule changes for the coming season. The first was to increase the length requirement for legal tournament bass from 12 inches to 14 inches. This new rule threw a wrench into the game that many of the top pros didn’t like. Here’s what some of them had to say:

Billy Westmorland – “We’re programmed to fish for smaller fish and catch numbers. Usually, you don’t catch many tournament bass in the 14-inch class except for an occasional lunker. Now it’s going to be a new ball game.”

Tom Mann – “It’s going to hurt big-time tournament fishing. There are days when you’ll catch 15 to 20 bass that won’t snub up against the 14 – inch mark. But someone can make one lucky cast and catch a big fish.”

The other rule changes that also went into effect in 1978 were:

• 2) The daily bag limit of 10 bass was reduced to seven
• 3) Bonus awards for weighing in a live bass was increased from one ounce to two ounces per fish.
• 4) The previous points system for scoring AOY points would be discarded and anglers would be fishing for combined total weight across the entire season. The angler who caught the most weight for the entire year would be crowned the Angler of the Year.

Ray Scott’s response to the rule changes all focused on the sustainability of the fishery and the fact that interest in bass fishing had skyrocketed. Here’s what he had to say in the May/June 1978 issue of Bassmaster Magazine.

“We’re not trying to handicap the tournament pro. They’re concerned about the rule changes and having to adapt to a new system. But they are professionals and will continue to prove it. What we’re all concerned about is the future of bass fishing.”

“The national B.A.S.S. tournaments are held up as a mirror, and others mimic the pros. There are over 1,600 affiliated B.A.S.S. clubs and many other fishing clubs. In many cases, they pattern club tournament rules after the pros.”

Bobby Murray didn’t like the length limit rule change, but it appears he did understand it. “I’m a junk fisherman. I throw a lot of little baits. The new rules hurt me. But, if it’s necessary for the future of bass fishing – I’ll give it a try.”

On to the 1978 season.

The ’78 season had a total of six qualifying events for the year-end championship, The Bassmaster Classic, along with the second-annual Bass Champs event to be held mid-season. Here’s the schedule:

• Bassmaster Classic Qualifier 1: Florida Invitational, Kissimmee Chain of Lakes – Jan 25 – 27, 1978
• Bassmaster Classic Qualifier 2: Florida Invitational, St. Johns River – Feb 22 – 24, 1978
• Bassmaster Classic Qualifier 3: Virginia Invitational, Lake Gaston – Mar 22 – 24, 1978
• Mid-year Event: Bass Champs, Atchafalaya River Basin – April 26 – 28, 1978
• Bassmaster Classic Qualifier 4: Kentucky Invitational, Kentucky Lake May 31 – June 2, 1978
• Bassmaster Classic Qualifier 5: New York Invitational, St. Lawrence River – June 21 – 23, 1978
• Bassmaster Classic Qualifier 6: Alabama Invitational, West Point Lake – Sept 20-22, 1978
• Bassmaster Classic, Ross Barnett – October Oct 25-27, 1978

Starting with this edition of the Season at a Glance, we have a really cool addition to the series. Jeff Haines, who contacted us through the comments, has nearly an entire collection of Bassmaster Tournament Patches. With each tournament report we post, we’ll be including Jeff’s patches to add more historical content to the post. I really want to thank Jeff for his willingness to share his collection with us. 

Kissimmee Chain of Lakes – Gliebe Doesn’t Flip

This would be the first time since 1973 that B.A.S.S. wouldn’t start the year off at the St. Johns River – hoping that by venturing further south they’d have better luck dodging any weather-related problems. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has a way of finding bass tournaments and still provided a nasty cold front the competitors had to deal with.

The field was comprised of 250 contestants who, over three days of competition, weighed in a total of 493 fish that weighed 1,375-13. Out of that, only four 7-fish limits were weighed. Nothing was reported about how many fish were caught between the 12- and 14-inch slot.

At the final weigh-in, Gliebe brought four fish to the scales for 9-06 and a total of 39-12 (12 fish). Unfortunately, Martin could only muster one more bass – his total ended up being 35-05 (14 fish) and fell to the 2nd-place position.

Rounding out the Top 5 was Harold Allen in 3rd place with 33-12 (13 fish), Ed Chancey placed fourth with 27-07 (5 fish) and local Fred Martin finished in 5th place with 27-04 (9 fish).

Chancey also had big fish for the event – a 10-08 largemouth that netted him Ranger boat rigged with a Stop-Master kill switch, Lowrance locator and surface temp unit, a Johnny Reb LectrAnchor system and trailer.

St. Johns River – Wade Waits Out Rhyne

The second stop of the season took the anglers a little north to what was normally the season opener, the St. Johns River. Even though the Kissimmee and St Johns tournaments were a month apart, severe weather again hampered the event – this time with three nights where the lows were subfreezing, dropping the water temperatures into the low 50s.

Totals for the event again were dim, most likely because of the weather, but it also makes you wonder how much affect the new 14-inch length regulation played a part. Overall, there were 425 bass weighed for a total of 1,434-10 and one daily limit. Big fish went to Jack Westberry with a toad that weighed 11-12.

“’When I pulled into the canal, there was a mean-looking woman standing there,’ [Rhyne] said.” The woman told him, ‘You can’t fish in my canal. These are my bass in here.’

She then told her husband to go call the sheriff.

Rhyne later said he knew he could have won the event in there with one cast. Instead, he had to settle fishing another canal where he caught five bass that weighed 18-07. That lifted his overall total to 32-12 (9 fish).

The remainder of the Top 5 was 3rd-place local Palatka resident Larry Parker with 30-05 (8 fish), 4th-place went to Ray Tester with 30-03 (8 fish) and overall big-fish winner Jack Westberry took 5th with six bass that went 28-07.

The Top 40 is presented below.

Lake Gaston – Board Used Slow Speed Shad

The winter of ’78 must have been a nasty one as evidenced by the first three events of the ’78 Bassmaster season. One would guess that by mid-March, weather and water temperatures in southern Virginia would be pushing springtime values – such wasn’t the case in ‘78. Water temperatures in the low 50s greeted the 250 Virginia Invitational anglers and this, along with fluctuating water levels, turned the fish and the anglers on their ears.

Although the conditions weren’t optimal, the overall event turned out much better than the previous two with a full field weighing in a total of 982 bass (twice as many as weighed in at both Kissimmee and the St. Johns) for a total of 2,490-04. There was also a total of six limits weighed. Maybe the 14-inch size limit wasn’t so bad after all?

Rounding out the top 5 was Dave Gliebe (3rd place) with 33-14 (12 fish), Frank Colyer (4th place) with 31-10 (16 fish) and the 5th slot went to Ricky Green with 10 fish that weighed 31-06. Big fish of the event went to Bobby Blankenship who weighed in a 10-14 bruiser.

As stated previously, Board concentrated on a lone rock bank fishing a Bomber Speed Shad, a bait that has become synonymous with Gaston and Kerr over the years. His technique required a 5-foot custom made spinning rod, 8-pound test and a painfully slow retrieve.

Second-place angler Tom Mann also relied on a crankbait, but his bait of choice was a Mann’s Razorback in the new natural baby bass finish. Gliebe, as one would guess, caught his fish flipping.

This event would also mark another interesting benchmark. Bill Dance, who was the prior year’s AOY, had not weighed in a fish over five tournament days until the Gaston event. He finished in 15th place by fishing a Chrome Speed Shad.

By the end of the Gaston event, the Angler of the Year race was heating up. With the new “total year-end weight” format, it looked like it would be a two-horse race between Dave Gliebe of California and Jerry Rhyne of North Carolina. Each had over 75 pounds of fish with their closest rival, Roland Martin, with nearly 65 pounds.

The top-24 cutoff weight was set at 40-14, nearly 35 pounds off the lead. This may have seemed insurmountable to overcome for AOY, but the bigger race was to make the top-24 and qualify for the Classic. With only eight pounds separating 40th place, Gene Howard (FL) and 24th place, Cliff Craft (GA), it seemed anyone’s game to make the Classic cut. The Top-40 for the AOY standings are presented in the table below.

In Part Two of this series, we’ll cover the mid-year BASS Champs event held on the Atchafalaya Basin.

Editor’s note: This is Part One of a six-part series on the 1978 Bassmaster Trail. Over the course of the next two weeks we’ll cover the 1978 season, B.A.S.S. Champs, The Federation Championship, the Classic qualifiers and the 1978 Bassmaster Classic.