Season at a Glance: 1978 Bassmaster Trail – Part Three

In Part One of the 1978 Season at a Glance, we looked at the first half of the 1978 Bassmaster Season. Today we look at the second half in 1978 Bassmaster Trail – Part Three. To read Part Two, click here.

By the beginning of May, the Bassmaster Trail was half way through the 1978 season with three Classic qualifiers completed along with the Bass Champs event. By that point the Bassmaster Angler of the Year race was getting pretty heated with Californian Dave Gliebe in the lead by 10 ounces followed by Jerry Rhyne. The top 10 was fairly stacked with anglers such as; Roland Martin (3rd), Larry Nixon (5th), Tom Mann (6th), Bobby Murray (7th) Rick Clunn (8th). See the table below for the entire top 40 in the 1978 AOY race.

Further in that article with Rhyne he talked about his method for locating bigger fish. Here is some of what he had to say:

“Finding those larger bass is like looking at a bingo card and watching the four corners. When I find a concentration of small bass, I look for the four corners. These are the farthest things from the concentration, and I fish the two outer, deeper corners. These corners on the structure might be brush, a tree, stump, log, rock or hump. Something like this has to be there, and I’ll concentrate on spots like this during all three days of the tournament.”

Nearly all the bass he’d weighed by mid-season had come from spots like this.

Although, Rhyne had no complaints with the new system, most of the anglers did and the reasons were pretty understandable when you look through the data. By mid-season, only 11 limits had been weighed for 6,750 angler days. Compared to previous years, that number was in the noise.

The second half of the season would see the competition go to Kentucky Lake, the St. Lawrence River and West Point Reservoir, where the AOY would be decided along with the final roster for Bassmaster Classic VIII.

Kentucky Lake – Shorty Weighs Big

Kentucky Lake, and its sister Barkley, has become an icon over the years as one of the best bass producers in the country. Known for its school bass – and big schoolers at that – the post-spawn and summer patterns are known to be offshore. That wasn’t the case in the late 70s when B.A.S.S. made its debut on the twin lakes.

But deep-water fishing wasn’t unknown – in fact it was becoming popular because of anglers such as Roland Martin, Bobby Murray and Bill Dance. Another angler that was dedicated to fishing deep was L. F. “Shorty” Evans of Missouri. In fact, Evans had made a name for himself on Kentucky/Barkley Lakes, having won several events over the recent past. The 1978 Bassmaster event would place another notch on his belt.

Third place went to Bobby Murray who had a three-day total of 45-06 (20 bass). He too concentrated on shallow brush, fishing a 6-inch Jelly Worm and switching to a buzzbait during the middle of the day. Murray also reported that he had his best luck where he found carp working the water (presumably spawning). He noted they dirtied the water and made the bass hold better in the shallows.

Bo Dowden took the fourth spot after a bit of bad luck. He fell out of his boat one day and accidently lost a 14-inch fish as he was measuring it. Still, he weighed in 19 bass for 42-12.

You’d think that a deep-water event would have Roland Martin in the top – and it did. Martin, who weighed in 15 bass for 42-06, rounded out the fifth spot. The problem was Martin, who was evidently still enamored with the new flipping technique, never ventured off the bank.

“I stayed with the flippin’ technique to the end,” he told Bob Cobb. His comment, “I should have changed to casting the last day,” shows he didn’t even think of going to deeper water. Amazing the best structure fisherman of the era got lured into the shallow water.

Overall, 188 anglers caught 1,164 bass that weighed a total of 2,579-07. There were 29 seven-fish limits weighed, almost triple the number from the three previous events. Shorty Evans had the big fish for the event at 7-09. The top-40 in the final standings are listed below.

St Lawrence River – Martin Sleeps Through the Last Day

By 1978 no one had come close to winning as many Bassmaster events as Roland Martin, who’d won nine. He’d won four events at that time by more than 10 pounds and the St. Lawrence River would become his fifth blowout.

Martin’s 3rd-round was so good, in fact, that by 7:30 am he knew he’d won and relinquished the front of the boat to his partner. Bassmaster photographer Ron Wright had this to say when he saw Martin in the back seat, feet propped up sleeping. “What’s wrong Roland? Are you sick?”

West Point – Fite Proves No Contest

The final event of the season would bring the anglers to Bassmaster’s home state of Alabama – specifically West Point Lake. Billed as a shallow-water event, most anglers were caught off guard – having spent pre-practice fishing the shallows.

Through three days of tournament competition, the 168-angler field weighed in 1,056 bass for a total of 2,669-09. Twenty-seven limits were caught. Alabama angler James Thomas caught big fish for the event, a 7-15 largemouth.

The final standings are below.

The West Point event also marked the end of the 1978 Bassmaster Trail season and the final AOY standings. For the fifth time in his career, Roland Martin won the AOY award. This year, B.A.S.S. awarded the AOY based off of total weight for the year and even with one event where he blanked – at the St. Johns River no less – Martin ran away with the title. Finishing in the second spot was Bobby Murray while Ricky Green took 3rd-place honors. For the top-25 Bassmaster Classic qualifiers, please see the table below.