Today’s Throwback Thursday historical photo dates back to the 1967 World Series of Sport Fishing event that was held in Wisconsin. You might recall that Dwight Keefer won that event, but today’s photo is of the angler who took second place, Curtis “Curlo” Morris. In the picture, he (on right) is shown standing with the host resort owner, Bobby Schmidt (left).
Curtis was no stranger to bass fishing, and made a pretty good name for himself in the 1960s fishing in Texas events tied to the World Series and its state qualifiers. Some twenty years later, he wrote a book on fishing (and other things) entitled, “Skillet & Trophy Fishing Texas.” If you don’t have that one in your collection, you might consider adding it.
Here is an excerpt from that book detailing some of the particulars around that 1967 Wisconsin Championship:
“We were complimentary guests of the state of Wisconsin and were treated as kings and queens, I assure you. We were given a lovely little cottage on the lake shore about a hundred yards from Bobby Schmidt’s headquarters, as were quite a few of the other state champions who also brought their wives.
“I hunted for two days before the tournament started and the last afternoon located what looked like it could be a good starting place – of course it was fifteen miles down the lake which was sixteen miles long.
“We drew partners from a hat and I drew the state champion from Ohio that first round. He didn’t know anything and I certainly didn’t, so we decided to fish the place I had found down the lake. Well, I had my eyes and ears hanging out for two days trying to get a clue as to what northern fish would like, but never found out a thing, so I started with the Ole Texas specials…jigs and worms.
“Don had heard it took a spinner bait so he put on a Shannon twin spinner and it tore me up plenty bad. He had four big black bass before I even had a strike. I didn’t have a spinner along and Don had one more little old junker he gave me. I caught a bass right away and the next cast let a good one break my line, so there I was without the magic bait. I limped on through the day and at weigh-in time Don was setting in second place.”
