Yesterday we showed an image from the 1978 ABF Lake Okeechobee event, and in that piece we mentioned Dave Gliebe’s rout of the lake in 1977. Well, today’s Friday Finale, Gliebe Puts on Clinic, we’re going to show three historical photos from that exact event.
I just happen to have the March-April 1977 American Bass Fisherman that has the tournament report of this pivotal event in it. You may question my use of the word pivotal but let me explain.
This was the first of three successive events that Gliebe won this year. What makes it amazing is he won these three events fishing three different organizations on three different lakes in three states. The organizations were American Bass Fisherman, Bassmaster, and American Angler. The states/lakes were Florida (Lake Okeechobee), Louisiana (Toledo Bend), and Texas (Sam Rayburn).
This may not impress you either. You could say that the competition in the ABF and American Angler events wasn’t as stout as the BASS events, which is wrong. All the same top players fished each of these events.
So what made it pivotal?
In this event, Gliebe drew out Roland Martin the first day. Gliebe didn’t have a boat so he went in Martin’s boat. By mid-morning, they didn’t have much to speak for and by the rules, Gliebe got his half day. The duo went to Gliebe’s fish. By the end of the day Gliebe had 33 pounds in the well and Roland Martin got his first lesson in flipping.
Gliebe went on to win that event with 95-03. Roland Martin came in second with 52-10, a 42-09 deficit between the top two.
The American Angler Sam Rayburn event was next on the list and again, Gliebe won it with the big rod. The following week they were at Toledo Bend for the Bassmaster event. You can guess how he won this, I hope.
After Gliebe had won that event hands down, anglers such as Tommy Martin. Al Lindner, and Basil Bacon got personal lessons from Gliebe on the technique. In fact, in the tournament report for the Toledo Bend there are photos taken by Ron Lindner of Gliebe giving personal lessons to Roland and Al.
At that point every professional angler started flipping.
There is no question that Dee Thomas is the father of the flipping technique. But without Dave Gliebe, it would have taken much longer to get the technique into the competitive mainstream.
After this rash of wins, Bassmaster Magazine put out a six-part series on the flipping technique, written by Dave Myers who interviewed both Thomas and Gliebe for the story. By the way, it was Dave Myers, who was the lead of R&D for Fenwick at the time, who made Thomas the first flipping sticks.
