Introducing Jason Lucas – Sports Afield March 1945

As we’ve written in the past, Jason Lucas is one of the early pioneers of the sport of bass fishing. His 24 years as the Fishing Editor for Sports Afield along with his book, Lucas on Bass Fishing, have cemented his name in the annals of the sport forever. Because of his contributions to the sport, this past week, Lucas was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, not many anglers younger than 50 know of him or his many contributions.

Ask BIll Dance, Roland Martin, Rick Clunn or Jimmy Houston who inspired and taught them, and you’ll get the same answer, Jason Lucas.  Because of this, there are a number of us bass historians who are dedicated to making sure his name isn’t forgotten and that hopefully someday his name will be as recognizable as Dance, Roland or Houston. He’s that important to the history of bass fishing.

What made Lucas so important, you might ask? Well, in a time where little was shared about the habits of bass and how best to catch them day-in and day-out, Lucas’ job – one that he took very seriously – was to break down the walls of the secret society and divulge all of its secrets to the masses. All of this conducted in, arguably, one of the best outdoors magazines ever published.

In fact, it can be said that Jason Lucas made Sports Afield THE magazine to read if you were an angler.

The story goes that Lucas, who had previously published a few hunting pieces in Sports Afield, had become known as quite the bass angler. So much so that Editor Ted Kesting, commissioned Lucas to write a series of articles on bass fishing for the magazine. That series of six articles, published in 1945, was received so well by the readership that Kesting hired him before the series was complete, as Sports Afield’s Fishing Editor.

Over the years Lucas would pen as many as two, sometimes three, features in each issue of the magazine. Along with his features, Lucas also received thousands of “Letters to the Editor,” asking questions on how to become a better angler. It’s said that he answered every single one of them, sometimes with nice remarks, oftentimes with snide comments – all the while fishing every day.

So important are these first articles of Lucas’ that I felt you might want to read one of them firsthand.  Without taking up anymore space, here’s “No. 1 – New Angling Techniques,” by Jason Lucas.