Hailing from Lakeview, Ohio, Larry Williams was one of the unsung heroes on the Bassmaster tournament trail. He always provided consistent results without ever really capturing the glory that a lot of other anglers did. Today’s Throwback Thursday historical picture, we have a shot from a local Dayton, Ohio write-up on him during the break in the 1985 season.
Back in the 80s and through the 90s, the tour started the year with a couple fall events, then finished the following year with a list of spring events. At this point, February 1985, Williams was leading the AOY race due to two second-place finishes at the start of the season the year before. He led both Larry Nixon and Roland Martin heading into the “spring swing,” which would begin down in Texas on Lake Sam Rayburn.
The article that accompanied the picture mentioned that Williams had, “picked up a couple of sponsors to help with his $400 entry fees and expenses on the tour.”
When not on tour, Larry did contracting and excavating work, as well as maintaining a 200 acre farm of corn and soybeans. He wasn’t one of the guys making his living solely off professional bass fishing at the time.
Over his career with B.A.S.S., which spanned 17 years, Williams fished exactly 100 events, qualified for five Bassmaster Classics, had two 2nd-place finishes, one 3rd-place finish, 17 Top-10s, 26 Top-20s and 31 Top-30s. In that time he made slightly over $100,000 in winnings.
