For our Friday Finale historical photo, a continuation of the coverage of the 1974 BASS Masters Classic by Carl Malz for Fishing Facts magazine. Carl spent one of the practice days fishing with Bobby Meador, one of the three Classic appearances Bobby had over a short career on the Bassmaster trail.
Looking at the photo, several things popped out at me. One, his socks appear to match his life jacket. Another thing that caught my eye was most anglers fished sitting down back then. The third thing was the round baitcasting reel, possibly an ABU 5500C, on the pistol grip rod behind Bobby and to his left. And last, the anchor rein – an item that used to be standard equipment on most all bass boats, though bass anglers rarely ever anchored. They were good for tying up to docks or tree limbs, though. I have no idea when they were actually phased out.
As for Carl’s commentary that practice day, it follows:
“My pro partner for the practice round was Bobby Meador, who conducts his own T.V. outdoors show near his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Bobby ranked quite high on the tournament trail in ’74, finishing in third place in the overall standings.
“Bobby Meador considers himself a shallow water specialist. He prefers to fish all types of shallow cover such as brush, piers, boathouses, etc. Favored lures are spinner baits and shallow running vibrating plugs. Using this approach, Bobby was able to pick up many smaller fish on practice day plus he teased one lunker of about six pounds out of a brush pile but chose not to “stick him”‘ (set the hook). As we moved from place to place, observing the characteristics of the lake, Bobby expressed the thought that in his opinion, he would not have as good a chance to win the tournament as some of the ‘deep water’ structure fishermen would have on this type of lake. He felt the shallow water anglers would be at somewhat of a disadvantage. As things finally turned out, Bobby Meador finished in 3rd place in the final Classic standings and he pressed the leaders all the way. His secret? ‘Just keep pitching those lures.'”
