There’s a lot of “Old School” goodness in today’s Friday Finale historical newspaper photo. So much I just had to share it. The picture dates to 1987, and features Larry Nixon on Kentucky Lake. Nixon was there for an event sponsored by Fish Formula to benefit leukemia victims.
The article was primarily about the upcoming 1987 Bassmasters Classic that coming weekend. But the author, Tom Fegely, got into a lengthy discussion of professional anglers and sponsorships.
Fegely listed Nixon’s list of sponsors and looking at the image you can kind of sort through some of them in the picture. For instance, there’s the pistol grip Daiwa rod and reel, likely one of his namesake wormin’ and jiggin’ models, that’s spooled with Berkley Trilene line. The jig is a Stanley Jig, with what looks like a pork trailer. In Nixon’s hand is a bottle of Fish Formula that he’s spraying on the jig, as well as a Fish Formula hat.
What can’t readily be seen is he’s running a Skeeter boat with an Evinrude outboard. The rig is powered by GNB Batteries and outfitted with Si-Tex Electronics. Finally, his only other primary sponsor at the time, as you might have already guessed, was Ditto Worms, maker of the Gator Tail worm. Nixon used this bait with such effectiveness on waters ranging from the stingy Ohio River, where he won the 1983 Bassmasters Classic, to the big bass natural lakes of Florida.
If any fish attractants made no difference whatsoever they were Fish Formula and Baitmate.