Season at a Glance: The 1976 Bassmaster Trail – Part One

The announcement of the 1976 Bassmaster Trail was given first in the November/December issue of Bassmaster Magazine and was touted as being the biggest ever with over $400,000 in prizes – the biggest payout in B.A.S.S. history. To start out, there would be six qualifying tournaments that would feature $50,000 in prizes and money paid out plus another $50,000 dedicated to the Federation and another $50,000 towards the year-end Bassmaster Classic. Extra money would be put towards the Bass Research Foundation to take to 1976 total over the $400K mark.

The 1975 season added a new concept in bass tournament fishing – a one-day fly rod tournament that anglers could choose to participate in or not. The advantage that the fly rod event gave was an extra day of practice and also much needed points towards Classic qualification. Because of this, most anglers grudgingly fished the fly rod events. For the 1976 season, though, the fly rod competition was discontinued, probably due to complaints from the anglers.

Spencer caught all his fish for the event fishing what would be considered finesse tactics, but with a twist. He used a long spinning rod with a spinning reel and 10-pound line to dip a 1/6-ounce crappie jig into the floating weed mats. It was the second time a B.A.S.S. event had been won on a long rod without utilizing the reel to cast. The first, of course, was the 1975 event at Bull Shoals where Dee Thomas had introduced the world to his Flipping technique.

Bass Buster Lures General Manager Bill Ward received 2nd-place honors by fishing the cuts adjacent to the Rodman lock. His pattern involved waiting for the lock to open and then concentrated on current breaks with a black or purple Bass Buster Slinky worm. He weighed 21 fish (30-07) over the course of three days.

Third place went to Missouri angler Roger Moore with 29-06 (11 fish) and 4^th place was taken by Bo Dowden (LA) with 27-04 (18 fish). Rounding out the top 5 was Bill Dance with 11 bass that weighed 26-06.

The event totals were 900 bass that weighed 1,609-14 – half of what was weighed the previous year. Only two ten-bass limits were weighed. To give an idea how tough the event was, Roland Martin and Tom Mann finished below 50th place and didn’t receive any AOY points.

Big fish for the event went to Connie Baker (SC) with a 9-05 largemouth.

Below is the top-50 list from the event.

Jim McKay (MS), who led the event after two days, relied on crankbaits, a Deep Humper and a Balsa B. His second-day limit weighed 25-06 and was caught in less than 90 minutes. He told B.A.S.S. staff at the weigh-in, “I moved off the hole early, and I hope saved enough fish to win it tomorrow.”

Even though he moved off, one of the worst things in tournament fishing happened. Here’s how it was reported in the 1976 May/June issue of Bassmaster Magazine.

“The hole had yielded over 58 pounds in two days, when McKay made his last tie-up in the finals. For a few minutes, it was a repeat of the previous stops. McKay boated four nice largemouths. Then, the action stopped. This wasn’t unusual. McKay reasoned the fish had moved up the road bed and would return.

“He kept casting into the hotspot without a tap. Then a boat approached. Two local anglers – not entered in the tournament – came into the area and stopped. They remarked to McKay, ‘Say buddy, you sure got a good fishin’ hole here. After you left yesterday, we caught 29 bass up to 7 -1/2-pounds.’”

McKay’s hole had been seined dry.

This left him with only one thing to do – go find fish elsewhere.

His partner for the day, Bill Cook, a local who was in the 14th spot, took him to a couple places. The first spot didn’t pan out and by the time they settled at the second place, McKay knew it had to happen there or he’d lose. Instead of picking up his crankbait rod, he picked up his worm rod rigged with the newly designed Rebel Ringworm. In short time he put four more bass in the boat including fish that weighed 6, 5 and 4 1/2 pounds. His total weight for the day would end up being 20-07, giving him a total of 78-09 (28 fish) and his first Bassmaster win.

Although he’d caught over 58 pounds of bass with a crankbait, it was his worm choice that got all the credit for his win. The new Rebel Ringworm offered something no other worm at the time could offer. Here are some of the comments made in Bassmaster Magazine.

“And for plastic worm fishermen a completely new concept in soft artificial wigglers is only beginning. Until the new ‘Sonic’ worm’s introduction, the predominant design changes in squirm baits have been concentrated in the tail-section. This new worm, however, features a drastically-modified body composed of a series of discs beginning immediately behind the head and tapering to just in front of the tail.

“When pulled through the water, the thin and highly flexible rings, which are spaced about 1/8-inch apart, generate sound frequencies within a bass’ hearing range. This auditory characteristic was verified recently by scientists at two major universities. Their findings further indicated that several other well-known worms create no noise when dragged underwater.”

Second-place angler and veteran Bassmaster from Tennessee, Dave Hilton, was also in the limelight for what he caught his fish with. In his case, though, it wasn’t his lure but his rod. Hilton, who wasn’t even in the top 20 prior to the final day, credited his day-3 limit of 40-09 to a graphite rod.

By 1976 graphite fishing rod technology had been around for only about 2 years. There were only two companies making the composite rods at the time and they were quite costly. Still Hilton was using them and thankfully so.

“My partner (Kenny Dyess) had a fiberglass rod and couldn’t sense the light bites,” said Hilton. All of Hilton’s fish were caught on a Rogers black hair jig with a 3-inch plastic worm trailer. He caught his fish in 20 to 30 feet of water off ledges. His total weight for three days was 70-14 (22 fish).

Dyess ended up weighing five bass for 20-05 alongside Hilton.

Third place went to defending champion Marvin Baker (TX) with 26 bass that weighed 65-10. The 4th-place spot went to Wesley Fredieu (LA) with 29 bass for 58-04 and Jimmy Houston (OK) rounded out the top 5 with 29 bass that tipped the scales to 57-02.

Ray Lloyd (LA) received big fish honers with an 8-12 largemouth caught on a black Rogers jig and eel combination.

The top 50 is presented below.

Houston weighed in a 30-fish 3-day limit that pulled the scales down to 67-05 – all caught on his trademark Red Man spinnerbait.

“I catch about 60 percent of my bass on a spinnerbait (a lure called the ‘Red Man’ he makes for his own use),” said Houston.

It wouldn’t be long before Houston sold the rights to Bill Norman Lures to manufacture and sell the now-famous spinnerbait.

Houston buzzed the spinnerbait two to three inches deep in water no deeper than 18 inches all week. He also noted that he used a trailer hook and caught nearly his entire final-round limit on the back hook.

Not much else is written on the other anglers other than Doug Odom, who finished in the second spot. Odom, who held the lead after the first day, caught his fish 30 miles away from the host ramp also using spinnerbaits. His 3-day total of 22 bass weighed in 62-03. If he’d caught more than 2 fish on the final day, he would have given Houston a run for his money.

Below is the top-50 after the final round of the South Carolina Invitational along with the top-50 for the Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings after three events. For the Bassmaster AOY race, 5 extra points were given each angler for participating in each event they fished. These points do not reflect those bonus points. Also notice the major names missing from the top-50 as of this time. Roland Martin hadn’t even finished in the points by the halfway mark and Tom Mann was sitting in 42nd place with two paltry finishes that awarded him points. Rick Clunn was doing better on the bubble in 36th place but far from his standard. Other big sticks that were out of the race by this time were Charlie Campbell (35th), John Powell (48th), Rayo Breckenridge (52nd), Woo Daves (53rd), Johnny Morris (54th), Bobby Meador (55th) and Basil Bacon (73rd).

Part Two of the 1976 Bassmaster Trail will be up next. We’ll cover the second half of the season, find out who made the Classic and then go onto the Federation Championship in Part Three. Part Four will cover the Classic contenders and then Part Five, the 1976 Bassmaster Classic.