My mentor, then sad day in 1987

bass2reds

Weapon of bass destruction
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Plantation, Florida, United States
Boat
Back Country 151 ProGuide
#1
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1987-05-25/sports/8702180036_1_bass-boats-angler-airboat

In 1979, I was 15 years old and loved to catch Bass behind my new home in Sunrise Fl. We had just moved there and it was the 1st time I lived on any type of water. The day we moved in, I was fishing in the canal in my backyard and this big swirl came up and I had hooked a gator, I screamed for my dad and when he saw what was on the end of my line he called the cops! This was all new to us so we didn't know it was such a common thing here in S. FL. They came and said just cut the line, so we did.
Around that time, my father introduced me to a longtime friend of his that I'd never met. Johnnie Jones. He was a pro bass fisherman and took me to the Everglades on his tournament boat and I actually beat him, or he let me, on quantity of bass caught 15-13. I was so psyched and told him that's what I wanted to do when I grew up. At that time, Tom Mann's worms only had 3 colors and were the go to bait. I'd never used a plastic worm B4 so he taught me and also bought me my 1st baitcasting rig, a Skyline Graphite rod with an Abu Garcia round 3500 C reel. I practiced everyday until I got it right.
Jump to 1987 my dad calls and says go to the Storm Bass boat shop where John was now working but wouldn't tell me why. I called my BF and said something's up come with me. When we got there, John said to pull around back and there was my new boat, a Correct Craft 1987 Bass Nautique fully rigged at the time with a Mercury XR150.
We joined a club and the rest is history until that terrible day when I got a call that he had passed bringing trailer full of BassCats from Arkansas. The week B4 he had taken my boat in for some repairs and I had no idea where it was so I had to track it down during the bad news.
The link above tells his story and I never fish a day without his memory coming to mind. He also was then sponsored by Producto Worms which are still my favorite today but they must have their grape worm juice squirted on them which he always said was critical to catching fish.
He also invented the worm rattles of which I still have some he gave me way back then.