Most Influential Anglers of the Century
by Doug Stange,
Editor In Chief

This article contributed by www.mickthill.com

For our cover, we have chosen three men who have changed the face of fishing. Each is representative of his respective area of the fishing world and others who also have been instrumental in changing the face of fishing.

Al Linder, the most recognizable of In Fisherman’s two founders and certainly one of the greatest multi species anglers of any age, represents the great fishermen who have spent their lives educating anglers in the popular media of our time- radio, TV and magazines. Were this a fishing gossip column, it could be argued from different corners that our choice to fill this spot might have been perhaps the greatest fishing theoretician of our time, Buck Perry. Others surely would argue for TV stars like Bill Dance, Roland Martin, or perhaps even Virgil Ward, a more historic figure on the TV scene. The point is that we are grateful to men like these who have made fishing more fun by making it so much more successful.

Ray Scott, founder of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, is the clearest overall choice as a millennium man. We have him appropriately placed on our cover, a man overlooking even the likes of Al Linder and Johnny Morris.

Scott’s vision of what bass fishing could be and his promotional skills in driving this vision to fruition ignited and finally propelled every area of the fishing world into the area we live in today. Scott’s vision drove manufacturers, just as it drove marketers like Johnny Morris and Jim And Dick Cabela. It drove promoters and educators like Al and Ron Linder and created the climate in which TV fishing shows and how-to writing in fishing magazines could prosper. Finally, it drove fishery scientists to find better ways to manage fish stocks to provide even better fishing in the face of increasingly intelligent fishing pressure.

Oh, the tackle and paraphernalia we fish with today, though and the men who bring it to us at competitive prices an din great variety. The Johnny Morris vision was to provide hardcore bass anglers with the superior tackle they need to fish effectively. He and others changed the world we live in by changing the way we buy our fishing tackle. Paging through on of those early Bass Pro catalogues for the first time and seeing the array of tackle and realizing you could get it with a credit card and a phone call was as revolutionary for the time as the Internet is today.

The list of great anglers and visionaries who speak here goes on, beginning with members of the In-Fisherman staff: veteran angling editors Dave Csanda, Steve Quinn, and Matt Straw; along with former Television & Radio Chief Dan Sura, and TV Producer Jim Linder; Professional Walleye Trail Directors Jim Kalkofen and Mark Dorn; plus more recent editorial additions, Editor Steve Hoffman and Staff Writer Jeff Simpson. This is the most impeccably knowledgeable and experienced cast ever assembled in fishing.

And so many others: Doug Hannon, Bill Murphy, Ralph Manns (on largemouths); Dick Pearson, Mark Windels, and Doug Johnson (muskies); Steve Quinn, Denny Schupp, Joe Fellegy, and Dick Sternberg (pike); Rich Saleski, Matt Straw, and Billy Westermoreland (smallmouths); Ned Kehde, Harold Ensley, and Joe Tomelleri (crappies); Doug Stange, Steve Hoffman, John Smith, and Jim Moyer (catfish); Dave Csanda, Gary Roach, and Bob Propst (walleyes). Add to that a host of others, some famous, some not quite so famous, but all industry insiders who have comments and visions to share, pertinent to fishing and where it has been and might be headed in this new millennium.

After so many years in this industry, sitting in judgment of so much fishing material and so many great fisherman, I have my own short list of all-time greats anglers of our age. It is indeed a short list, a list of the most versatile, most superlative anglers I’ve met and fished with over the years. This isn’t the place to reveal such a list, but I will tell you that Mick Thill is on it. I mention this because I see the combination of people like Mick Thill and Ray Scott as one basis, quite probably the primary basis, for sustaining the sport we love well into the new millennium in the face of the slow erosion in fishing participation.

Thill, you see, can catch anything that swims in any kind of water, and he thoroughly enjoys doing it. The methods he and others employ in olympic-style match competition throughout the world, while highly refined, are readily adaptable at a basic level to helping anyone catch fish anywhere in North America, particularly in our inner cities. The essence of these methods is the essence of fishing----line, hook, pole. Simplicity.

The problem, of course, is that most of the sport fishing industry still will stomach little of what Thill proposes as a way to fish, because often the species in question are not today’s glamour fish, and because the methods are not traditional tackle intensive. Start proposing something that doesn’t require boats, electronics, spinner baits, plastic worms, and lots of people in our industry start getting real nervous. This is understandable, for our industry really isn’t all that large and profitable; and it is, for the most part, too caught up in doing what it does to have a lot of time to consider switching course, even if it might mean a more vital future.

Scott, though, has seen the light and astutely proposes (in his millennium message) that we get new anglers into the sport by catching carp. "Let’s get back to basics," he pleads.

"This is a rod. This is a hook. This is a bait. And here’s how to catch a fish. If that bite comes from a carp, believe me, the kid on the other end of the line will be thrilled." Get folks fishing by any means, Ray suggests, and eventually some of them are bound to find their way to boats, electronics, spinner baits, and plastics.

Carp are only one important part of the equation, though Ray. In-Fisherman has long proposed that everything is fair game and placed in the right context, fun to catch. Targeting a particular species is fine, but so is targeting a variety. Every species is worthy of pursuit unless someone in fine standing insists otherwise. And, too often today--I say it again our industry and the most visible people in it spend an inordinate amount of time saying otherwise.

Of course, it’s all finally a matter of money. We need to take some of it and invest in a different vision try something new, along with the fine programs we already have in place. But I tell you, there’s hope because Thill and many others can with simple tackle teach others to catch fish from a mud puddle anywhere in North America and it’s a hellava lot of fun.

Catching fish is and always will be its own natural inspiration. It’s no less compelling and just as much fun for folks today as it was when you caught your first fish. The world hasn’t changed that much. The computer will not soon be invented that is more miraculous than the simple act of watching a float tip, lifting a pole, and feeling the connection to life. But kids and adults alike must be given the chance.

Add someone like Scott, the greats fishing promoter of our age, to the equation, and I tell you there’s hope. Ray, if you’re in this one for the haul, you’re likely to find it an epic struggle, indeed.

My choices for finest reads in this issue: Gord Pyzer’s "The Future of Fishing In Canada Two Roads Diverge In the Forest." Pyzer recently retired after 25 years as a resource manager based in Northwest Ontario, and he speaks freely and compellingly of his vision of fishery resources in Canada.

And Homer Circle’s "A Lifetime of Fishing." Circle, for decades the fishing editor of Sports Afield, captures in a half dozen paragraphs the essence of the change that has occurred in fishing. And then he says...But, you know what?