Inductees By Year Class

Few, if any, people have had a more powerful influence on bass boating and fishing over a longer period of time than Randy Hopper of Flippin, Ark. Having worked his way up from laborer to President and CEO of Ranger Boats — and now to co-founder and CEO of Vexus Boats...

Harold Sharp, legendary B.A.S.S. tournament director, once called him “The Original B.A.S.S. Groupie.” Today, Craig Lamb of Murfreesboro, Tenn., wears the nickname proudly, even though it doesn’t even hint at all the ways he has made his mark on the sport and industry...

Level-wind baitcast reels of today owe their original design to William Shakespeare Jr., who in 1896 invented the ground-breaking feature that enables anglers to evenly wind their fishing line on the spool. That practical feature undeniably did more for the fledgling...

Anyone who has ever caught a bass on a spinnerbait, buzzbait or skirted jig owes a special thanks to Fred Arbogast, one of the most creative innovators of fishing lures in the history of sportfishing. In 1934, the young luremaker was looking for an alternative to...

It might be tempting to identify Mike McKinnis primarily as the son of the late Jerry McKinnis of The Fishing Hole fame. That would be a huge mistake. While Jerry’s impact on the sport of bass fishing has been widely celebrated — he was inducted into the Bass Fishing...

Raised in Northern California, Skeet Reese is arguably the most influential West Coast angler in the sport. Though his impact is much broader than his California roots. He achieved legend status for three reasons: 1) winning tournaments on multiple tours; 2) his...

Racial desegregation may have been mandated by federal laws and court rulings in the 1950s and ’60s, but in reality, almost insurmountable barriers between the races continued to exist across the South, especially in the Jackson, Mississippi, area where Alfred...

Mark Zona grew up in a southern suburb of Chicago. He caught his first bass at the age of 4 when his parents traveled to Sturgis, Michigan on a family vacation. That first bass sparked an immediate passion for fishing and set the trajectory of his life. In 1982 at the...

Mike Iaconelli – 1972) -- A one-of-a-kind angler from New Jersey, Mike Iaconelli has brought an urban flair to a sport traditionally ruled by southern anglers. He is the only angler in history to have won the B.A.S.S. Federation National title (1999), the Bassmaster...

Bruce Holt (1948 – 2021) So many aspects of the bass fishing industry have seen success over the years due to efforts from people like Bruce Holt. While he fished local bass tournaments and promoted the sport in nearly everything he did, his involvement on the...

Glen Andrews – From 1962 to 1966, Glen Andrews, of Lead Hill, Ark., won three Missouri State Championships, an Arkansas State Championship, was the runner up twice in the World Championship, followed by two World Championships. Those World Championships, formally...

Lonnie Stanley — Texas legend Lonnie Stanley is the owner and creator of Stanley Lures, one of the most popular lure companies of the 1980s and beyond. His jigs and spinnerbaits became the must-have lures of that period, largely because of his success with them on the...

Steve Quinn — Steve Quinn has been involved in the fishing industry and outdoor writing for 35 years, including 30 years as an editor at In-Fisherman Magazine. He combined science, media and communication to promote bass fishing and conservation across the continent....

Aaron Martens – After a storied career on numerous Western circuits, Aaron Martens qualified for the Bassmaster Top 150 tour through the Bassmaster Western Opens, and subsequently fished on various iterations of that tour, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, from...

Dewey Kendrick – Dewey Kendrick served as the Tournament Director of the Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society from 1986 until 2002, and during that time spearheaded and implemented many critical changes in the evolution of professional tournament fishing. Those included:...

Kathy Fennel – Kathy Fennel has been a key figure on the tournament bass fishing scene since joining Operation Bass in 1982, steadily rising through the ranks to become one of the most influential people in the fishing industry. Her strength and experience were...

Tommy Biffle — In his 34-year career as a professional angler, Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., has become one of the leading money winners in professional fishing, amassing more than $3 million, including almost $2.3 million with B.A.S.S. Biffle is considered one of...

Trip Weldon — Trip Weldon — In the 50-plus-year history of B.A.S.S., there have only been three tournament directors: Harold Sharp, Dewey Kendrick and Henry Howard Weldon III — better known throughout the sport of bass fishing as “Trip.” Weldon retired at age 65 in...

Jason Lucas — Born in Yorkshire, England in 1894, Lucas was instrumental in popularizing bass fishing through his writings for Sports Afield and later Sports Illustrated. Initially a fiction writer, Lucas wrote several western novels in the 1930s before he established...

Gene Gilliland — Gene Gilliland, a nationally known fisheries biologist, was 12 years old when he was first introduced to fishing by family friend “Uncle” Ralph Buckingham. Uncle Ralph put a ZEBCO 33 in Gene’s hand and tied on a Johnson Silver Minnow with an Uncle...

James Heddon (1845- 1911)— Credited with the invention of first wooden-body artificial lures in the 1890s, James Heddon, and his company James Heddon and Sons, produced the first commercially-successful lure called the ‘Dowagiac.’ The round tapered wooden body bait –...

Jay Yelas —Jay Yelas launched his professional tournament fishing career in 1989 and registered top-12 finishes in two of his first three events. During the first decade of the new millennium, he authored one of the greatest stretches of sustained excellence in the...

Ron Lindner (1934 - 2020) –  Ron Lindner — In 1970, about the time Ray Scott’s B.A.S.S. tournaments were starting to gain momentum, two brothers, both fishing guides in the Brainerd, Minnesota, area, decided to “test the waters” of outdoor television by filming a show...

Bryan Kerchal – (1971-1994) In July of 1994, 23 year-old angler Bryan Kerchal lived the dream of hundreds of thousands of weekend anglers by beating a star-packed field of anglers to claim the title at the 24th Bassmaster Classic. In doing so, he also became the...

Steve Bowman (1963—) Raised in a single-parent home and with no one to teach him how to fish, Steve Bowman found a way to stoke his outdoor passions. He mowed lawns to buy a Zebco 33, which he somehow attached to a car radio antenna, and went to work figuring out how...

Forrest Wood (1932 - 2020) Growing up in a small north/central Arkansas town taught Mr. Wood traits that have helped him influence millions of people during his career. Hard work, honesty, pride in workmanship and integrity. In the mid 1960’s, before professional bass...

Roland Martin — When Roland Martin entered his professional B.A.S.S. tournament in 1970, his reputation had preceded him. Some expected he’d win that first event. He didn’t. He finished second. But he did win the second B.A.S.S. tournament he entered — the 1970 Lake...

Rick Clunn (1946—) Rick Clunn’s five-decade career as a professional angler stands as a model of longevity, innovation and on-the-water success. Indeed, even two decades after his 2001 induction into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, Clunn continued not only competing at...

In 1972, feeling the need to expand his fishing knowledge, Mr. Nixon moved to Toledo Bend Reservoir, on the Louisiana/Texas border, where he honed his skills in locating and catching trophy bass. In 1977, feeling that his skill level was proficient enough, to allow...

While having fished all of his life, Mr. Murray came to the national fishing public’s attention when he won his first B.A.S.S. tournament, on Lake Eufaula, This was only the beginning of a storied career for this outstanding multi-species angler. During his life, he...