Glen’s BASSography posted to Bassmaster.com today!

Check it out at:

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/news/story?page=bassography_Andrews

Bobby & Billy Murray and Dad

2-18-10

I’ll do one more blog entry before the big book signing at the Shiloh Museum at 118 West Johnson in Springdale, Arkansas. Don’t forget it’s this Saturday, the 20th of February at 10 am till 1pm, beginning with a short presentation then the signing. If you can, tune into Kuaf 91.3 Fayetteville, Arkansas or kuaf.org live feed at 6 pm, Friday the 19th for an interview with me (Shane).

No one needs to buy a book at the signing, just come and show your support. We should have some media coverage and it would be nice to show a crowd.

Now to fulfil our promise of telling you about some more greats that Dad mentored.

Bill Dance was just one of many well known modern-day bass fishing legends that were influenced by Glen Andrews. As mentioned in the January 24th blog, I’ll now talk about a couple of other angling icons none as the Murray Twins.

Glen dropped out of the professional fishing world in 1968 to pursue other careers that actually paid money. Glen’s accomplishments occurred at a time of fishing history disarray. Nothing was left of his mark except microfilm and memories. As far as my research could tell – with the exception of Earl Goldings’ Texas State championship – no one kept logs, records or memoirs of early tournament play until Ray Scott’s first tournament in 1967 called the “All-American Invitational”. That being said, it is quite excusable to not have heard of Glen Andrews. However, for any bass enthusiast it is a little more indefensible to not know who the Murray twins are.

Bobby and Billy Murray were already expert bassers when they met Glen at an unsanctioned ’68 team tournament on Greers Ferry Lake in central Arkansas. While actually organized for fun, the joust brought some of the top names in the early business: Dance, McKinnis, Cossey and the Murrays to name a few. Dad and his team members had presented the other participants with a conundrum by pouring on the dock a head-scratching herd of bass on a cold winter tournament day. How could these four guys catch their limits from this frigid water when hardly anyone else caught anything? The twins made it a point to learn the “deep and slow” method from Glen after he moved his family to Hot Springs, Arkansas for work in about ’69.

Bobby worked at Albert Pike Supply when Dad got to know him and his brother. Dad was always generous with his bassin’ knowledge and since the twins did not get to spend as much time with Glen as often as Bill Dance did, they listened intently. Glen’s know-how was helpful enough to assist the Murrays to new levels. Billy went on to have an incredible career in the fishing business, including a 20 year stint as a camera grip for ESPN’s Jerry McKinnis, and Bobby became twice Bassmaster Classic champion – a feat accomplished by only 3 other men since 1971. In my opinion, that’s the difference between a champion and a legend – the ability to pull the feat off more than once. As Bobby told me, he was already a pretty good fisherman having been mentored by his good friend Pee Wee Wadsworth but, “…it was Glen that actually put the polish on me.”

It was intriguing to me that these superstars of the bass business held my Dad’s knowledge in such regard.

Bobby actually said it best when he wrote of Dad in his letter of nomination for induction to the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in 2008:

Just before the modern era of tournament bass fishing, one angler dominated the bass fishing scene in the bass belt located in Missouri and Arkansas. In 1962, 1963, and 1965, Glen Andrews won the Missouri State Bass Championship. He also won the Arkansas State Bass Championship in 1965. Before the creation of B.A.S.S., and the BassMasters Classic, the World Series of Sport Fishing Championship was THE fishing tournament which was recognized as the test of the best anglers in the country.
Glen was runner-up in the World Series of Sport Fishing Championship tournament in 1962 and 1963, and was the only two-time winner in 1965 and 1966. He was the founder and owner of Andrews Lure Company, and author of a syndicated fishing column called “Anglers World”.
Glen is probably the greatest angler that no one has ever heard of. However, his influence on modern bass fishing is unparalleled by any other angler. Glen mentored fishing greats such a Bill Dance, Jerry McKinnis, Bobby and Billy Murray, Don Butler, Ray Scott, and a host of others who were an integral part of professional bass fishing history. Glen helped Ray Scott organize the very first bass tournament, the All-American on Beaver Lake, Arkansas in 1967. Soon after, Glen disappeared obscurely due to financial constraints and went on to pursue other careers. .. only to become a faint memory in fishing legend history.
Glen may not be the best angler I have ever known, but he is certainly in the top two. And I would venture to say that if you asked Bill Dance, Jerry McKinnis, Billy Murray, or Ray Scott about Glen, they would hold him in the same esteem as I do. It would be a shame if the Hall of Fame membership did not recognize a person that mentored so many anglers that have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Glen was the first true, professional bass angler. His insights into seasonal fish migration, structure fishing, lure development and lure presentation helped forge the basis of many of the country’s leading bass fishing authorities of today. Glen Andrews is the subject of a book that is scheduled to be published in 2009. Glen Andrews is truly a worthy candidate for nomination into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. Glen now resides in Lead Hill, Arkansas on Bull Shoals Lake.
Sincerely,
Bobby L Murray
2001 Inductee Bass Fishing Hall of Fame
The next blog will feature the inexhaustible, Jerry McKinnis – Google that name if you want a head start.

Angie’s Comment About AIC

We thought this comment from my friend Angie merited a little more attention than to be left hidden in the confines of the comments department. It was posted February 12th of 2010. Thank you, Angie Ioannides.

Angie Ioannides
Just wanted to leave a little review on what I thought about the book. I am anti-outdoors, but have known Shane Andrew for years and since I had heard so much about the book, decided to purchase it and give it a read. For someone who is not the interested in fishing, I will have to say that the book grabbed my attention and I spent around two hours reading it front to back. I was amazed at the depth of this book. Not only is it a very well researched history of a sport that continues to grow at leap and bounds, but there is a history of a personal triumph and struggle artfully weaved between the facts. In a society that has lost most of it’s grip on morals and good choices, here is a story of someone who did the right thing. Glen walked away from a sport in its birth, when he could have pursued it and become a founding father so to speak. His son, Shane, did a very respectful gesture by honoring his father, in this way. Not many people get the chance to do that. The book may not get the correct reviews that it deserves, some may write it off a fishing history book. Jerry McKinnis got the heart of the book as well and my only hope is that others will read the book and gain respect for Glen Andrews. I am not a fishing fan,but will forever be a Glen Andrews fan.

Jerry McKinnis reviewed our book on ESPN!!

Just out today!  An incredible review on ESPN outdoors!

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing/columns/story?columnist=mckinnis_jerry&id=4897292

Tulsa World review by Kelly Bostian!

Sunday, February 7, our book received a fantastic review in the Tulsa World. Check it out below!

Tulsa World Review

Also this month, this article (below) appeared in Midwest Outdoors, written by our good friend and famous lure collector, Dan Basore.

FISHING HISTORY

By Dan Basore

THE BEST BASS FISHERMAN

Do you want to start a debate? Just ask any group of bass chasers, Whose the best? And fur will fly. But some of the greatest names in bassin’ have no doubt it’s Glen Andrews.

Before there was BASS and Bassmaster tournaments the “World Series of Sport Fishing”  tournaments were conducted for ten years. It’s champions include well known fishermen who hosted television shows including Harold Ensley “The Sportsman’s Friend” that ran for 48 years, Virgil Ward of “Championship Fishing”, Joe Krieger, “The Joe Krieger Sportsman Show” and Jimmy Houston host of ESPN’s “Jimmy Houston Outdoors”.

But only one man won the title of “World Champion” more than once, Glen Andrews, and he did it for two years in a row. For the early years as I fished national bass tournaments, and made friends with the nations top bass fishermen, the name Glen Andrews was mentioned by so many as I asked, “Who was the best bass fisherman you ever knew?”

Bill Dance, (23 National wins, three time BASS Angler of the Year), couldn’t say enough about how Glen had taught him so much. In a letter to Shane Andrews, Glen’s son, Dance wrote, “It’s amazing to me how you can meet someone and it can change your whole direction in life. There can be absolutely no doubt that I wouldn’t be doing what I am today had our lines not crossed back then”.

First and a two time winner of the Bassmaster Classic and student of Glen, Bobby Murray wrote, “Glen is probably the greatest angler that no one has ever heard of. However his influence on modern bass fishing is unparalleled by any other angler”.

As we filmed a segment of the long running ESPN “The Fishin’ Hole”, Jerry McKinnis not only extolled the expertise of Glen but even pulled out one of his Twin Spin Lures to save the day with some of our best bass of the show while most other fishermen were skunked that day.

Jerry then introduced me to a friend of his that was moving to my area and Gary Clark became like a brother to me. As we fished locally and in exotic locals in other countries we often talked about Glen Andrews wondering what he was doing and even if he was still alive.

McKinnis wrote recently, “In my business you can imagine how many times someone asks, ‘Who was the best bass fisherman you ever knew?’ Your probably not going to know this man, but Glen Andrews is my reply. I had a wonderful career and I owe a lot of it to Glen”.

Ray Scott, the founder of BASS disclosed, “Glen Andrews probably is the best natural-born bass angler that I have ever met. When you’ve got it you’ve got it, and Glen Andrews has got it!”

Glen wrote the book, “Techniques of Bass Fishing” in 1974 and authored the syndicated “Angler’s World” newspaper column. He also held bass fishing classes.

Of interest to fishers, collectors and fishing historians, Glen was the founder of Andrews Lure Company. His friend Dave Hawk is credited with inventing the plastic worm, “Texas Rig”, but the Andrews Bait Company in Rogers, Arkansas, was the first to package, plastic worms, hooks and slip sinkers along with instructions on how to fish them. They also produced several other productive lures.

Some of the ways he worked lures were revolutionary and now mostly forgotten. For example during cold water periods he taught, “Cast my Twin Spin lure to a steep bank or bluff. Let it fall straight down to the bottom about 12 to 18 feet deep. Pull it gently away and allow it to fall on down the bluff continuing till it’s about 25 feet deep. Now pick it up and hold it-don’t crank it-don’t jig it-just hold it and let it swing all the way under your boat.. Most strikes will come about 10 to 15 feet from the bluff, but I have caught lot’s of bass after the Twin Spin stopped swinging and was just hanging. So always leave it there for a few seconds.”

Glen was a very successful guide for twenty years. The pressure to produce multiple limits for two anglers in the morning and many times two more in the afternoon was much more than catching a big limit himself in a tournament. Glen told me that, “Fishing a tournament was like having a day off.”

When it was time to choose between family life and tournament fishing, Andrews decided on his family. We can only guess what he could have achieved fishing bass tournaments.

There’s so much more to tell. This article can only introduce you to a small glimpse of Glen’s history and his perspective on the history of professional bass fishing that are captured in a new book written by his son D. Shane Andrews and Jeremy Miller and published by Dr. Todd Larson’s Whitefish Press. You can order it at http://www.whitefishpress.com.

If you can help with our search for more old lures or other fishing history, pre-level wind reels, casting tournament items, manufacturers catalogs, bamboo and wood rods etc., please write Dan Basore, Historical Fishing Display, 3 S 375 Herrick Rd., Warrenville, IL 60555, or call 630-393-FISH, that’s 630-393-3474 or toll free 1-800-FISH-LAKe, that’s 1-800-347-4525.. You can also e-mail descriptions and jpg pictures to OLLURES@AOL.COM. Thanks for your help and support.

Bill Dance and Dad

January 24, 2010

Now that we are past the holidays, a sell-out book signing in Lead Hill, AR, and a pretty dog-gone good write-up about An Impossible Cast in bassfan.com, I need to fulfill a promise I made to you regular readers of the blog about the relationship between Bill Dance and Dad.

When I began this book project around 2003, I knew I had something special on my hands, but I didn’t really know how special. I cherished and recorded the stories that Dad had been telling me all the years, many times while sitting with him over the campfire we often burned in our yard set in a halved, rusted oil drum. But then the work began.

Stories and people were missing from the account of the World Series of Sport Fishing. After years of researching the “Series” in libraries all over the Midwest I discovered that Dad had not just been a spoke in the giant wheel of modern fishing tournaments, but he actually was the hub itself. Some of the most influential people in the industry today were influenced by the name Glen Andrews. Bobby and Billy Murray, Jerry McKinnis, even Ray Scott all built their empires from the cornerstone known as Glen Andrews. Dad even showed the ropes to the guy with the most recognizable name in the industry today.

Bill Dance’s name is so well known to the general public that people who’ve never dipped a hook in their lives have heard of him. With over 20 national titles, well-known tackle lines, and a TV show, it’s very difficult to not stumble across his renown at least every now and then. Bill was a young hardware and furniture salesman when he met Dad at a sports show in Memphis. Bill constantly picked Glen’s brain on how to catch bass. He and his cronies would follow Dad back to his motel room and keep him up always later than he cared for with their never-ending inquiries about angling. Dad grew to love Bill like a brother and taught him everything he knew to teach. Bill once told me in a recent phone conversation that “Seventy percent of everything I know about tournament fishing, I learned from your dad.”

After talking to Bill about my dream of a book on freshwater sport fishing history and the biography of Glen Andrews, Bill Dance sat down and, with reverence, respect and a deep brotherly love penned this letter and sent it to me signed:

It’s amazing to me how you can meet someone or simply hear something the person says and it can change your whole direction in life. The one person that changed mine back in the early days, particularly in 1966, and was highly influential in kick-starting my fishing career was a big ole tall, lanky, fishing guide by the name of Glen Andrews.

There can be absolutely no doubt that I wouldn’t be doing what I am today had or lines not crossed back then. This soft spoken, country gentleman impressed me so much by his uncanny fishing abilities and I can tell you for sure that my early tournament successes were greatly influenced by it.

Glen used to always tell me “strategy wins tournaments.”And he took the time to teach me how to read both shallow and deep water, the importance of using my electronics, how to read maps, how to locate key structural features and how to catch bass on them. He knew bass habits and habitat better than anyone I had ever met.

Glen Andrews was, and still is, my mentor, my friend, my advisor and absolutely has always been, among the top contributors to the success of the name Bill Dance!

Next time, I’ll tell you all about Dad’s relationship with world-famous anglers Bobby and Billy Murray.

BassFan.com Book Review

We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!  Some great news for the book came with the winter weather.  Dan Basore has written a review for the book that will appear in Midwest Outdoors Magazine and BassFan.com posted a review of the book today!  If you haven’t ordered your copy, you can still buy it for $19.95 at http://www.whitefishpress.com/bookdetail.asp?book=89

Checkout the new review of An Impossible Cast at BassFan.com:

http://www.bassfan.com/docktalk.asp?id=6875#6875

Lead Hill book signing: We sold all of our books!!

Monday, December 20, Shane, Glen, and I signed books with another local author, Betty Loeffler, at Arvest Bank in Lead Hill, AR, from 10AM and 1PM.  Prior to the signing, Harrison Daily Times printed two releases on the book and the event.  In two hours, we emptied our box, 37 books, and reacquainted with people who remembered Glen in his prime.  One man even mentioned that he still references Glen’s how-to manual, Simplicity of Bass Fishing, which he published in 1975 for his bass fishing course!  Excitement about the book has risen dramatically since people started receiving their copies early last week, and we plan on more regional signings in the near future, so  keep checking the blog for more information!

The book is shipping!

Earlier than expected, Dr. Todd picked the book up from the binder and has copies ready to go! Visit The Whitefish Press website http://www.whitefishpress.com/ to order your copy or three!  Everyone has Christmas presents to buy, right?

From inspiration to the page . . .

Dr. Todd sent the book to print a few weeks ago.  The physical copies should be ready around December 10.  In light of that I wrote down the story about how the book came about:

If you read the last blog entry, blog entry number 2, then you will remember that I made reference to Mira Kirshenbaum’s book, Everything Happens for a Reason. In it she provides “10 meanings of the events that occur in our lives.”  The list includes some things you would expect such as: “To help you totally accept yourself, To show you can let go of fear, To help you uncover your true hidden talent.”  But the one that struck me the most was:  “To show you how to live with a sense of mission.”  Since that time, my mission to tell Dad’s story and the history of freshwater pro-fishing in the U.S. seemed all the more important.  Kirshenbaum definitely helped me to feel more grounded about why things turned out the way they did for Dad… and for myself.

On a hot summer day in August 2003, I remember lying in bed in my one room cabin that Dad and I built just outside of Lead Hill, Arkansas when I watched Michael Iaconelli reel in the winning fish of the Bassmaster Classic, and shout, “Never Give Up!”  That fish made him a whole lot of money, and as he reeled in the fish, I couldn’t help thinking how much different our lives would be if Dad had reeled in a net full of money along with his winning fish in the ’65 and ’66 World Series of Sport Fishing tournaments.

I moved to Lead Hill in early 2001 when the corporation I was working for collapsed under my feet.  I was living in my Dad’s hunting trailer with only a few possessions and less pride.  Having had a similar experience with fishing, Dad knew what I was going through.  As we built my cabin together, he told me stories of his past successes and failures that I’d heard as a child, and they began to have more meaning.  Only after experiencing life myself did I begin to understand the heights to which my Dad had climbed and the depths to which he had fallen.  I began to find striking parallels between his story and mine.  I began to truly understand him and look to him and Mom to understand more of life’s lessons.

Watching Iaconelli reel in that fish, I became convinced that Dad’s bassin’ legacy should get similar recognition.  The world had to know who he was, how he shaped present day pro-fishing, and the part he played in the history of pro-fishing.

At the time I didn’t know how I was going to do it.  It never occurred to me to start writing it myself until my author friend, Jon Sheppard, encouraged me to.  I must have felt a little like Ray Scott when he concocted the idea of having the first paying bass tournament.  Determination was his only resource and he understood that he needed the help of others to blaze a path toward success.  As it happened for Ray, it too, happened for me by putting one foot in front of the other and realizing that some things had to be accomplished with other people’s help.

Several years of research and traveling all over the Midwest had revealed even more than Dad’s stories disclosed.  Not just that he became the only two-time World Series champ, but also of all the amazing people who helped him and whom he helped along the way – both famous and forgotten.  Dad’s story was monumental.  He was the hub of a wheel that had many spokes and history is amiss without the addition of his name.

Months turned into years, and many hours of boat sitting and deer camp fires reaped many stories of Dad’s humorous hunting trips and fishing adventures.  Eventually, I began to invite other friends to camp just to listen to Dad’s tales of yore.  It was then and there that I finally conceded to start writing.  A couple of years later I asked Jeremy Miller, whom I met while we were both waiting tables at the Olive Garden in Branson, MO, to co-author with me.  He just happened to also be an English teacher and his writing skills were very good.  He developed the story into a real piece of writing.

Thus, An Impossible Cast was born.

Stay tuned to the next blog entry and find out what the great Bill Dance and two-time Bassmaster Classic champ Bobby Murray said about Glen Andrews.