New old article by Bill Dance

Searching bassmaster.com the other day, checking to see if Glen’s Bassography is still up on the website, I came across another article written by Bill Dance describing Glen as one of his important influences.  Check out the article here.

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The Nine Lives of Glen Andrews

Since I’ve lived here in Lead Hill, I’ve witnessed this itinerary of events Dad has so precariously subjected his body to:

– Rammed a large fish hook in his thumb all the way to the curve. Yanked it out himself with needle -nosed pliers. He screamed; I puked.

– Lodged a jerk bait with three treble hooks through his hat into his head while casting. That was some interesting field surgery with a rusty pocket knife and no antiseptic.

– Watched him drive a riding lawn mower after it fell from a ramp… perpendicularly.

– Assisted in breaking his foot by using an unsecured log splitter. He said, “it’ll be fine.”

– Watched Mom pull a one-inch log out of his eye with a pair of needle-nosed pliers after I had just told him to use eye protection while using the table saw. He screamed. I passed out.

And now he has 10 staples in the crown of his head because he can’t hear anyone say, “Timber!”

Just when I thought Mom would be his demise, the plot’s thickened…

Check out more of his shenanigans on Youtube:

And stay tuned for future book signings.

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Two Major Successes and a Minor Setback

Since all our friends and blog members have busy lives of their own, we want to not clog their in-boxes with too many entries of simple entertainment. We want to keep our focus clear with our goal of gaining Glen Andrews the recognition he deserves for being a paramount figure in the world of competitive bass angling. The continually burgeoning story of the man the experts claim is the “Best Bass Fisherman Ever” has taken yet more turns to forge Glen’s rightful place in history. And, here they are:

First, the bad news… At least for the present, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield, MO has no interest in passing an induction for Glen. According to their guidelines, Glen has all the qualifications for induction but the list of potential inductees must be long and distinguished, for he was overlooked this year. Not a major problem because Dad has already been inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors National Hall of Fame in Springville, TN in August of 2010.

We want to thank Don Berry of Jock Radio’s, Don Berry’s Fish and Radio Show for his efforts in nominating Glen. Don’s show is stationed out of Springfield, MO and he has had Dad and I on it a couple of times.

Now, the big news: We’ve found it odd that our greatest advocates are not necessarily on a local level. While our home town of Lead Hill, AR, a town of only 250 people, hailed Glen as a local hero at our 2009 Arvest Bank book signing with a banner turnout, other local or statewide newspapers and publications have paled in their interests in our story.

But we can’t complain because on shelves now, in the current issue of In-Fisherman magazine (March/April) on page 16 is a very generous review of our book, An Impossible Cast. In-Fisherman is one of the most revered monthly fishing publications in this country, printing millions of copies a year. Now that’s a big deal. Thank you Steve Quinn and Ned Kehde for the help, it is most appreciated.

That’s not all; John Neporadney, a senior writer for B.A.S.S Times magazine, has written and published an incredible interview article in their current issue (March) on page 18. John not only interviewed Dad and me, but he also interviewed Bill Dance of TV fame and Jerry McKinnis, co-owner of B.A.S.S. (Bass Anglers Sportsman Society) both of whom were mentored by Glen in the early years.

Jerry McKinnis, again, cited Glen Andrews as “…the best bass fisherman there ever was.” Jerry knows this because he has fished with all the great bass fisherman, including former 4-time world champ, Rick Clunn and current 4-time world champ, Kevin VanDam.

See if you can find copies of these magazines for two exceptional reads and don’t forget: copies of An Impossible Cast, The Glen Andrews story and the Birth of Professional Fishing are available on line at http://www.whitefishpress.com, http://www.amazon.com or by calling 479-239-4568.

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A little known fact: “Bass love squirrel!”

As spring has finally chased off winter, the lake water is finally heating up in the fishing world and the publishing world as well.  After a winter of great publicity through ESPN (twice–see Glen’s Bassography and Jerry McKinnis’s article), Tulsa World, BassFan.com, NPR, and the Shiloh Museum we’re looking to make the rounds in the Ozarks for book signings.  Shane and Glen love entertaining, so it sure to be an enjoyable time for young and old.  We’ve also uploaded some new videos featuring Glen’s storytelling to our Facebook page that were previously only available on YouTube, so check them out too.  In order to bring in the new season, we’ve pulled a new story and a few pictures out of the archives that should put you all right in the boat with Glen to experience the World Champion for yourselves.  Of course you can find many more stories in the book– An Impossible Cast–which you can buy at the Whitefish Press.  We hope you all enjoy!

Some time ago, Glen, Shane, and I put the boat in down at Tucker Hollow on Bull Shoals.  Around 7:30 that morning, Glen came knocking with coffee, chattering excitedly about the day.  Rain had bloated the lake and muddied the water—good conditions for catching bass he said.  Our destination was Bear Creek near Glen’s parents’ old farm.  He’d fished it constantly growing up before it was inundated, but he hadn’t returned in years.  His only concern was the forecasted 5 to 17 mile-per-hour north wind, which he was certain would kill our chances because he’d rarely caught bass with a north wind.

That morning’s trip was sparked by one week earlier when Wayne, an old friend from Rogers, Arkansas, drove across the state with a nice boat and bassin’ fever.  The day he arrived Glen and Shane took him out on the lake.  Shane caught his largest bass ever, a 5.5 pound Largemouth, and Glen wasn’t too embarrassed with a 4 pounder.  They were both embarrassed though that Wayne got skunked.  The next day, Wayne joined the fun as they found a hungry school of Kentuckies near the West Sugarloaf Creek Bridge.  When they called me to come down, Glen had promised that the Kentuckies would still be schoolin’.  His mission was to put me into a mess of them and watch them tear my snuff-box reel to shreds.

Once on the lake, Glen thought we could find lunkers bunched up around the old, submerged Lowry Bridge.  He was confident he could locate the bridge despite our lack of electronics because as a child he’d spent summer Sundays just up the creek near the Lowry grist mill and mill pond.  After church, families would walk down the hill and picnic at the pond.  Children pruned their skin soaking in the water and diving from boulders.  Glen’s memory was accurate.  We found the bridge and Shane caught a 3 pound Largemouth on a crank bait.  Apparently, though, that fish was a loner because we spent most of our time clearing lake trash from the bottom with our spoons.

We weren’t in a hurry though, so the boat drifted with the north wind along a wooded bluff that extended 50 feet into the water from the shore.  Glen decided that he would try for some white bass using one of his homemade spinner baits, which he put on his spinning reel with 6 pound test line.  After fumbling with them for five minutes, he threw them to the bottom of the boat in disgust.  The wind was making his eyes water so that he couldn’t see the line.  Shane put on his glasses and eventually tied the lure on.

“Alright, Jeremy.  You ready to see a big bass.  My squirrel-hair spinner’s gonna tear ‘em up!  Bass love squirrel!”  Glen started to cast and retrieve the homemade lure modeled after Dave Hawk’s Gold Bug.  “Hey Jeremy, did I ever tell you about that time Glen Cossey and I were fishin’ on Greers Ferry Lake back when it was almost new?  Well, we were fishin’ near the bank when we saw a squirrel goin’ after a walnut in a crook on a low hanging branch.  Just as the squirrel reached the walnut, a giant black bass shot out of the water and swallowed that squirrel.  While we were still settin’ there with our jaws between our legs lookin’ at each other, we turned back to the branch, and you know what we saw?  We saw that black bass put the walnut back up in the crook of that branch!”

Throughout Glen’s story, his lure was proving him a liar until the north wind pushed us to the mouth of a creek clogged with washed out branches and trees.  “Uh, oh!” Glen warned.  “I got one.  Aww, but he’s just small one.  Ohhh . . . wait a minute!  Wait a minute, he’s growing!  He’s grown up!  Oh my gosh, it’s big ‘un!  Boy he’s really fightin’ now.  How am I gonna get him in the boat with this little 6 pound line?”  Glen guided the Largemouth to the front of the boat.  He reached down trying to manage both the rod and the bass, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got him!  He’s nearly 5 pounds!”  He threw the monster in bottom of the boat.  “Ha!  My squirrel-hair worked!”  He looked at his contraption proudly.  But that would be the last of the squirrel hair.  As we headed back down the creek, he’d caught some trash on his spinner bait, jerked the rod to remove the trash, and watched as the squirrel-hair arm of the lure broke off and disappeared into the murky water!  Glen blamed the north wind.

Glen's Goldbug sans squirrel hair

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Glen’s BASSography posted to Bassmaster.com today!

Check it out at:

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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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