Bass Fishing Hall of Fame

05/22/2026

🇺🇸🎣🇺🇸We’re loving being at the ACA College National Championship at Pickwick — and what a timely honor here on Memorial Day Weekend to meet the team from West Point.

05/12/2026

Bass Fishing Hall of Fame Class of 2026 spotlight – Rick Pierce

A driving force within the performance boat industry, Pierce has spent decades advancing hull design, manufacturing quality, and angler focused engineering while at the helm of Bass Cat Boats, a company his parents Ron and Jan Pierce founded in 1971.

Pierce helped establish Bass Cat as a leading brand in the category, winning numerous awards from the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) for its innovations.

Among the innovations that are now commonplace are larger fuel tanks, interior storage lighting, digital dashes, the pivot trailer tongue and most notably the recessed trolling motor pedal.

In 2000, Bass Cat integrated full fiberglass construction to better handle the stresses of tournament fishing and Pierce partnered with brands, including Mercury, Yamaha, Lowrance, Humminbird, and Minn Kota to improve consumer offerings and change the bass boat industry for the better.

05/06/2026

Raise your hand if you're in favor of bringing back old school jackets like this one Larry Nixon received 42 years ago at the 1984 Bassmaster Classic.

It's on display at the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame located inside Wonders of Wildlife in Springfield, MO.

04/30/2026

Let’s throw it back on this Thursday to 1959 when Life Magazine, featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover, published a story titled “The Lure Fish Can’t Pass Up” about the Finland-based Rapala Minnow – launching its popularity to a point demand exceeded supply in the USA, and ultimately led to the wildly impressive success of the Rapala brand today.

See many more cool stories and artifacts like this at the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame inside Wonders of Wildlife Museum in Springfield, MO.

04/21/2026

04/21/2026

BFHoF Class of 2026 spotlight -- Mike Whitaker

As the founding father of Operation Bass and the Red Man Tournament Trail, Mike Whitaker created accessible opportunities and set new standards for professionalism and sponsorship, for countless working-class weekend tournament anglers to pursue their dreams.

Operation Bass was born in 1979. Through a partnership with Pinkerton To***co Company in 1983, the Red Man Tournament Trail was launched, offering anglers a competitive circuit with affordable entry fees and a clear path to the prestigious All-American Championship, where anglers could compete for substantial cash prizes.

The inaugural All-American at Kentucky Lake paid $50,000 to the winner. A year later, Shaw Grigsby won the sport’s first $100,000 tournament paycheck for winning the All-American at Florida's Kissimmee Chain of Lakes.

Mike Whitaker was adept at securing non-endemic sponsorships, bringing companies outside the fishing industry into the fold and elevating the sport's visibility and financial viability.

In 1996, Whitaker sold Operation Bass to Minneapolis business mogul Irwin Jacobs, who expanded its reach and renamed it FLW Outdoors.

Waterbug Bait Company

04/19/2026

The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame was honored to present Lynn Reeves with our first-ever Legacy Award Saturday afternoon during a social gathering at MLF’s REDCREST event, located at the original Bass Pro Shops campus in Springfield, MO.

It was a fitting location for the presentation, given Mr. Reeves spent 27 years as a leader with Bass Pro Shops, prior to resurrecting the legendary Lew’s brand of rods and reels 17 years ago.

Nearly a dozen living Hall of Famers were in the room to applaud Mr. Reeves, including his close friend, 1993 Bassmaster Classic Champion, and prominent Lew’s user and ambassador, David Fritts, who spoke about Mr. Reeves as both an incredible person and a tackle industry icon.

“Lynn has made a lifetime out of making it easier to cast a reel and catch a fish,” said Fritts. “Lynn loves fishing history. So, to see him revive the history-rich Lew’s brand in such a huge way is nearly hard to describe.”

Reeves spoke to that history when accepting the award, saying “All I intended to do when I bought Lew’s 17 years ago was to follow Lew Childre’s devotion to innovation that made the brand famous in the 1970s.”

“When we bought Lew’s in 2009, there wasn’t much left of the brand, but that was okay because I knew where to get the product manufactured. I just knew we needed to re-build the brand,” he explained.

And boy, did he.

The brand that began along the Gulf Coast through Lew Childre’s quest to provide anglers with the best bamboo fishing poles in America, remains the line of rods and reels that Bass Fishing Hall of Famers and Classic Champions rely on today.

And it may have all died on the vine had a passionate and very capable Lynn Reeves not thrown his heart and soul into saving it.

04/17/2026

🎉🎣We’re set up and ready to talk bass fishing history, conservation, and research all weekend at REDCREST at the original Bass Pro Shops store in Springfield, MO.

Come see us!

04/14/2026

Fisheries students, conservation group leaders, or simply anybody who loves preserving and promoting bass fishing … If you’re headed to REDCREST later this week in Springfield, MO, we’d love to visit with you.

Please stop by our booth ( #909) at the MLF Outdoor Sports Expo on the Bass Pro Shops National Headquarters campus.

04/12/2026

DON'T LEAVE MONEY ON THE TABLE. We work hard to raise money for bass conservation and research, if you're working hard too for the preservation and conservation of our sport, we'd love for you to consider applying for a grant or scholarship from the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.