Ray Scott

Ray Scott is credited for beginning catch and release fishing with bass species. Scott changed fishing from a relaxing pastime to one of competition. He came up with the idea to make a club that would hold fishing tournaments exclusively for black bass.

In 1967 Scott held the “World’s First Big Award Bass Tournament” on Arkansas’  Beaver Lake. 106 fishermen competed and the winner, Stan Sloan received $2,000 and a fly fishing trip. Before catch and release was introduced in B.A.S.S. tournaments all 700 pounds of fish from this tournament were harvested. In October 1971, Scott would hold the very first Bassmaster Classic, the most prestigious bass fishing tournament in the world, where the top six fishermen caught and kept over 200 pounds of fish in the three days of the tournament.

While attending a Federation of Fly Fisherman meeting later that year in 1971, even though some anglers were still hesitant, Scott had the idea to implement catch and release into his tournaments. Scott was also beginning to receive pressure from the public because of the amount of fish being killed in their local lakes. B.A.S.S. implemented a new bass tournament rule, the “dead-fish penalty.” Anglers were penalized with a weight reduction for every dead bass they presented to the tournament organizer. Later that year B.A.S.S would launch the “Don’t Kill Your Catch” campaign because of concern for future bass populations.

In 1972 the first professional catch and release tournament, the Florida National was held. The anglers rigged crude aerators out of garden hoses and sprinklers to keep fish alive.