Sunday, August 17, 1997

As father of bass tournament fishing, Texan Golding is a reel-world giant

By Bob Hood

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

FORT WORTH, Texas - Beneath the clear waters in a creek at Squaw Creek Reservoir one day last week, Earl Golding could see thousands of baitfish swimming past the boat. As he watched the fish, another angler in the boat could not help wondering how many fish in the past half-century have looked up to see Earl Golding.

Few other anglers in Texas have had more of an impact on bass fishing than Golding, one of two men to be inducted into the Texas Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame next year.

Golding, along with Nick Creme of Tyler, originator of the plastic worm, are to be inducted during National Fishing Week in June, said David Campbell of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, where the hall is located.

Many know Golding as outdoors writer for the Waco Tribune-Herald, a position he has occupied for 51 years, but most people know Golding as the father of bass tournament fishing.

He is the man who ignited the competitive fire in anglers by staging the first organized bass tournament in 1955 at Lake Whitney. The urge among bass anglers to compete has spread not only throughout the United States but to Japan and several other countries.

Golding cast a small Roadrunner lure past the nervous gizzard and threadfin shad that had gathered at the back of a creek, where the water temperatures were much cooler than the 100-plus temperatures elsewhere on the power plant lake. Seconds later, Golding's rod bent to the struggle of a 3-pound bass that had hit the lure as it passed an underwater stump.

"It is always great to catch fish, but you sure don't have to catch them to have a great time," Golding said while boating the bass. "There is just something about the water that makes it so pleasurable. I don't know what it is, but I can look at the water and everything seems so peaceful."

Golding said a group of fishermen gave him the idea of staging the first bass tournament 42 years ago.

"There were some guys in Waco that said so-in-so was the best bass fisherman in the state, and then someone in Temple said they knew of another fisherman who was the best," Golding said. "So I just decided that maybe we needed to hold a tournament to see who really was the best fisherman. I invited 50 fishermen to fish the first tournament, and 48 of them showed up for it."

Golding's bass tournament idea did more than just begin tournament fishing. It also helped give rise to another important chapter in Texas' bass fishing history - bass fishing clubs.

The 1956 Texas State Bass Tournament was open to anyone who wanted to compete, and the following year, the Waco Bass Club was formed. In 1958, Golding and his wife, Martha, played big roles in establishing another bass club still active today, the Mr. and Mrs. Waco Bass Club for couples.

As more bass clubs sprang up around the state, the Goldings became regular celebrity guests at the clubs' annual banquets. Today, there are an estimated 600 organized bass clubs in Texas.

Golding said his biggest supporter has been his wife. "She has been the greatest thing ever to happen to me in my life," Golding said. "I told her that if I had met her when I was 12 years old, I would have asked her to marry me then. She loves to fish, and I usually ask her where we should be fishing when we are on the lake."

Golding has fished for bass on virtually every lake in Texas, and he said he has fished with the best. Mabry was a regular fishing companion of Golding and tops a lengthy list of all-time great Texas bass anglers from all areas of the state.

Although Golding is modest when talking about the recognition that will be given to him when he is inducted into the Hall of Fame, he is known as a man who had never had a modest attitude about a fishing regulation or stocking program that he believed in or didn't believe in.

The stocking of non-native fish has never been on his list of favorite programs, and Golding has said more than once that increasing the numbers and sizes of predator fish in a lake isn't necessarily good for all of the fish.

"I will tell you what most people in Texas want to fish for," Golding said emphatically, reeling in another Squaw Creek bass. "They want to fish for largemouth bass, crappie, catfish and sand bass. They always have and they always will."

Golding says the practice of catch-and-release has had a tremendous impact on today's bass fishing, but he is quick to give the credit for the push toward catch-and-release to those who make it work: the anglers.

"It was the fishermen who began catch-and-release, and they would have started it a lot earlier if they hadn't been told it wouldn't work," Golding said. "Years ago, fishermen were talking about catch-and-release, but the Parks and Wildlife Department kept saying that a caught fish was a dead fish. I still have (printed) material where the department said that. I just wish we knew then what we know now."

Although Golding sometimes has differences with department objectives, state officials have recognized him as a man with a tremendous dedication to bass fishing and bass anglers.

"Earl Golding deserves to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame more than anyone else," said Phil Durocher, inland fisheries director for the department. "There is no question about what he has done for bass fishing in Texas."

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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