World's Greatest Multi-species Angler

[johnnie crain outdoors]

Rick Clunn has been voted the greatest bass angler of all time, but how about all-around anglers? The person that can go out and catch crappie, walleye, bass, wipers and catfish all in the same day or whenever it's needed. Several come to mind. Who would be your picks? I'll offer my selection soon. Johnnie

[TableRockGuide]

Johnnie, A gentleman named Virgil Ward gets my vote, all around great fisherman, I used to watch him every Saturday morning just to see what he was going after this time.. He had a fishing show that was never the same type of fishing, that was back when they did not have fancy electronics, or big boats and a million types of baits to use.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Capt. Don

[johnnie crain outdoors]

Don, I'm glad you bring up Virgil, I too watched every show he had, got aoutographed photo and even purchsed his next to last Ranger-He took his name off befoore I got it though . He was a great angler, I learned about fishing Bomber (wood) crankbaits from him and have done it ever since. He was a good friend of fellow Bassin'USA staffer Dan Galusha who is one of my best buds. We miss Virgil. Johnnie

[brendanc]

Fellas, I'd have to mention a few names, Virgil Ward being one of the great multi-species fishermen and pioneers of our sport. I never had the honor of meeting Virgil face-to-face, but I did speak with him on the phone several times. Johnnie, I keep my autographed photo of Virgil right on my desk next to "Joe Mo"(Bassin' USA Moderator who also passed away).

Here are two others to consider:

Al Linder - Founder of "In-Fishermen"

Mick Thill (Inventor of the Thill Float system) http://www.mickthill.com/

[bassin butch]

Virgil for sure! but I would be remiss if I didn't include: Al Lindner as a close second. He has been a big part of the multi species seen for a long-time. From the in-fisherman days to the Anglers edge.

Bassin Butch

[johnnie crain outdoors]

Surprisingly, those are my picks as well-Virgil #1 and Al Lindner #2. Babe Winkelman is okay as is Ted Takisaki but way beneath the other two. Harold Ensley another good ole Missouri boy about Virgils age was pretty good too, so deserves mention as well. Johnnie

Brendan, I didn't know Joe Mo passed but missed him on the boards.

[brendanc]

Johnnie,

Funny you should mention Babe... he was on my list too, but I wanted to keep it to three total. Never heard of Harold, but I'll take you word for for it.

Speaking of names to mention, do you remember Uncle Homer? He was an outdoor writer, but also was a great fisherman...

BC

[johnnie crain outdoors]

Homer's still around isn't he. See his columns in Field and Stream? He was a good angler no doubt.

[brendanc]

I'd say so... read this:

"Uncle Homer" honored again for work as outdoors writer

BY GREGORY BROOME
STAR-BANNER



OCALA - Homer Circle's office is a living organism.

Memories breed on the room's every surface, spawning stories and rippling the placid silence that envelopes the life's work of a legend. Awards made of paper and framed in wood hang in waiting on the walls. Circle points to one and begins to tell its tale, and it seems to return his attention.

Even now, even with his beloved "Childbride" no longer at his side, Uncle Homer is not alone.

"I'm the most blessed man I know," he says by way of introduction.

It has been just more than six months since Gayle Circle, his wife of 70 years and the woman he reverently refers to as Childbride in his writing, passed away. Homer remains in the Ocala home in which they spent 36 of their 70 years of marriage, devoting the heart of each day to a craft he mastered many years ago. In an office teeming with the offspring of one of the most accomplished and prolific outdoors writing careers the world has ever seen, Circle, at 93 years old, sits at his computer and adds new layers to his legacy.

"Years ago, an old friend told me, when you get to be my age, remember two things. You'll hold off the aging process if you do two things. Keep the mental juices flowing, and keep the physical juices flowing, and you won't have much trouble with the aging process," Circle said. "Fishing alone would take care of the muscles, but what about the brain? So I'm going to write as long as I can."

And the world still seeks the wisdom of Uncle Homer. Today, he writes for two magazines and a handful of "smaller periodicals," and his column "Circling the Outdoors" appears each Thursday in the Star-Banner, complete with the Weekly Smile, his signature sign-off.

His readers benefit from a deep reservoir of experience.

Circle was angling editor of Sports Afield magazine for 38 years and a past president of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. He's a former Arkansas Game and Fish Commissioner. He's hosted three national television shows and two national radio programs, appeared in more than 50 fishing films and written seven books. He holds four world records and is a member of the International Fishing Hall of Fame.

And on Saturday, he was honored yet again.

Circle was one of five inductees into the International Game Fish Association Fishing Hall of Fame in Dania Beach, joining a list of prestigious outdoors figures that includes writers Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey and baseball great Ted Williams. The IGFA, a non-profit conservation group, dubbed Circle "the dean of North American outdoors writers" in a press release announcing the news.

On Friday, Circle expressed his appreciation for the honor and looked over his living room walls, plotting a suitable home for this new arrival. The day he hangs it in his office will be the first time he sees it. Circle didn't make the trip to South Florida, instead designating close friend and colleague Glenn Lau to accept the award on his behalf.

"My traveling days are over," Circle said.

The award will arrive in trusted hands. Once or twice each week, Lau, a 72-year-old Ocalan and a renowned outdoor writer, photographer, and film director in his own right, picks up Circle and takes him out on his boat, sparing Circle the burden of storing and maintaining a craft of his own.

"That makes it very simple," Circle said. "All I have to do is fish."

The two men are fishing buddies. They are also dear friends.

"Every time we talk, we end by saying, 'I love you, Homer,' and he says, 'I love you,'" Lau said. "That's the kind of relationship there is.

"He's the finest man I've ever known," Lau said.

Circle invokes Lau constantly in conversation, and even mentions the work he's done with Lau in the one-page autobiography he keeps meticulously updated. He harbors great respect for Lau's fishing ability, going so far as to say his friend of nearly 40 years "thinks like a bass," perhaps the highest compliment one angler can pay to another.

Whether the "dean," as the IGFA calls him, or the "guru," as Lau refers to him, Circle is an icon to his fellow outdoors writers. Kyle Stuart, whose column appears alongside Circle's in the Star-Banner, recently wrote a tribute to Uncle Homer.

"Homer never had a clue that his words were sparking the imagination of a fishing-deprived, travel-starved kid from suburban Illinois," Stuart wrote. "I dreamed of fishing for the fish he caught and seeing the places he's seen. I also dreamed of writing my own stories someday."

On the walls of his office live the stories Homer Circle once dreamed of writing. They've now been written, published and spread across the world. His skill as a writer took him around the globe, and provided a comfortable life in "the bass fishing capital of the world." It introduced him to thousands of people while allowing him to keep his Childbride at his side.

With all it's given him, Uncle Homer can't bring himself to stop.

"I've thought about that, and the bottom line always comes up," Circle said. "Retire to what?"

Gregory Broome may be reached at 352-867-4148 or [email protected].

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