Worlds Oldest Bass Tournament

[ramrod]

There seems to be some sod busters down in Texas claiming to be the holders of the "Worlds Oldest Bass Tournament"

Texas State Bass Tournament

There claim is that their 1955 Tournament was the very first.
WRONG !!!
The World Oldest Bass Tournament was held by the Worlds Oldest Bass Club in 1938, a whole 17 years earier than the Texas tournament.
The Pacifis Northwest's Western Bass Club is the documented holder of this honor.

Read about it here.
Western Bass Club History

Sam Scroggins
Tournament Director
It all began in 1955 when founder Earl Golding was a young outdoors writer for the Waco Tribune-Herald. Lake Whitney was newly impounded and for months Earl had listened to boasting and arguments around central Texas about who was catching the most fish from this new lake. Earl decided that there was only one way to settle the unsubstantiated claims, so he suggested a fishing competition to his Editor. The Editor agreed and Earl invited 75 teams from across the state to take part in the one-day competition at Lake Whitney to name the best fisherman. A month later, 73 teams showed up for the event and a new competitive sport, “tournament bass fishing”, was born. In the weeks to follow, Earl received numerous letters and phone calls from fishermen across the state that had heard about the competition and wanted to be invited the next year. Seeing that something much bigger was on the horizon, Earl opened up the competition and organized what is now recognized as the forerunner to every bass tournament in the world: The Texas State Bass Tournament.

Anyone interested in contacting Sam with the facts on the "Real" Worlds Oldest Bass Tournament should do so.

TournamentDirector@TexasStateBass.com