A T IME W HEN S ILVER EAGLES SOARED
ou’ll see one sentiment echoed more than once in the pages of this event program that turned into a history of bass fishing in the West: It’s impossible to include everyone that has played a part in the rich tradition of tournament bass fishing here on the left coast. That these pages ever found their way to print is in itself a small miracle, considering the magazine was the brainchild of the late great Harvey Naslund. Unfortunately, Harvey was diagnosed with cancer soon after plans for a Silver Eagles reunion were laid out. The idea came from Fred Ward in Arizona, but once Harvey picked up the gauntlet, it was full speed ahead and the ideas flowed in classic Naslund style —events, decals, patches and a program paying tribute to the Silver Eagles, as he called all those who participated in the competitive bass fishing sports in the formative years of the 70s and 80s. The response was huge at first and Harvey’s baby blues gleamed with the anticipation of another financially successful creation. Harvey could attract hundreds to everything from carp shoots to gun rights fundraisers attended by the likes of Roy Rogers. He had hoped to use his connections to have Merle Haggard attend the Silver Eagles event. And the plans for the program grew into “a 40 year history of bass fishing in the West.” Harvey told me to make the program 100 pages or more if necessary to get everything in. “Pete Gardner called me twice to insure I follow up on a guy named Chuck Hurley,” read an e-mail from Harvey. “He was Wayne Cummings’ and Jerry Abney’s tournament director when they launched Western BASS back in the early l970s.” But the cancer moved fast and robbed Naslund of the incredible energy that allowed him to work 18 hours a day on little more than black coffee and cigarettes. He died two days before the cancelled reunion. Yet Harvey Naslund’s legacy and that of many others is preserved in this book, pared down to 60 pages. Except for this intro and some ad changes, the magazine is exactly as it would have been for the event. You can’t call it a complete history, yet I believe the stories here represent a true portrait of a special time when the Silver Eagles soared.
Silver Eagle Productions
Harvey Naslund
President/CEO
Y
Event Marketing/Promotions Harvey Naslund Rich Holland Amber Wallace
Editorial
Editorial Director
Rich Holland
Contributors
Bill Hutcheson George Kramer Bill Mays Bill Rice Craig Sutherland Rich Tauber Larry Viviano Fred Ward
Design/Production
Art Director/Creative
Debra Thrash Thrash Design
Printed By Digital Hosting / www.westernbass.com Advertisers
Bridge Bay Resort Calville Bay Daiwa Gary Dobyns El Cajon Ford Fisherman’s Warehouse Fred Hall & Associates Jimmy Houston Don Iovino Konocti Vista Resort Lake County Chamber of Commerce Lobina Lures Darrell Lowrance Optima/AA Worms Phils Prop Shop Fred Roumbanis Russos Marina Ray Scott Silver Eagle Productions WesternBass.com Forrest and Nina Wood Gary Yamamoto
Cost: $20 U.S. Dollars
First Edition ISBN: 978-0-615-56599-6
© 2011 Copyright Silver Eagle Productions. All rights reserved.
With much appreciation,
Rich Holland Silver Eagles Editor
4 SILVER EAGLES _ July 2011