H ISTORY of A RIZONA
FRED WARD
By Fred Ward
BASS FISHING TIED CLOSELY to
uch like everyone else in the West, my tournament bass bug can be traced to 1972, when I attended a seminar in Phoenix put on by Ray Scott and B.A.S.S. Within months I organized the Arizona Bass Club and was ready for our first tour- nament. Membership grew to over 600 in the first two years and Arizona had its first compet- itive fishing organization.
Once you start fishing tournaments, you look for that special lure that’s going to put you on top. The Stinger Worm was the orig- inal design of a double hook, nose weighted worm. But they were hard to find. Also a lit- tle known (at that time) gentleman named Danny Westfall was hand-making a similar lure called the Westy Worm. I approached Danny with the idea of going into business and a deal was struck. Our first order from Yellow Front Stores was for 1000 dozen. Needless to say this overwhelmed Danny and he decided to get out. I went ahead with my new idea, set up manufacturing and sold many thousands of Double Trouble worms. Now that I was in the lure business, find- ing a place of my own to sell them was the next step. The owners of Del Re Sporting Goods in north Phoenix, my hangout for about seven years, wanted to retire so I pur- chased their business and opened Fred Ward Sport Centers. Within a year Forrest Wood granted us a Ranger Dealership, and soon we also handled Mercury, Yamaha and Evinrude motors, Bass Tracker boats and Minn Kota Trolling Motors. Jimmy Carter was president and interest rates were at 17%, but we sold boats like there was no tomorrow. We had
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Fred Ward’s television show focused on taking youngsters fishing.
great help from Art Price, Tom Porter, Floyd Preas, Danny Westfall and a great staff of boat riggers and mechanics. By the second and third years, Fred Ward Sport Centers was the largest Ranger Dealership in the country. I was buying Mercury engines by the semi full and became a platinum dealer. Competitive bass fishing constantly needs new blood and new customers. The school of bass fishing held classes two days a week at Fred’s Sport Center with the help of Art Price. One of the students was a brilliant young fisherman named John Murray. Upon completion of the class, Fred took students out to Pleasant or Saguaro on a pontoon boat and demonstrated techniques taught in class.
All the while what I really liked to do was fish and compete. I was Angler of the Year four years in the Arizona Bass Club, winning eleven tournaments and placing high in the money in many others. I won five tournaments in Western Bass events, placed in the top ten at many other tournaments and earned Angler of the Year once. I achieved Angler of the Year two years in SWAB. SWAB was short for the Southwest Association of Bass Champions, which I started for the express purpose of compet- ing with Western Bass along the Colorado River. I ran it very successfully for two years. We even put out a small newspaper with tournament results. Eventually I sold it
EDITOR’S NOTE: The idea for the Gathering of the Silver Eagles reunion came from Fred Ward, who had recovered from a bout of cancer a few years earlier and was just getting out of the hospital after back surgery and heard that Dee Thomas had also been hospitalized. Of course he immediately punted the project to Harvey Naslund. When Ward was approached about finding a writer, he provided the name of Duane Smith, a longtime Phoenix newspaperman and outdoor writer. But Smith begged off, his time already committed. So Ward took up the task, since, in his own words, “The early history of bass fishing in Arizona is my history.”
July 2011 _ SILVER EAGLES 49