Selling the virtues of bass fishing among the Pacific Northwest's salmon-crazed angling crowd was a lot like singing in the shower when Stan Fagerstrom began his warmwater mission just after World War II.
"Bass were generally regarded as second cousins to carp when I came along," says Fagerstrom, 83. "You could hardly find anybody to brag to when you caught a 5-pounder."
But slowly, from his pulpit as an outdoor columnist in Oregon and Washington, and during trick-casting demonstrations up and down the West Coast, Fagerstrom won many converts.
Now, the renowned "Master Caster," who tantalizes outdoor show audiences with his precision casts, doesn't have to defend bass from second-class status.
His audiences regularly sing the praises of bass to him. And no one mentions them in the same sentence as carp.
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That's why the bass world was putting its collective hands together Saturday for Fagerstrom, whose six decades of extolling the virtues of bass fishing has enshrined him in warmwater history.
The former Oregonian on Saturday became the first Pacific Northwest angler inducted the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.
Also inducted Saturday was California's Dee Thomas, "the Father of Flippin,'" who invented the technique of flipping baits into thick cover to catch bass otherwise immune from hooks.
The two were part of a class of four anglers enshrined in the hall Saturday in Alabama during the Bassmaster Classic Championship tournament.
"It was really something," says Fagerstrom, who now lives in Sun Lakes, Ariz. "I still have to prick myself occasionally."
Thomas and Fagerstrom together shared recognition as the first West Coast anglers to join the hall, which now sports 32 members.
"What a great man, one of the finest human beings I know," says Sammy Lee, host of popular outdoor television show in the South and hall of fame president.
"Can you think of anyone up and down the West Coast who has spread the gospel of bass fishing more than Stan Fagerstrom?" Lee says.
The Gospel According to Stan began in 1946 in Longview, Wash. Fresh out of the South Pacific, the World War II vet took at job at his hometown newspaper as its new outdoor writer.
Salmon and steelhead anglers started reading about largemouth and smallmouth. Many off-season salmon anglers began dabbling with what even state fish biologists regularly referred to as "trash fish."
But Fagerstrom kept talking trash, in newspapers and major outdoor magazines throughout the country. His sermons rang loud and true in the South, and the fledgling professional bass-fishing society came to Fagerstrom when it launched the first Bassmaster Classic in 1971.
Fagerstrom was one of the original outdoor writers who were "observers" riding with the pros in the tournament.
"That was quite an event," he says.
But Fagerstrom's fame in the outdoor world has developed more on dry land than on the water.
His 55-year career conducting precision-casting demonstrations at outdoor shows and angling events has brought Fagerstrom's warmth and passion directly to audiences bedazzled as much by his fancy casts as his genuine demeanor.
It began when Fagerstrom held the first real casting demonstration in 1952 in Lost Angeles and even passed through Medford more than 50 years later.
During a four-year "Master Caster" stint at the Jackson County Sportsmen's and Outdoor Recreation Show, Fagerstrom remained a crowd favorite. They never tire of watching him flick hookless plugs across an arena floor and into shirt pockets, coffee cups and around fingers.
"I learned a long time ago that there's a lot of things you can't control (while fishing), but I can always improve on my casting," he says. "So I worked on it."
He missed the past three Medford shows, but he hopes to return next year with his cache of casts.
"He's such a gentleman, a professional and a nobleman," says Joe Pate, the show's producer. "I miss him."
Semi-retired, Fagerstrom still does a few casting demonstrations each month between fishing trips on lakes near his Arizona home. He also writes regular columns for a handful of angling Web sites.
And he now wears his hall of fame status proudly but humbly, happy to have helped emancipate his beloved bass.
"I've been very, very richly blessed, as is everyone who can make a living doing something they really love," Fagerstrom says
