Charlie
Campbell

Nick
Creme

Elwood Lake
“Buck” Perry

Virgil
Ward

    This gentleman comes into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame not as a nationally known tournament angler but, as an internationally known developer of fishing lures.

    He is credited with being the “Father” of the plastic worm, when he developed the modern plastic worm, in 1949, while living in Akron, Ohio.

    He and his wife, Cosma, cooked up the perfect combination of vinyl, oils and pigments to produce a molded worm that not only looked and felt soft and alive, but also stayed that way when exposed to air, over time.

       His first marketed worm was the “Crème Wiggle Worm” and was sold by mail order, in 1951, for $1 for a pack of 5.

    When his new fishing lures were shown at the Cleveland Sportsman’s Show that year, a local fishing tackle distributor sold 9,600 bags in just a few days. Demand soared and quickly outgrew the couple’s small kitchen. They then set-up a small manufacturing plant in Akron. In the late 1950’s, word of this soft plastic worm began to spread to bass anglers in the South.

    Due to demand, he decided to move his manufacturing company to the center of bass activity and built a plant in Tyler, Texas. When anglers began winning B.A.S.S. tournaments on his “Scoundrel” and “Shimmy Gal” worms, his business really took off. He began working with bass anglers, around the country, who helped with many of his products’ innovations and rigging techniques.

    But, his most famous designs: the “Scoundrel”; the “Shimmy Gal” and the “Shimmy Babe” designs were credited to his wife, Cosma.

    In addition to his world renowned lure designs, he was one of the first manufacturers to utilize a field staff network and even used expert anglers, nationwide, to introduce his worms to other fishermen. His was also one of the first companies to sponsor pro anglers when , in 1967, he offered national bass tournament champion, John Powell, the unheard of sum of $18000 a year, to fish Crème Worms. In today’s terms, that would be close to $150,000.

    Seldom does one individual have such an impact on the sport and profession, as Nick Crème. His plastic worm, developed in 1949, actually revolutionized bass fishing.

    Mr. Crème died in 1984 but, the tradition continues. Crème Lure Company continues to produce the original “Scoundrel” as well as many new and innovative products.

    Buck Perry is surely the “Father” of structure fishing. Born July 10, 1915, in Hickory, North Carolina, he attended Hickory High School, where he played on three consecutive championship football teams from 1929 to 1931.

    He received a football scholarship to Lenoir Rhyne College, where he earned his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics. It was his keen interest in both that would lead to his induction into this Hall of Fame.

    While in college, he wal All-Conference in both football and baseball, for four consecutive years.

In 1941, he moved to North Carolina State University, to study mechanical engineering and teach college labs.

    After World War II, he left teaching and moved back to North Carolina to join his Father and Brother in the family business.

From an early age, he hunted and fished, mainly on Lake James, near Hickory. It was on this impoundment that the observations he made would lay the groundwork for his pioneering theories on fishing.

    He had a strong belief that the natural “home” for most game fish was not in the shallows, as most people of the day thought but in deep water and, that once or twice a day, fish would follow a migration route from the depths, to the shallows, to feed.

And, knowing the “route”, or the particular bottom features that fish took, to move into shallow water, would increase an angler’s catch, on a year-round basis.

Learning the “routes” and designing a “tool” that would allow fishing in all depths AND trigger a strike was key to his success.

    His innovative lure combined the action of a “spoon” with the look of a “plug”, that could be trolled in deep water, to find the fish he knew were there.

    The “Spoonplugs” as he would later come to call them, were patented in 1946. He then began the long process of manufacturing them and teaching anglers why, where and when to use them, to catch more fish.

    The next eleven years found him with few takers, as he traveled throughout the South, preaching his methods. Even offering a one-day class, on spoonplugs, with guaranteed results for the angler, at the astronomical cost of $2.50, didn’t generate much interest. It wasn’t until 1957, when both Tom McNally, of the Chicago Tribune and Ray Gray, of the Chicago American newspapers wrote feature stories in their Sunday editions, on his fishing exploits on Lake Marie (supposedly a “fished-out” body of water), did he gain recognition. When readers read that he had caught fish, after fish, after fish, using slow, trolling spoonplugs, on offshore structure, the deepwater spoonplug craze was on!

However, it wasn’t as simple as tying on a lure. It was the art of using the early depthfinders and topo maps, to find the “structure” that the fish used to migrate from the deep to the shallows.

    In 1984, Fishing Facts Magazine editor, George Pazic wrote: “He started the whole modern era of freshwater sport fishing. He is known as the “Father of Structure Fishing” and his discoveries and teachings have brought pleasure and success to millions of anglers that never even heard his name”.

    Buck Perry passed away on August 12, 2005, at the age of 90. His “spoonplugs” company still survives, producing baits in seven sizes and thirty-five colors and his techniques are still being taught, around the world. Anywhere an angler has the thirst for knowledge and the desire to catch fish, on a year-round basis, Elwood “Buck” Perry’s name will live forever.

    Born May 25, 1911, into a family of nine brothers and sisters, it was Virgil’s mother, Pearl, who instilled the love of the sport, by taking him fishing at the age of four.

    It was years later that he told the story that his first fish was “caught on a piece of string, a willow limb and a hook with a piece of bread for bait”. He would go on to say that the fish was “a six inch Chub and I thought that it was great”! He was hooked for life!

    Fishing, however, was not the only sport he pursued. He was an avid basketball and baseball player. In fact, he played basketball until he was 38 and baseball until he was 48. He claimed these two spots drove his competitive spirit.

    In 1950, he and his son Bill started the Bass Buster Lure Company. One of the first products was a feather jig. From this bait, the company designed and patented the fiber weed guard, for jigs.

    The most famous lure the Bass Buster Lure Company ever designed has to be the “Beetle Spin”. This small jig, with a spinner on it, is still in production and has sold millions and millions, helping anglers catch every specie of fish.

    The Bass Buster Lure Company was eventually sold to Sam Johnson, of Johnson & Johnson fame and is still producing fish-catching lures that are sold worldwide.

From lure design, to competitive angling, this gentleman has done it all.

    In the early 1960’s, he won the “World Series of Sport Fishing” and in 1962, won two national bass tournaments.

    In 1963, he began writing a fishing column that appeared in 455 newspapers around the country and hosted a national radio fishing program that aired on 200 radio stations. His television program “Championship Fishing” aired for 27 years.

    Catching fish was, apparently, a gene he passed on to his son and grandsons. His son Bill and his grandson, Greg, were the first Father/Son duo to qualify for the Bassmasters Classic in 1975, on Currituck Sound, in North Carolina.

    Another grandson, Jeffrey, holds the “All-Tackle” record for Arctic Char, caught while fishing with his grandfather on the Tree River, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, in 1981.

    Mr. Ward passed away on September 13, 2004, at the age of 93.

Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, about our Fisheries

A few words from John L. Morris, of Bass Pro Shops, about our Inductees

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