2024 Inductees

Anyone who has ever caught a bass on a spinnerbait, buzzbait or skirted jig owes a special thanks to Fred Arbogast, one of the most creative innovators of fishing lures in the history of sportfishing. In 1934, the young luremaker was looking for an alternative to labor-intensive feather and hair dressings for his bass baits. Having worked for Goodyear and B.F. Goodrich in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, since high school, he hit upon the idea of rubber skirts for lures.

He called his creation the Hula Skirt, and he used it on his Hawaiian Wiggler (a precursor to the buzzbait), Hula Popper and Hula Dancer. His skirt design led to the use of rubber and other materials to make pliable skirts for a multitude of lures popular today. By the time of his sudden, premature death in 1947, at the age of 53, Arbogast had designed nearly a dozen deadly bass baits, including a perennial favorite, the Jitterbug.

Arbogast’s contributions to fishing extend far beyond lure design and manufacturing. He won his first distance casting competition at 22 years old, and within a few years he began to dominate national bait casting competitions. He held world casting records in both accuracy and distance categories, earning at least eight national championship titles in the National Association of Scientific Angling Clubs. In 1925 he hurled a half-ounce weight 293 feet — just shy of a football field in length.

He was a tireless promoter and educator of bass fishing, presenting seminars and trick-casting demonstrations in his area of the Midwest. He was a dedicated conservationist, as well. As a leading member of the Izaak Walton League and his county’s Fish and Game Protective Association, Arbogast campaigned to curtail water pollution and to protect fisheries from overharvest.

Arbogast Lure Co. continued to thrive long after its founder’s death. It became part of PRADCO Outdoor Brands in 1997.

It might be tempting to identify Mike McKinnis primarily as the son of the late Jerry McKinnis of The Fishing Hole fame. That would be a huge mistake.

While Jerry’s impact on the sport of bass fishing has been widely celebrated — he was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in 2003 — fewer people know about the contributions made by the younger McKinnis.

When Ray Scott founded B.A.S.S. in early 1968, he dreamed that one day, bass fishing would be broadcast live on television just like basketball and other sports. Mike McKinnis and his production team at JM Associates made Scott’s dream a reality with the streaming of the 2015 Bassmaster Classic live on Bassmaster.com.

The breakthrough production was an immediate success. It evolved rapidly until today, on-the-water fishing action is streamed live on FOX Sports networks — not only from the Classic but also from Bassmaster Elite events, Bassmaster Opens and College Series tournaments.

Since joining his father’s company, JM Associates of Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1990, Mike and his team have transformed the way fishing fans consume content around their sport.

His productions of one-off fishing tournament programs in the mid-‘90s attracted the attention of ESPN, which tapped JM to launch ESPN’s coverage of the new FLW tour in 1996. He and his crew managed to deliver packaged programming from FLW events in less than a week.

After ESPN bought B.A.S.S. in 2001, McKinnis and company began packaging outdoor sports programming, including “The Bassmasters” TV Show, every Saturday and Sunday morning on ESPN and ESPN2.

After his father became a part-owner of B.A.S.S. in 2010, Mike’s impact grew even greater. He assigned live camera operators to the Top 10 anglers’ boats each day, added teams of live-action reporters and incorporated live video from drone cameras.

Mike played a key role in development and production of other popular fishing programs including Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show, The Spanish Fly with Jose Wejebe, The Redfish Cup Series, The Madfin Shark Series among many others. His productions have earned an Emmy, Emmy nominations and other top awards.

Raised in Northern California, Skeet Reese is arguably the most influential West Coast angler in the sport. Though his impact is much broader than his California roots. He achieved legend status for three reasons: 1) winning tournaments on multiple tours; 2) his personal style which includes the eye-catching yellow and black color scheme, his massive truck, and even dancing on stage; and 3) his successful track record of product development and signature tackle sales.

Reese had early success in western tournaments, including winning WON Bass events in 1993 and 1994, and then gaining recognition in 1997 by winning two regional Red Man Tournaments, a West Coast B.A.S.S. event and the West Coast B.A.S.S. Angler of The Year. The AOY gave Reese entry into the B.A.S.S. 150s and the Bassmaster Classic. That was the beginning of his career as a national touring pro.

Since then Reese has won eight B.A.S.S. events, three MFL tournaments and cracked the 100-pound mark four times in B.A.S.S. competitions. His career earnings of $3.9 million (B.A.S.S. and MLF) puts him in the top 5 all-time. That number goes past $4 million when you include the western tournaments. Reese claimed the 2007 Elite Series Angler of the Year title and won the 2009 Bassmaster Classic (the only western angler to win a Classic). In 2007 he missed winning the Classic by just 6-ounces.

His 2009 and 2010 Elite Series seasons ranks as one of the most dominant two-year runs in the sport’s history. During that time, he won the 2009 Classic, then made cuts in 13 straight full-field events and piled up 10 top-10 finishes, including wins at Smith Mountain Lake and Lake Guntersville during the 2010 campaign.

Reese has been on the leading edge of product development for many years, with his gear and signature tackle sales reaching $20 million dollars a year in sales. He is one of the original 15 anglers to launch Major League Fishing in conjunction with Kroenke Sports.

Racial desegregation may have been mandated by federal laws and court rulings in the 1950s and ’60s, but in reality, almost insurmountable barriers between the races continued to exist across the South, especially in the Jackson, Mississippi, area where Alfred Williams grew up.

If any barriers existed in the world of bass fishing, Williams quietly and confidently overcame them. After returning from a tour in the Vietnam War, he began fishing bass tournaments, often as the only Black competitor, and winning way more than his share. He joined a local B.A.S.S. Nation bass club, made the Mississippi state team, and then won the 1983 Bassmaster Classic divisional qualifier on Ross Barnett Reservoir.

Williams earned a berth in the Classic that year on the Ohio River at Cincinnati, Ohio, making history as the first Black angler ever to qualify for the prestigious championship. He finished 10th out of 42 contenders, ranking ahead of Hank Parker, Rick Clunn, Denny Brauer and Roland Martin.

His success attracted many more African-American anglers to bass fishing and paved the way for Ish Monroe, Mark Daniels Jr. and other Black pro anglers to follow.

Williams also has made a difference in bass fishing in ways unrelated to race. He is credited with popularizing the use of hollow-body frogs, which accounted for many of his 200 tournament victories on Ross Barnett.

He added weight to his favorite Snag Proof models to make them rider lower in the water and dramatically improve hook-setting success. He drew more strikes by adding a rattle chamber to the belly and replacing the stock rubber legs with spinnerbait skirts. Snag Proof incorporated his custom alterations in certain tournament models of its frogs.

Over his long career, Williams competed in nearly 300 BASSMASTER and FLW events, winning four pro-level contests and earning numerous Top 10s.

He continues to serve as a mentor and role model to other Black anglers in his home state and throughout the nation.

Mark Zona grew up in a southern suburb of Chicago. He caught his first bass at the age of 4 when his parents traveled to Sturgis, Michigan on a family vacation. That first bass sparked an immediate passion for fishing and set the trajectory of his life.

In 1982 at the age of 9 he fished and won his first ever bass fishing tournament splitting $2,200 with his partner. The fishing bug was on overdrive from that point forward. After graduating from Homewood Flossmor High School Zona immediately moved back to Sturgis, MI where his parents had bought a house on Klinger Lake. He attended Glen Oaks Community College while also fishing local and regional bass fishing tournaments.

After college he began selling pontoon and bass boats while still competing in local tournaments and eventually moving on to the national level which included the Bassmaster Invitationals and Opens, and the FLW Everstart Northern Division, where he won the division’s AOY in 2003.

Around that time he and his wife Karin seriously considered a full time move into tour level fishing but then an opportunity to interview with ESPN for their new outdoor Bass Saturday block arrived. Zona landed the position and became the co-host of a show called Loudmouth Bass in 2004. This was the beginning of his new life as a television commentator, host and analyst.

In 2005 ESPN scaled down their outdoor programming but kept Zona on as the host of his own fishing show named “World’s Greatest Fishing Show “which aired for four years. When ESPN transitioned out of outdoor programming in 2009 Zona continued with his fishing show but renamed it “Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show!” and began airing it exclusively on the Outdoor Channel and World Fishing Network. Zona’s show is currently still in production and has become one of the most popular bass fishing shows in the history of outdoor television winning multiple Golden Moose awards. Expanding outside of television Zona also began hosting a live internet fishing show called “ZONA LIVE” which aired on Bassmaster.com and YouTube. ZONA LIVE along with “Zona Unplugged” and “Zona Show Dirt” have generated over 15 million views on his YouTube channel.

In 2005 in addition to hosting his own show Zona’s extensive knowledge of professional bass fishing caught the eye of Jerry and Mike McKinnis who invited him to co-host The Bassmaster Show with Tommy Sanders. What was initially thought to be a one time occurrence has become a multi decade long career. Zona has been with B.A.S.S. through the inception of Bassmaster LIVE which launched at the 2015 Classic on Lake Hartwell, bringing reality to the long dreamed concept of truly live on-the-water tournament coverage.

Zona’s work on outdoor television has included BassCenter, The Greatest Angler Debate, The Bass Pros, Pro Team Journal by Strike King, Strike King’s Fish Hard, Kings of Bass, College Smash-Mouth Bass Championship, Oberta Redfish Cup, The World’s Greatest Fishing Show, Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show, Zona Live, as well as appearing in the movie Bait Shop.

He has appeared on ESPN, FOX, FS1, The Outdoor Channel, World Fishing Network,MyOutdoorTV, HULU, Amazon Prime Video, Bassmaster.com, YouTube, and many more platforms. His passionate style and love for fishing has entertained millions of fishing fans and brought countless new fans into the sport.