There’s no school like the old school. Arkansas’ Chris Johnson swears by it, fishes by it and recently won by it.
“I have created my personal identity from my style and am completely satisfied with it,” Johnson said. “I love the way I fish, and it’s served me very well all my life.”
In an age dominated by technology, Johnson is an anomaly. There are not many 54-year-olds winning bass fishing tournaments of late, especially not in a rig from his youth.
“No, there are not. It seems to be dominated by the youngsters,” he said. “I’m on the total other end of that spectrum.”
With equipment older than many of his fellow competitors, Johnson took the title at the Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier at the Arkansas River presented by Lowrance in April out of Muskogee, Okla.
From his vintage Ranger boat to his penchant for tackle from his youth to his patched vest, Johnson is an anachronism. It’s simply who he is, and he’s sticking with it.
“I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘You going to get a new boat now?’ ‘No. I am proud of it,’” he said. “I truly believe I could have been a guy in a brand new boat, beautiful jersey, the whole 9 yards, and I wouldn’t have gotten close to the accolades I have by being who I am, staying true to myself.
“It’s who I’ll be until I’m done fishing.”
Harkening back
Alongside flashy rigs with all the bells and whistles, Johnson stands out in his 1986 Ranger 390v with a 1987 carbureted 200 Mercury – “I love it. I love the smell of it. I love everything about it.” He uses a 36-volt standard Fortrex trolling motor and minimal electronics.
“A 2230 Lowrance box flasher on my bow and a Lowrance surface temp gauge is all the electronics on the front,” he said. “Then I have two older HDS units on my console. One I use for mapping and one for two-dimensional graphics.
“I don’t have any sidescan, no downscan. It’s what you would have seen in the late ‘90s. No PowerPoles. It’s just a real basic rig. That’s what I fish out of all the time. It’s still holding up strong.”
Johnson, who owns a tiling business, said he’s not against the new stuff. He just doesn’t believe you have to have the latest and greatest equipment to compete.
“You absolutely do not,” he said. “I’m 100 percent convinced you do not have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anybody can compete without breaking the bank.”
A chip off the old block
Johnson was too young to remember his earliest outing with his father, Wendell, an avid sportsman and tournament angler in northwest Arkansas. At 11, after fishing his first tournament, Johnson became obsessed, spending hours casting in attempts to replicate the techniques he read about in Bassmaster Magazine.
In between his dad’s tournament travels with regional guru Huland Nations, a pioneer of “a new bait back then, the jig and frog,” Johnson fished events with his father. Once he could drive, Johnston spread his wings in the tournament world, but always kept a seat open for his dad. Johnson and Johnson were a force until the elder’s death in 2003.
Living in Farmington near the Oklahoma border, Johnson has done well in the region’s varied fisheries, from clear waters of Beaver Lake to the muddy Arkansas River. He’s benefitted from the support of his wife and three children. Luci, his spouse of 29 years, serves as Arkansas B.A.S.S. Youth director, and she’s had him work with kids looking to someday eat his lunch.
“I kid her all the time,” Johnson said. “’You’ve brought on this whole group up here that’s beating us. It’s all your fault.’”
It’s because of her that he bought Nations’ boat. Johnson was 15 when he first saw the new Ranger, brought to the house to show his dad. Johnson fished from it plenty, and, after Nations died, his family offered it to him in 2021.
“I had another ‘80s Ranger boat at the time, but Luci was insistent that we buy it as she knew how special it was to me,” he said.
Knowledge from his 7 years as a marine service tech helps Johnson keep the older machinery running. Although he has a friend with a shop, he’s able to do most every repair himself.
“If I can get some spark on there, and I can get some fuel in there, I’ll figure out a way to get it running,” he said. “It’s kind of like an old pickup truck.
“One really interesting thing I have noticed with all my co-anglers is how much they enjoy fishing in this boat… I was worried that they would be kind of disappointed that they drew some guy with this old stuff, but it’s been the exact opposite.”
Keeping it simple
The tackle Johnson uses is mostly a step back in time, but he does mix in some recent offerings.
“The newer rods and reels I have are the SLX series that supports Shimano’s youth programs — great equipment for the money,” he said. “I still use many of the older ‘90s era green Curado reels. That’s probably my favorite reel of all time. I probably have a dozen of those I fish a lot.”
Johnson uses some rods that are short by today’s standards, a 6-foot, 6-inch with a short pistol-grip handle for roll casting and a 6-10 for jigs.
His lures of preference date back as well, and he builds plenty more as owner of his company, Arkansas Custom Tackle.
Bagley Balsa Bs, Original Wiggle warts and Rebel Wee Rs are still crankbaits in his stable, and he likes the Original Lunker Lure Buzzbait and older Lucky Strike worms. Uncle Josh trailers have been replaced with Zoom chunk trailers, and among the few other plastics he buys are Zoom Brush Hogs and Strike King Rage Craws.
“I keep everything basic and old school even down to still using lead slip sinkers,” he said. “I still love monofilament line. I use a little bit of fluorocarbon.”
For tackle storage, Johnson has vintage Plano 777 and 7777 drawer boxes and an 80s era Rebel Excalibur hanging box for his spinnerbaits, all of which fit perfectly in his Ranger.
“I collect a lot of old tackle and enjoy replicating some of these old designs and using them to fish and compete with,” he said. “I also have a collection of flashers, paper graphs, reels and memorabilia from the late 70s, early 80s era.”
Mindful of his history
It’s not just the tackle. Johnson is of a mindset that he sees going by the wayside. He said anglers like Denny Brauer and Rick Clunn were known for their specific way of fishing. Each recognized events in which they would excel while knowing where they needed to survive.
“They stuck with their style, with what brought them to the show,” Johnson said. “That’s the way I look at it.
“If I stick with who I am and the way I fish, sure I’m going to have some tournaments I don’t look like I have a clue. But my tournaments are going to happen a few times a year and I’ll get a win or two. I get just as much out of those as trying to hang in every tournament and be everything.”
Johnson said he sees some experienced anglers becoming disenfranchised with the sport. Trying to keep up with the Joneses and not concentrating on their strengths has them missing both boats.
“I think so many people are trying to keep up with everything, which in turn causes them to be confused and unsatisfied in fishing,” he said. “We see that a lot today. A lot of people are frustrated.”
The only time Johnson reports not enjoying the sport was when he veered off his tack. The message was rubbed in when a buddy asked, “Hey, where were you at? They were eating that spinnerbait up.”
Slow rolling at Muskogee
“I spend the majority of my time in 10 feet or less targeting bass that I think are overlooked by many in this new era of fishing,” Johnson said. “My fishing has always been rooted around an understanding of nature, natural cycles, landscape, fish behavior, and other anglers.”
That’s pretty much how Johnson scored a wire-to-wire win at Muskogee. Accessing protected water through breaks in levees, Johnson caught 19 pounds, 6 ounces on Day 1 with a black and blue jig. He backed it up with 17-15 then 13-14 on an old school spinnerbait, a 3/8-ounce tandem Colorado/willow-leaf spinnerbait with a Zoom Split Tail trailer.
“It’s more the style of fishing that makes it old school,” he said. “The thought of precision casting, and the effort that goes into each cast, each target, that thought process of what that bait’s doing all the time.”
Others around him might have caught more fish, but his patient tactic elicited the bigger bites. His fifth fish on the final day came late, giving him a 51-3 total to win by 1-9 and earn at $12,065 payout.
“Holy cow! This whole week has been unbelievable,” he said. “A win like this is a dream come true.”
The victory also qualified Johnson to fish the Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Lowrance. The event is set for Oklahoma’s Grand Lake in November, with the top three securing berths to the 2025 Bassmaster Classic.
In the 2021 Nation Championship at the Ouachita River, Johnson finished fourth, just 18 ounces from making the Classic. He said he plans to add Opens to his 2025 schedule to increase his chances at making the world’s championship.
“Making the Classic,” he said, “and fishing it with my ‘86 Ranger would be the coolest thing ever in my book.”
It would put an exclamation point on his assertion that tournament fishing hasn’t solely become a domain for the rich. A regular guy like Johnson, who has put his dream on hold, failed and scraped pennies, can find success.
“It’s my hope that someone, whether they are 14 or 60, that has felt that it is impossible, will find inspiration to keep at it and make their dreams come true. I just want to yell from the hilltop, ‘Don’t give up, it can be done!’”
