It’s been imagined by many that Forrest Wood and Jerry McKinnis are back together, drifting down an ethereal stream, reeling in trout.
A float trip on the White River in north Central Arkansas brought them together some 60 years ago, and both went on to build empires — different yet ever connected — in the bass fishing world. Wood died Jan. 25 at 87, less than three months after McKinnis passed at 82.
Editor’s note: See photos from the Forrest L. Wood Outdoors Sports Gallery.
Their first fateful encounter happened when McKinnis completed a journey from St. Louis to fish the recently created trout haven. As he walked down the ramp to G.O. Tilley’s boat dock, a tall, skinny man wearing a cowboy hat greeted him. Their first exchange, as written in McKinnis’ autobiography, was:
“Are you Jerry?” Just a simple “Yes” was all I had. “Well great. I’ll be your guide today. My name is Forrest Wood.”
McKinnis added the meeting became one of the big moments in shaping his life. Supporting each other through the years, both became icons, Wood for his Ranger Boat Company and namesake fishing tour and McKinnis for his fishing show and TV production.
“They were so different,” Bassmaster TV host Tommy Sanders said. “Big city kid (Jerry from St. Louis) and the guy from the smallest, tiniest community buried in the Ozarks (Forrest from Flippin, Ark.), yet they were two peas in a pod in a lot of ways. They both had ambition. They were both builders. Both eaten up with bass fishing. They would finish each other’s sentences.
“I think people know Forrest for the fact he was the genuine article. He built that business, literally, with his own hands. I want to remember all I can about Forrest. There won’t be any more like him.”
While their drive alone might have pushed Wood and McKinnis to greatness, Steve Bowman, head of angler relations at B.A.S.S., thinks their meeting holds more importance. Bowman met Woods while outdoor editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and that led to friendship. He similarly connected with McKinnis, who hired him two decades ago to work at JM Associates. Bowman, who has shared bread, water, woods and many words with both, thinks “I’ll be your guide” was much more poignant than just that day’s fishing.
“I’ve always thought he became his guide for life that very moment,” Bowman said. “What he said without really saying it is, I’m going to be your guide, we’re going to guide each other for life.”
Wood and McKinnis formed a special bond that day. They hit it off so well, Wood invited McKinnis to his small home for a meal with his wife, Nina. It was the only time he did that with a client.
“The amazing thing about it,” Bowman said, “is they went fishing together and within a day’s time, they felt like they were going to be partners for life. That’s the kind of people those two were.”
It’s all about relationships
When considering the evolution of the bass fishing industry, Bowman said it can be boiled down to the insightful men and women who’ve worked hard toward their vision. Through determination, trust of their word and a handshake, mountains were moved.
“In the world of bass fishing, it’s all about relationships,” he said. “These guys who come together, work together and create something that’s huge and unbelievable. Forrest Wood is the foundation of that.”
“I believe Jerry would have never gotten to where he went without Forrest. B.A.S.S. wouldn’t be B.A.S.S. without Ranger Boats. Ranger Boats wouldn’t have become what it is without Forrest and Nina Wood. And Jerry wouldn’t have been Jerry without Forrest Wood.”
There was mutual admiration and strong loyalty. Ranger Boats was the longtime sponsor of The Fishin’ Hole, and McKinnis conferred often with Wood. In his book, Bass Fishing, Brown Dogs & Curveballs, McKinnis wrote that whenever life presented a roadblock, this thought helped him through it — “What would Forrest do?”
“Their business relationship was long and strong. Ranger was one of the first sponsors and was there to the end,” McKinnis’ son, Mike said. “Every turn, every corner, every decision that dad made, from the day he met Forrest on the river, he confided in Forrest. He would always say, I talked to Forrest about this and here’s what he said. Dad looked up to Forrest like everybody did.”
Mike, now executive producer at JM and VP of media content at B.A.S.S., said his father certainly had offers from other boat companies over the years.
“As JM started getting bigger and producing other shows,” Mike said, “we worked with other boat companies, but nothing could ever crack the loyalty between Ranger and Jerry McKinnis. There was great loyalty between them.”
Bowman said Wood was always gracious, always a gentleman, always loving, and he had a special light that made everyone he encountered feel special or inspired. Bowman credits Wood’s hardscrabble upbringing in the Ozarks, where trying to make ends meet included farming cotton and cattle. Wood experienced rocky times but always picked up the pieces, worked hard for his goal and appreciated his blessings.
For his final story at the newspaper, Bowman wrote a long piece on Wood for the High Profile section, which features prominent Arkansans. It’s framed and hangs on the wall at JM in between articles on McKinnis and Nina. In that 2002 report, McKinnis is quoted on Wood:
“His biggest accomplishment is the influence he’s had on the people around him, the people he has touched.”
Many of them attended his memorial service Wednesday in Flippin, Ark., a town of around 1,300 that Wood put on the map with his Ranger Boat factory.
“There’ll be more people in Flippin than have ever been at one time to pay tribute to a man who really was simple,” Bowman said. “Just do the right things, work as hard as you can, and be nice to people. That’s really what it was.
“He just gave you that quiet confidence, ‘Hey, if you’re going to make something, make it the best there is.’ It’s that Ozark sentimentality. Do the right thing. Do the right thing as well as you can. Jerry took that. I worked for Jerry almost 20 years. Jerry was never satisfied. He was always striving to make it better. I think Forrest fostered that.”
Do it with my blessing
While Wood’s boat business flourished, McKinnis’ TV career was expanding. Through his connections at ESPN, McKinnis was asked to create a tournament circuit for TV. With a suggestion from Ranger’s sales and marketing director Charlie Hoover to name it after Wood, McKinnis stamped FLW on the tour in his honor.
“Jerry always paid homage to Forrest, and Forrest always paid homage to Jerry,” Bowman said, adding their relationship remained strong despite a huge change in the industry.
McKinnis, whose company produced a block of outdoor shows on ESPN2, faced a monumental dilemma when ESPN purchased B.A.S.S. in 2001. That rock and hard place was to abdicate FLW production or potentially lose work, and his show, at the network.
“I was actually turkey hunting with Forrest when we got the call that ESPN had bought B.A.S.S.,” Bowman said. “‘Wow, what are we going to do?’ In the same way that I asked counsel of Forrest and others when Jerry asked me to work here, Jerry asked Forrest for counsel on what to do.”
JM was producing all the TV for FLW and now was asked to switch partners midway through the dance. Wood showed his benevolence, unselfishly advising McKinnis to do what’s best for the industry.
“Jerry told me many times that Forrest told him, ‘If you want to help FLW, then you stay — if you want to help the sport of bass fishing, you go to B.A.S.S.’ And that was the reason,” Bowman said. “Jerry was torn. He was an ESPN guy, but he was also a Forrest guy. Forrest basically relinquished to him what he knew was the right thing, not what was best for Forrest.”
“That was the kind of man he was. I always find that very humbling, because in a world today where it’s, ‘What’s good for me, what’s good for me,’ Forrest was, ‘You’re going to be able to make a difference in the bass fishing world.’ He knew it would take away from him, but he also knew it was the right thing.”
Bowman said that mentality is still alive in the Wood family and its latest endeavor, Vexus Boats.
“It’s a dying thing in this world, and a big chunk of it went away with Forrest,” Bowman said. “I just think there is no bigger icon in the world of bass fishing other than maybe Ray Scott,” the founder of B.A.S.S. whose signature was a Stetson hat, the first of which was gifted to him by none other than Wood.
The red Ranger
The paths for Wood and McKinnis crossed many times, and sometimes they walked together. A few years after that first meeting, McKinnis wrote about a special encounter that might have set both on their way. After a day guiding on the White, both met under the Cotter bridge and discussed their futures.
“Don’t think either of us had that sense of ‘the parts beginning to line up,’ but we had to know something different was on the horizon, and our eyes were wide open looking for it.”
McKinnis left the Ozarks to run Maumelle Harbor in Little Rock, where he received his big break with an impromptu fishing report on the local TV newscast. Wood, who had earlier worked in a Kansas City aircraft factory and learned manufacturing, sought to create something with fiberglass.
“God’s design for him was he got to see how these things got put together,” Bowman said. “Forrest was going to get into fiberglass phone booth business, but then it became a boat. Then his factory burned, and they never checked up. They got stronger because his factory burned. There were people jumping in to help them keep that company and keep it moving.”
Wood gifted McKinnis one of those first Rangers, the only red one at the time, and McKinnis shared in his book a story that Wood enjoyed telling for years. A policeman pulled them over in Little Rock for not having a license on the new matching trailer, and McKinnis wasn’t appreciative of the officer’s treatment of his shiny new rig.
He “puts his foot on the trailer, shaking it and then kicks my trailer tire. (This is Forrest’s favorite part.) That was the last straw for me and I said, ‘Officer, you can give me a ticket if you want, but don’t kick my trailer anymore.’ You’ve never seen a ticket written, then handed out, as fast in your life.”
Soon after, on their way to the Indianapolis Boat Show to talk bass fishing and market this first-of-its-kind bass boat, they again were stopped by the law.
“I got out of that one, but Forrest told me later that when he saw the blue lights, his first thought was, ‘Oh my, I hope they don’t kick Jerry’s trailer tires.’”
McKinnis claimed to have startled Wood when he later asked if he would carpet his boat, which became the standard. That Red Ranger traveled coast to coast for McKinnis’ show trips and was later restored by Wood’s crew. It now sits in Wood’s museum in Flippin.
Gracious to one and all
Wood’s legacy reaches around the globe. He’s been inducted into every hall of fame in the fishing world, has a nature center in Arkansas named after him for his time as a Game and Fish Commissioner, and the Forrest and Nina Wood Access leads visitors to his beloved Bull Shoals Tailwater.
Although he had a larger-than-life persona, he was never too big to be gracious. Wood was often seen at boat shows and tournaments greeting everyone who approached. That kindness was returned through a massive outpouring of social media posts upon the news of his death, most all recounting heart-warming interactions with Wood.
“Forrest was always approachable,” Bowman said. “He would stop and shake anyone’s hand, and he’d talk to every one of them.”
Bowman and his wife, Barbara, were special recipients of Wood’s generosity. For a honeymoon present, Wood invited them to stay at their river house and enjoy a float.
“The two-hour cruise wound up being daylight to dark,” he said. “It was just amazing for my wife and me.”
Bowman sat in the bow for a friendly battle with Nina, each boasting on a bigger fish catch or taking the lead in numbers. Ever the guide, Forrest concentrated on assisting Barbara.
“He never stopped paddling us. He never fished,” Bowman said. “He would open up her drink. He served her the whole time. She caught a fish, he’d take it off, bait her hook.
“It’s one of those things Barb and I will never forget. My heart goes out to Nina. She’s such an incredible woman. They’re incredible people. I loved him more than … ” his voice trailed off, perhaps realizing the loss of a man who meant so much to him and so many others.
McKinnis’ considered description of Wood in his book speaks volumes:
“His charisma, his heart, and most importantly his intelligence, is off the charts. If he was an actor, he’d be John Wayne (Bowman disputes that, saying his demeanor was more Jimmy Stewart), if he sang he’d be Sinatra, and if he were a politician, he would be Abe Lincoln.
But he’s none of these. He is Forrest Wood, a cattle farmer who lives in Flippin, Arkansas. Sure he would develop the largest and most successful bass boat business in the world, Ranger Boats, and right there in his own back yard, but he would continue to be Forrest Woods, a cattle farmer from Flippin, Arkansas.
In just three months, The Greatest Generation has lost two of its greatest, yet the ripples they created will forever be felt.
