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Jimmy Houston spins yarns with the best, and he offered up one after the passing of fishing icons Forrest Wood and Jerry McKinnis.
A run-in at the 2020 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk had the two-time B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year relating a humorous encounter about the two legends, who passed three months apart over the winter.
“Jerry was always kidding me about something,” said Houston, admiring McKinnis’ property on Arkansas’ White River while on a video shoot years ago. “He said, ‘Ya know Jimmy, Forrest and I own 21 miles of river along here.’”
Houston said he was amazed, simply blown away, before The Hammer laid down the punchline: “Forrest owns 20 miles — I own a mile.”
Houston was drawn in even though he uses a similar joke about the 18 AOY titles between himself, wife Chris and Roland Martin — “Roland has nine, Chris has seven, and I have two.”
He did get serious about the type of men that the industry, and the world, lost in Wood and McKinnis.
“They left an amazing mark,” he said. “The industry is what it is because of individuals like Forrest and Jerry. More than what they did from an actual fishing standpoint, a manufacturing standpoint, they were just exemplary type individuals, the type a father would like his daughter to marry, the kind you’d want to come in and run your company, the kind of individual you’d want as your neighbor. That’s what these guys were like.
“I know it’s an old, worn-out saying — they’re the salt-of-the-earth type people. The world needs more Forrest Woods and Jerry McKinnises.”
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Murray pays great respects
Bobby Murray, who won Classics in 1971 and 1978, has a close connection to both Wood and McKinnis. It was a cold day out on an Arkansas lake when McKinnis first met Murray and his twin brother, Billy, who became the first cameraman for The Fishin’ Hole.
Their paths crossed many times over the years, on the water and in business.
“I grew up watching The Fishin’ Hole,” Murray said. “It was like going to church on Sunday — you didn’t miss it. The one thing about it, it was not so much technical about fishing, it was more about being out there and being outdoors, meeting all the people.
“McKinnis was just such an extraordinary person. He was more a visionary than most people realize.”
Murray said Wood was like E.F. Hutton.
“Forrest was a true friend. He was so soft-spoken, but you better listen to every word he said. He didn’t say anything without thinking about it,” he said. “He and Nina both, they had such a demeanor with everybody.”
And Wood was a great business partner for whom he had great respect. Murray tells of seeing one of Wood’s first Ranger boats in the late 1960s at a tournament.
“When I got there, Forrest had just popped the first two hulls out of his mold. Kent (Smith) had one, McKinnis had the other,” Murray said. “These were old, basic hull, square bows, stools, but it had a livewell, a console, a front seat, and when I looked at it, it looked like a Ferrari to me.
“Before I left that tournament, I had me one ordered.”
Within a year and half, Murray was a Ranger Boat dealer, becoming the largest west of the Mississippi. While the third Ranger was among Murray’s prize possessions, he gifted Wood a horse saddle that became one of his.
The Murrays grew up in the horse business. Their stepfather was a cutting horse champion and, after the twins shared his world championship saddle, the Murrays decided to present it to Wood.
“That’s where it needs to go. That ended up one of his prize possessions,” Murray said.
Murray was in the B.A.S.S. booth at the 2020 Bassmaster Classic Expo with his prized 1971 trophy, saying the past 50 years since he won the first title on Lake Mead seems more like 100. He summed up Wood.
“Forrest’s mark will be on this industry for the next 50 years. He left such an impression on everyone he met … never met a stranger.”
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Clunn enlightens on losses
Rick Clunn said both McKinnis and Wood had so much impact on the industry, for the greater good and for him personally.
“What Jerry did was the most important thing you could do for fisherman in the history of the sport — he gave us our boats,” Clunn said of the change to let anglers fish from their own boat. “That gave us true advertising. We had the ability to put our sponsors’ logos on and give them something incredible.”
Clunn has competed in more than 500 B.A.S.S and FLW events. He’s won four Classics and was among the six former Classic champions on stage in Birmingham for the 50th anniversary of the world championship. He credits McKinnis’ TV production values with raising bass fishing, making the sport look much more professional.
“It’s humorous how all the stuff done before was not artistic,” Clunn said. “All the sudden, Jerry took us to a completely different level. That was genius to put it in a little stage area. FLW didn’t have the big crowds, but he made it look more intimate. When he came to B.A.S.S., he tried to do all those same things.
“In the fishing world, that’s what Jerry really did at a high level. It’s still sad to me that most people forgot that. I think he was greatly misunderstood.”
Clunn called Wood the “Will Rogers of bass fishing. He could talk to politicians, religious people, farmers, anybody. He had incredible wit. He played the old country boy, but he was smart.”
As Clunn was about to lose one of the best boat deals in Glastron when the oil embargo hit, Wood told Clunn he’d never be without a boat as long as Ranger was in business. Clunn was touched.
While he ran his Glastron two more years before he got with Skeeter, Clunn went to Wood to explain why he didn’t take the offer, asking why he wasn’t worried about boat companies going out of business.
“It’s real simple,” Wood told him. “If I build a good product, treat people right, there will always be plenty of people to buy a Ranger Boat. It was a great business lesson for me.”
After winning his third FLW trophy at Pickwick Lake in 2000, Clunn said he went to Wood to pay respects.
“I looked at him straight in the eye, ‘There’s two types of successful people in this world. There’s people whose success is based at the expense of others, then there’s people like you, whose success pulls everybody around him up.’
“This world is not better without either of those guys. We lost a lot.”