"Tommy, you will be fishing with Glen Stubblefield today,” said Garry Mason, host of the Outdoor Writers Convention. The group of celebrity fishermen in the room included several high profile fishermen. There were also outdoor writers and representatives of major outdoor companies present and Garry Mason had paired each writer with a fisherman and a manufacturer representative.
Of all of the famous fishermen in the room, I was especially glad to be paired with Glen Stubblefield. No, he was not a Classic winner. No, he was not a host of a television program or even a tournament fisherman, but he is one of the most well known guides on Kentucky Lake and I had known of him for many years. The walls covered in pictures in the Buchanan Resort where this event was being held had many pictures of Stubblefield and some extraordinary catches dating back many years. Though, I had seen Glen during the event, we had not been introduced, so I went over and introduced myself to him. Besides being thrilled to have the opportunity to fish with Stubblefield, I was somewhat nervous about my fishing abilities being revealed to such a veteran fisherman. I was not intimidated, only insecure, as I often am when fishing or hunting with a high profile outdoorsman. But, the prospect of fishing with this legendary guide overshadowed my anxiety.
The day before, with the fishing for everyone being tough because of a front which had passed through, Stubblefield's group had caught several bass which weighed up to six pounds. Though another line of thunderstorms had ripped across western Tennessee during the night, I felt confident that we would catch some fish, possibly some big fish under the
watchful eye of our guide. "We are going to start out by fishing crankbaits around the rocks of this old road bed" Stubblefield announced as we skimmed across the lake with a rooster tail shooting high in the air behind the boat. "We caught some good fish here yesterday before the wind got so high" he continued. "There should be a fish holding right there" Glen said as he pointed to a rock outcropping, "Cast right at that rock.” My green and silver crankbait sailed through the air and hit the water at the corner of the rock. When I raised my rod tip, the bait hung momentarily on the rock. "Well, you couldn't have got any closer than that" Stubblefield said as he observed the cast. Whew! Now the first cast was over, and it had hit in the right place, so the pressure was off.
My friend Charlie Brewer, Jr. of the Charlie Brewer Slider Company was the third person in the boat and we began a wonderful day of fishing, reliving the past, and my picking the brain of both of these great men. "I have guided on Kentucky Lake for forty seven years" Stubblefield reminisced. "All the baits that we threw were made of wood. I still have hundreds of them, most with the paint worn off of them" Glen continued as we made the transition to fishing a Carolina rig. "There is a big stump out here. One of the guys caught a six-pounder here yesterday. There should be another one here today" Stubblefield said as he instructed Chuck and me to cast towards an imaginary target on the water. We were not fishing visible structure, only underwater structure which can be found with electronics and the knowledge of where this type structure might be located, and which had come from fishing the same water for almost five decades. Often, this structure was far from the shore in places where Kentucky Lake was a half-mile wide. "The old creek channel makes a bend here, there are stumps right out on the end and then it drops off into much deeper water. Throw right out there" the veteran guide would say. Without fail, we would feel the stumps, rocks or other structure tug on the egg sinker of the Carolina rig and often that was followed by the solid thump of a strike. We caught largemouth bass up to five pounds, good smallmouth and Kentucky bass along with several sauger on this day when many fisherman were not catching fish. I basked in the presence of Chuck, who's famous father was the late Charlie Brewer, and legendary fisherman Glen Stubblefield, as they talked about the past, recalled special events in fishing history, and willingly shared their knowledge with a student eager to learn all he can about the great outdoors, so he, too can pass it on.
