Carlton “Doc” Holliday began his competitive fishing career in Fort Smith, Arkansas in the mid-1960’s with the Fort Smith Bass Club.  At that time, Bill Norman was the best angler in the club and working to get REBEL manufacturing off the ground.  Bill and Doc became very good friends and fishing partners.  During this period Bill and Doc became the fishermen to beat in the bass club.  Bill introduced Doc to Bill Dance one weekend and allowed Doc to show Bill Dance all the good fishing areas close to Shoal Bay on Lake Dardanelle as Bill was practicing for a BASS Federation tournament.  After that weekend, Doc was committed to fishing bass tournaments.

     In the 1970’s, Doc moved to Oklahoma and began fishing the Oklahoma Outdoors Tournament Trail.  During these tournaments Doc was paired with Jimmy Houston a couple of times and became good friends with Jimmy and his wife, Chris.  Doc and Jimmy teamed up to fish buddy tournament on Lake Tenkiller for a couple of years and did quite well.

     In the 1980’s, Doc moved to South Arkansas and really began competitive fishing.  Doc teamed with his Quality Supervisor and both joined the Camden Bass Club and the El Dorado Bass Club.  They fished many buddy tournaments and joined the US Bass Buddy Circuit.  Eventually Doc branched out and began fishing circuits like Mr. Bass of Arkansas, Country Boy Arkansas Circuit, and the Redman Ozark and Arkie Circuit.

     In 1987, Doc’s wife Dee decided she wanted to bass fish.  We bought a Bass Tracker 1800 and began fishing together.  She learned quickly and before long we were fishing the Arkansas Guys and Gals, Arkansas Team Bass, and Anglers Choice circuits.

     Carlton “Doc” Holliday and his wife, Darlene “Dee” Holliday only tournament fished together for 5 years.  In early 1992, Carlton and his wife were practicing for a tournament the following weekend when the wife got a call from home.  She promptly went home and when she got back that evening, informed Carlton that we had inherited a grandson.  Later that year, Carlton had a heart attack thus the early retirement ended along with the professional fishing career.

     All told, both individually and as a team, Doc and Dee won over 30 bass tournaments and placed in the top 5 in over 70 bass tournaments.  The last 3 years of their career as a professional bass fishermen were spent winning the Arkansas Guys and Gals Championship in 1991, Doc finishing seventh overall in the Arkie Division of the Redman Circuit in 1991 and becoming eligible to fish the Redman Regional Tournament in Columbus Mississippi where he finished 20^th.  Also in 1990, Doc fished in the Mr. Bass of Arkansas Championship on Lake Ouachita and finished third.  Career winnings resulted in a little over $85,000.00, but remember, bass tournaments did not pay the big bucks back then that they pay now.

      Carlton “Doc” Holliday and his wife, Darlene “Dee” Holliday are both retired and live at Joplin, Arkansas two minutes from Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Visit us at http://www.bassfishinglakeouachita.com  or email us at carltonholliday@yahoo.com

     I believe those credentials do qualify me to teach a course in the Basics of Bass Fishing.  The next question would be, “Why teach a course on basics?”

     This year on Lake Ouachita taught me a very valuable lesson.  Everyone was anticipating a truly great early spring fishing season.  The weather did and did not cooperate, the water level rose which put the buckbrush in the water, the lake temperature began rising and everyone was thrilled.

     The next thing you know the rain did not stop sending the lake to near record levels causing muddy water to a degree no one remembers for years.  The next thing was cold fronts bringing snow and cold temperatures, one right after the other, for about 2 months and wind 20 – 40 mph out of the north and east.  It became miserable.

     We had the worst of conditions:  Muddy, cold water, high water, wind and cold fronts.  Catching bass was an adventure not an enjoyable pastime.

     Finally, after several nonproductive fishing trips, we were loading our boat when another couple pulled up to the ramp and loaded their boat and pulled up to the fish cleaning station.  Sure enough they had 5 keeper bass and I just asked them how they caught them.  He told me how they caught them and a light went off in my head.  This was a standard tactic we had used in tournaments back in the 60’s and 70’s and I should have remembered it.

     There is another paragraph to this true story that will be shared with you in a later lesson of this course.  Now let us get started.

     Bass fishermen are always asking pros, experts and so-called gurus the same question:  How can I improve my fishing skills?  The answer to this question is basically the same from anyone asked:  There are several ways:

·        Learn as much as you can about the specific species you are fishing for.

·        Learn their strengths and how to predict their behavior to your advantage.

·        Learn how their life cycle affects them and use the tendencies to your advantage.

·        Learn about the species environment and which elements of the environment will be useful to you and allow you to predict what the

         quarry should do.

·        Learn to be observant – look, listen, feel – good fishermen develop all these senses which will improve their skills.

·        Learn to be patient – things don’t always develop as quickly as you would like.

·        Learn to concentrate and forget about what you have got to do or didn’t do – only think about what you are doing now.

·        Fish with as many knowledgeable fishermen as you can and ask lots of questions.

·        Fish as often as you can.

·        Keep a fishing log and record your trips and refer to it often when planning a trip.

·        Select balanced tackle for specific conditions and learn how to use it.

·        Practice your casting on a regular basis in your back yard.

·        Learn to fish different types of water; lakes, ponds and rivers.