Post by Gsseagle on Sept 8, 2005 21:18:04 GMT -5
Elwood "Buck" Perry, 90, a soft-spoken Southerner who translated his extraordinary ability to catch fish into a finely tuned philosophy, a lucrative business and a personal legend as outsized as any fish story, died on Aug. 12 at his home in Taylorsville, N.C. The cause of death was not announced.
Mr. Perry was known to three generations of fishermen as Buck, with his name forever linked to the lure he patented in 1946, the Spoonplug. He sold millions of the lures, which meld two pieces of traditional tackle, the spoon and the plug.
Mr. Perry said they looked like "a shoehorn that's been tromped on by a horse."
His fishing system was called Spoonplugging, but Spoonplugs were not really the most important part of it. His concern was the essence of fishing: the migration of fish, underwater topography, weather, water conditions and much more; "structure fishing," he called it.
His own piscatorial genius was indisputable.
On July 24, 1954, Mr. Perry, before dozens of witnesses, cast a silver Spoonplug 30 times and landed 30 bass, an informal record.
"I believe I could have caught 100," he told reporters.
Mr. Perry discovered profound fishing truths, including the advisability of dragging a lure - be it Spoonplug, jig or plastic worm - so that it bounced on the bottom.
"A bumping lure is often the only presentation that will produce fish," Mr. Perry said in an interview with boats.com in 1997. "A free-swimming lure can pass within inches of a school and the fish will not strike."
In 2000, In-Fisherman magazine named Mr. Perry, a member of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, one of the nation's 25 most influential anglers.
In 1984, George Pazik, publisher of Fishing Facts magazine, said Perry began the "whole modern era of freshwater fishing."
Elwood Lake Perry was born in Hickory, N.C. Thirteen years later, in a boat on nearby Lake James, he informed his father, a confident angler, that the two of them were being less than brainy.
"We're not only fishing wrong, we're fishing in the wrong place," Mr. Perry said, according to an interview in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2004. His father threatened to throw him in the lake.
The youth's theory was that big fish dwell in deeper water, but occasionally move to shallower depths, following regular routes, so successful anglers must fish at the right place in the right depth at the right time. This idea was the foundation of all his future research and success.
After earning a degree in physics and mathematics from Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, Mr. Perry taught and coached at Hickory High School.
After briefly working in a family business, he started making Spoonplugs. In 1957, he visited a supposedly fished-out lake with two Chicago writers. They marveled in print over his success, and Spoonplugs took off.
In 1973, Mr. Perry published Spoonplugging: Your Guide to Lunker Catches, and in 1981, a nine-volume home study series.
Mr. Perry is survived by his wife of 22 years, Geraldine Jeri Stowe Petty; son, G. Reid, of Hudson, N.C.; stepsons Don, John and Ron Wallace, all of Indiana; stepdaughters Jane Townsend of Maine, and Susan Winkler of Taylorsville; 24 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Mr. Perry was known to three generations of fishermen as Buck, with his name forever linked to the lure he patented in 1946, the Spoonplug. He sold millions of the lures, which meld two pieces of traditional tackle, the spoon and the plug.
Mr. Perry said they looked like "a shoehorn that's been tromped on by a horse."
His fishing system was called Spoonplugging, but Spoonplugs were not really the most important part of it. His concern was the essence of fishing: the migration of fish, underwater topography, weather, water conditions and much more; "structure fishing," he called it.
His own piscatorial genius was indisputable.
On July 24, 1954, Mr. Perry, before dozens of witnesses, cast a silver Spoonplug 30 times and landed 30 bass, an informal record.
"I believe I could have caught 100," he told reporters.
Mr. Perry discovered profound fishing truths, including the advisability of dragging a lure - be it Spoonplug, jig or plastic worm - so that it bounced on the bottom.
"A bumping lure is often the only presentation that will produce fish," Mr. Perry said in an interview with boats.com in 1997. "A free-swimming lure can pass within inches of a school and the fish will not strike."
In 2000, In-Fisherman magazine named Mr. Perry, a member of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, one of the nation's 25 most influential anglers.
In 1984, George Pazik, publisher of Fishing Facts magazine, said Perry began the "whole modern era of freshwater fishing."
Elwood Lake Perry was born in Hickory, N.C. Thirteen years later, in a boat on nearby Lake James, he informed his father, a confident angler, that the two of them were being less than brainy.
"We're not only fishing wrong, we're fishing in the wrong place," Mr. Perry said, according to an interview in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2004. His father threatened to throw him in the lake.
The youth's theory was that big fish dwell in deeper water, but occasionally move to shallower depths, following regular routes, so successful anglers must fish at the right place in the right depth at the right time. This idea was the foundation of all his future research and success.
After earning a degree in physics and mathematics from Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, Mr. Perry taught and coached at Hickory High School.
After briefly working in a family business, he started making Spoonplugs. In 1957, he visited a supposedly fished-out lake with two Chicago writers. They marveled in print over his success, and Spoonplugs took off.
In 1973, Mr. Perry published Spoonplugging: Your Guide to Lunker Catches, and in 1981, a nine-volume home study series.
Mr. Perry is survived by his wife of 22 years, Geraldine Jeri Stowe Petty; son, G. Reid, of Hudson, N.C.; stepsons Don, John and Ron Wallace, all of Indiana; stepdaughters Jane Townsend of Maine, and Susan Winkler of Taylorsville; 24 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.