Bass Fishing Hall of Fame Announces 2014 Inductees at Birmingham Event

Four famed anglers join the hall.

By Frank Sargeant
from The Fishing Wire

The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame (BFHOF) announced the induction of four noted anglers Thursday night at their annual pre-Classic banquet in Birmingham. The 2014 class includes Bassmaster Classic champion Rayo Breckenridge, legendary lady angler Penny Berryman, inventor, educator and communicator Doug Hannon and technology pioneer Blake Honeycutt. The former three were inducted posthumously, while Honeycutt accepted in person.

“Each of these individuals had a profound and lasting impact on the world of bass fishing,” said BFHOF president Sammy Lee of Birmingham.

Breckenridge, a cotton farmer from Paragould, Ark., qualified for the 1973 Bassmaster Classic at Clarks Hill Reservoir during his first year of professional competition on the Bassmaster Tournament Trail. His 52 1/2-pound total bested runner-up Bill Dance by more than 3 pounds and Breckenridge was crowned Classic champion as a rookie. He then parlayed his $15,000 Classic purse and sudden notoriety into a long and successful TV career. “Rayo Breckenridge Outdoors,” aired from 1974 to 1985 and shared programming blocks with shows by Bill Dance, Tom Mann and Roland Martin. Breckenridge, who was born in 1928 in northeast Arkansas, fished club and regional tournaments since their inception in the 1960s and competed in 62 professional events. He qualified for six Classics in a 7-year stretch between 1973 and 1979. One of the most popular and respected anglers of his time – a “gentleman’s gentleman,” as one of his peers described him – Breckenridge died in 1995.

Berryman was born to be a champion. Among her pre-fishing achievements, she was first runner-up for Miss Kansas in the Miss USA Pageant and qualified for three professional waterskiing national championships. She then set her sights on bass fishing and became a full-time professional bass angler, seminar speaker and fishing instructor and enjoyed a career that spanned more than 25 years. She qualified for more than 20 Women’s Pro Tour Classic World Championships, claimed three National Championship titles and won the prestigious Bass N’ Gal Classic in 1992 and the Bass N’ Gal Angler-of-the-Year title in 1997. Berryman’s career was sidelined in 2008 when, at the age of 58, she was diagnosed with meningioma, which claimed her life 4 years later.

Hannon is known throughout the bass-fishing world as “The Bass Professor.” Across a career of writing, studying, publishing and education, Hannon caught and released more than 800 bass over 10 pounds. He was also an inventor with nearly 20 patents, as well as a diver, underwater photographer and musician. Alongside authorship of hundreds of articles published in newspapers and outdoor magazines, he was also co-host of an internationally syndicated TV show for more than 15 years. Hannon patented the weedless propeller, which revolutionized the trolling-motor industry and allowed anglers to fish vast areas of previously inaccessible weedbeds. He also invented the award winning WaveSpin System for spinning reels, as well as the MicroWave line-control system – a new train of rod guides for spinning rods. Hannon died in March 2013 at the age of 66.

Most fans remember Honeycutt of Hickory, N.C., as the holder of the all-time heaviest winning weight in a B.A.S.S. tournament – 138 pounds, 6 ounces at the 3-day Eufaula National in July 1969. A standout angler in the seminal years of the sport, Honeycutt qualified for three Bassmaster Classics and ranked in the top-20 in half the events he entered. But his contributions to the sport run much deeper. As a teenager, he helped Buck Perry test, design and market Perry’s Spoonplugs. Honeycutt later partnered with Tom Mann and Yank Dean to launch Humminbird. As the East Coast rep for Ranger Boats for 20 years, Honeycutt also helped design layouts for the Ranger TR series and developed an electric anchor for bass boats. Like his mentor, Buck Perry, Honeycutt is considered one of the fathers of structure fishing.

The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization dedicated to anglers, manufacturers, tackle dealers, media and other related companies who further the sport of bass fishing. Visit www.bassfishinghof.com or call 888-690-2277 for more information.