Catch of the day for Bob Boyd is often prize bass, here pulled from Lake Kissimee in Florida. Boyd set his first record when he was a Fresno State freshman. He earned his degree in ag business in 1979 and now admits to having occasionally "ditched class to go test boats."

Bringing in the biggest bass

by Carolyn Skei

Bob Boyd has been catching bass since he was 10 years old. Growing up on a ranch in the Lindsay area, he would "climb on the weed sprayer and chug over to the nearby pond and catch bass three or four days a week."

Today Boyd has fished in every major professional tournament on the West Coast. He won the California B.A.S.S. Federation state championship in 1990 and has twice been named California's Angler of the Year (1990 and 1995). He's qualified for the Western Regionals twice and finished as high as second.

Boyd believes "bass fishing is the greatest sport in the world." He "got the bug" for good when he was a freshman at Fresno State and a friend persuaded him to participate in a Clovis Bass Club tournament. "I won the tournament [at Pine Flat Lake] and set the club record with a six-pound, 12-ounce catch."

Since then Boyd has caught "close to 100" bass over eight pounds.

He is a conservationist who practices catch-and-release methods, but his office in Plant Operations, where he heads the entire 127-person Facilities Management team, sports one beautiful eight-pound, three-ounce specimen that he pulled from Bass Lake. The taxidermy, featuring a fighting bass amid grapevine waves, was done by Bruenetti Bros. in Ripon - "world-class taxidermists," according to Boyd.

What is the special allure of bass? "They have 100 percent energy and the heart of a giant," Boyd said. "Once you outsmart one, it's the greatest feeling in the world."

"I truly love the outdoors," Boyd said, "and I fish more than I hunt. There's nothing more peaceful - more stress relieving - than to spend the day on a lake."

Boyd said he has "two extended families." One is the family at Fresno State. "They're an excellent staff that covers the university seven days a week.

"The other is a [West Coast] family who know me as Bobby and who open their doors to me wherever I go ....Fishing has given me the opportunity to meet some of the greatest people in the world."

Boyd's wife, Shirlene, doesn't fish, but she travels with him and loves the outdoors. His 82-year-old father still fishes.

"He was one of the pioneers into Mexico for bass fishing," Boyd said. "He taught me how to cast, what makes a fish think, and how to present the bait."

Boyd becomes especially eloquent on the subject of lures. "I use nothing but artificial lures," he said. "California has a real niche; we manufacture the finest hand-poured worms in the world. Even the Japanese come here to buy them."

Boyd said he and some fishing buddies used to manufacture lures out of their garages and started a business that was known as Split Shot Lure Co.

"We manufactured over 100,000 lures in one year out of my garage," he said. "But my responsibilities at Fresno State prevent me from doing that any longer."

"The difference in our worms is the colorations we've been able to achieve. Fish see colors, so we try to match the colors of the natural baitfish and crawdads."

There's real satisfaction in creating your own lures, Boyd said. "It takes a fisherman to take a piece of plastic and make it look alive!"

Boyd's boat is a 19-foot Champion with a 200 horsepower engine capable of 75 miles per hour. And it's fully equipped with high-tech fishing apparatus.

"In wintertime we use a lot of electronics in bass fishing," Boyd said. Liquid crystal readouts show the location of the fish and the thermocline - the temperature differences at various water depths. "The fish locate near the level where the temperature changes," he said.

Boyd loves sharing his skills. He has taught recreational fishing at Clovis Adult School. And in 1984 he appeared with Jimmy Houston in a video that aired nationally.

Bass fishing is gathering visibility as a sport, and that pleases Boyd no end. "The Angler of the Year is on the box of Wheaties for the first time!" he said with a big smile.