Ray Scott, Bobby Murray and Bill Dance in the 1971 Bass Masters Classic Boat 2014

This is a video shot at the 2014 Bassmaster Classic held on Lake Guntersville and host city Birmingham, Alabama. The video consists of Doyle Hodgin’s original 1971 Bass Masters Classic boat, an inboard/outboard Rebel Fastback restored to original condition, and features Ray Scott, Bill Dance and Bobb Murray.

Murray fished that first Classic out of boat number 10 and won the inaugural event beating Tom Mann of Eufaula, AL by just under six pounds. For his efforts, Murray won $10,000 cash in the winner-take-all event.

At the start of the video, Bobby Murray can be seen at the side of the boat standing in amazement of the memories. Ken Duke and Doyle Hodgin are behind Murray as Ray Scott joins a few frames later.

Ray and Murray begin to talk about the day after that Classic when they went back out on Lake Mead for a photo shoot and in typical lake Mead fashion, the lake whipped up and almost broke the boat in heavy seas. The story of the gas tank getting ripped out from under the front deck and Ray Scott saying, “This is the worst bass boat ever,” gives you a good idea of the bass boat industry of the day.

At this point, Bill Dance, who is out of frame, gets Ray’s attention and Ray tells him he doesn’t deserve to be near the boat since he didn’t fish that Classic. Bill then comes up and the stories start flying as three old friends remember the days when they were making bass fishing a real industry.

I hope you enjoy this video, one of the last that Ray Scott would be seen in.