By Joe Mosby
It has taken Billy McCaghren Jr., a dozen years to climb the ladder of bass-fishing competition. He made it with considerable aid from family, friends and neighbors.
McCaghren completed the 2009 season of the BASS Elite Series, the organization’s top tier, with two noticeable accomplishments. He was BASS Rookie of the Year honors, and he made the select field for the Bassmasters Classic, which will be in Alabama in February.
McCaghren and Kevin Short both live at Mayflower, and both are in the upcoming Bass Classic, a unique situation for a small Arkansas town. The Classic will be on Lay Lake, east of Birmingham.
McCaghren came close to the bass ladder’s top run in 2008. He won a BASS season opener on the Red River in Louisiana, pocketing enough money to fish the rest of the schedule.
But he came up just short of the Classic cut, missing out by only seven points. The performance in 2008 qualified him to enter the Elite Series in 2009.
He said, “I had no thoughts of fishing the Elite tour in 2009, but some friends talked to me. It was Mike Lankford’s idea, to ask people for donations to help with the entry fees and expenses. Then Norma (his wife) came up with the idea of ‘Fishing With the Fans.’ We had people give us $10 to $100 apiece.”
The contributions were from 204 people, and everyone’s name is carried on McCaghren’s bass boat. Some businesses’ names are also on the boat. The silver labels, each with a name, cover the purple boat — that’s Mayflower Eagle purple — from bow to stern. Many are McCaghrens, and the total is a sizeable portion of Mayflower’s population.
McCaghren had made it through that 2008 season by banking winnings from local and area bass tournaments.
When 2009 competition started, Norma quit her job to travel with Billy, and they camped, along with a number of other top bass professionals. McCaghren and Short both travel in campers, reducing expenses as well as saving time on tournament locations.
McCaghren said, “I learned more about fishing this one year than I had in the past, especially about the business part of it, of which I knew nothing.”
He said, “I have fished all my life. I started bass fishing with my dad and my brother when I was 11 or 12. Then when I was a junior in high school, my coach, Brent Stallings, needed a partner for a Lake Conway Bass Club tournament. The bug bit me, and I joined the bass club the next year.”
McCaghren played football, basketball and baseball for Mayflower High School, and baseball had his focus. “I wanted to be a major league baseball player. I went to the University of Central Arkansas and played baseball for two years.
“That’s when I found out it wasn’t meant for me to be in the major leagues, that and some shoulder and arm issues.”
He stepped up a notch in bass tournament competition in 1997 at the urging of Robert Wilcox of Greenbrier, a seasoned angler in regional events. “I fished as a co-angler in Red Man tournaments with Robert; then Kelly Coble (of Conway) took me to Missouri in Ozark Trail tournaments. I won Angler of the Year as a non-boater.”
McCaghren took his time. “I didn’t want to jump in (major bass tournaments) until I was ready. I didn’t want to jeopardize things.”
He competed in Mr. Bass of Arkansas, a breeding ground for a number of bass pros, including George Cochran, Ron Shuffield, Rob Kilby and Mark Davis. McCaghren won Mr. Bass Angler of the year in 2004, and all along he put his winnings in the bank while working in the family’s welding business at Mayflower.
“In 2007, I entered the (BASS) Central Open, and on the first day of my first pro tournament, I zeroed. I did not catch a fish. But I caught a big bass the second day and got a check. I won checks in two of three tournaments that year.”
The 2009 season just ended put McCaghren in the Bass Classic and in good financial condition – with the early help of those 204 contributing fans. “I didn’t have to borrow money. I won enough to keep going,” he said.
Now he is doing homework on Lay Lake, the 2010 Classic site. “I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve talked to Larry Nixon.”
The latter is the Bee Branch angler who competed in years past in classics on Lay Lake. “I’m studying videos on the lake, too.”
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Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas’ best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com.
