Bass in the Forest
Bass in the Forest features Leon Martuch, one of the founders of Scientific Anglers fishing with Dick Kotis, a professional angler from Fred Arbogast Lures in Akron, OH. They are fishing in the then newly-created Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Texas Loiusiana border. Toledo Bend began filling in 1969. Based on this and looking at the boats and equipment, this is likely from the early 1970’s.
The overall theme of this is bass fishing, but an underlying theme appears to show that fly fishing for bass is effective and lots of fun. Both Martuch and Kotis demonstrate their angling skills using two different techniques- fly casting and bait casting. One has to think that this was also done to highlight warm water fly fishing and also fly fishing from a boat.
There is also good overview of the proper way to use a bait casting outfit, so it may be that this was a joint promotional film by both companies. SA and Arbogast were located fairly close to one another and we have seen SA teamed up with Chrysler Marine in another video. The early Skeeter bass boats and electric motors used were top-of-line at the time.
There is also mention of a “balanced system” for fly fishing and we see the early SA System rods and reels in use. The reels show the plastic spool release used by Hardy on the initial System reels while the rod is the original fiberglass model. The line packaging also goes back the early 70’s. We see Martuch and Kotis going fish for fish in the video, indicating both techniques are equally effective.
Showing big stringers of bass destined to be filets would not go to far today. Nor would catching a turtle and killing it for steaks. However, in the context of when this was made, such was the norm. Catch and release for most any fish species was not regularly practiced. Reservoirs such as Toledo Bend had a boom in bass populations in their early days with a seemingly endless supply of fish. Through sound management, fishing in the reservoir has maintained a high quality that continues today.
Scientific Anglers has partnered with the American Museum of Fly Fishing in the effort to digitize these classic film masters for future generations.
