State

By CHESTER DAVIS World's Champion Drum Fisherman It isn't too difficult to list a team of 10 men - all of them North Caro¬ linians — and say, “These men are the finest channel bass fishermen in the world." While channel bass are caught from the surf all the way from Virginia and Maryland south into Mexico, the great hot spots arc concentrated on the Carolina Outer Banks between Ore¬ gon Inlet and Cape Hattcras. At places like Buxton, Hattcras, Oc- racokc. Portsmouth and Drum Inlet the guides and the old time surf fish¬ ermen know all of the experts, cither personally or by reputation. They could agree on your ten-man team and do that with suprisingly little argument. But when it comes to selecting a captain for the team — really naming the man to claim the title of the world's top channel bass fisherman — the agreement is likely to be replaced by a hassle and. possibly, by a blood-let¬ ting. For that reason I have some hesita¬ tion in placing this particular crown of laurel on the brow of Grady Sheets. But my hesitation is due only to the touchy nature of channel bass fisher¬ men and to the fact they customarily come in sizes ranging from large to ferocious. In my own mind, I have no doubt but that Grady Sheets, a Winston-Sa¬ lem metal worker, is the finest chan¬ nel bass fisherman active in the game today. There are, of course, old timers who deserve the title "All time world’s champion." Philip Mayer, a New York tobacconist, has, perhaps, the best claim on that title. Mr. Mayer prob¬ ably has caught more channel bass on hook and line than any man living. Between 1893 and November 7, 1936 Mr. Mayer beached a total of 7,422 channel bass. In one year — 1933 — he put 761 of the copper-sided beau¬ ties on the beach. But Mr. Mayer no longer is ac¬ tive. Of the other pioneers of the sport — men like Captain B. R. Ballancc of Buxton, for many years holder of the word record (15 /2 pounds) channel bass — 1 know of none who have kept trip by trip records from which it is possible to size up their accomplish¬ ments. Grady has his records. They run baek to 1935 and they report on trips made in every season of each year — every month in most years — for the past 17 years. In that time Grady has caught 3.086 channel bass. Grady was introduced to the surf in 1935 by “Hull" Tribctte of Rural Hall during Faster week in 1935. Starting at Oregon Inlet early on Faster morning. Hull, Grady and Rann Doss, another accomplished surf-man, began to fish the sloughs that pit Hattcras Island. They moved down the island from one likely spot to another in a Model A Ford. "We started fishing at the Inlet in the early morning," Grady recalls. “It was mid-afternoon before we reached the point at Hattcras. In all that fishing we didn't even get a strike. But when we reached the point I learned about surf fishing in a way I'll never forget." The party reached the point at the same time a vast school of big blues — “The ones we caught weighed from five to nine pounds" — hit the beach. In two days fishing the three men hook THE STATE. Vol. XX; No. «7. Entered as second-claw matter. June 1. 1933. at the РоЧоГПее at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the act of March 3, 1879. Published by Sharpe Publishing Co.. Inc.. Lawyers Uldg., Raleigh, N. С. Copyright, m3, by the Sharpe Publishing Co.. Inc.