For a great show, excellent food and a chance to bid on great outdoor gear, attend the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame's annual banquet Friday at the Statehouse Convention Center.
This year's inductees are Rodney Herndon of Hot Springs and Scott Simon and Steve "Wildman" Wilson, both of Little Rock. John Olin will receive the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation's Legacy Award.
Chuck Dicus, president of the Game and Fish Foundation, said all of the inductees have labored above and beyond the ordinary to preserve our state's natural treasures.
"Each of them has worked tirelessly in this regard and we are singularly privileged to honor them in this way," Dicus said.
Honorees will be recognized during the annual Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame Banquet, set for Friday at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. The reception and silent auction will begin at 6 p.m. and dinner will begin at 7 p.m.
Individual tickets for the event are $125. Tables of 10 can be reserved for $1,250 each. Proceeds from the event will support programs such as Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports, Archery in Schools and Becoming an Outdoor Woman, or BOW, Dicus said.
Herndon is president of Xpress Boats, based in Hot Springs. He oversaw the growth of the small family enterprise to an international presence in the boating industry that employs 175 people in a 240,000-square-foot factory.
In the boating industry, Xpress is a respected brand with a sterling reputation that has contributed to Arkansas' reputation as the capital for boat building.
Simon, an Illinois native, is director of the Arkansas chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
Simon has nurtured multiple partnerships with public and private organizations that have conserved 300,000 acres of Arkansas natural lands. In this way, he has helped preserve critical natural habitat across multiple ecosystems through a series of initiatives, including restoring rivers and creating national wildlife areas.
The Nature Conservancy is an effective organization worldwide, but under Simon's leadership, the organization has quietly worked to ensure the ecological well-being of many thousands of acres in Arkansas while also providing hunting and fishing opportunities to the public.
"Wildman" is just a hall of fame kind of guy. He retired recently from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, where he became one of the most recognized outdoor figures in Arkansas.
A lifelong hunter, fisherman and outdoorsman, "Wildman" is a popular TV and radio personality who used his position to advocate conservation and thoughtful use of resources to preserve the outdoors.
Although he is no longer employed by the Game and Fish Commission, he stays busy emceeing outdoor events around the state and is still a broadcasting presence.
Olin is an eponymous name in the hunting and firearms industries. He held 23 U.S. patents related to arms and ammunition, which resulted in the advanced ballistics all shooters enjoy today.
He also led Winchester Repeating Arms Company back to prominence after the gun-maker merged with his family's corporation.
For more information, contact the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation at (501) 223-6468 or email rkrains@agff.org.
'Tin Man' wins Forrest Wood Cup
Speaking of aluminum boats, John Cox of DeBary, Fla., stunned the fishing world by winning the Forrest Wood Cup on Sunday the old-fashioned way, in a crestliner aluminum boat and minimum use of electronics.
Cox led the tournament from start to finish, and he won $300,000 by weighing 20 bass during the four-day championship that weighed a total of 54 pounds, 13 ounces. That's an average of 2.7 pounds per bass.
Cox, known as "The Tin Man," has threatened to win the FLW Tour event at Beaver Lake a couple of times. He is unique in that he uses an aluminum boat in a sport ruled by fiberglass boats. Stephen Browning, a Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Hot Springs, said Cox finally made a token concession to technology and started using electronics this year.
This year's Forrest Wood Cup was at Wheeler Lake, near Huntsville, Ala. Cox won the tournament in Cotaco Creek, which he described as one of the many "log infested creeks" that complemented his style of shallow, close-quarters fishing. He said he caught most of his fish with a Kacakall Iobee plastic frog.
Mark Rose of West Memphis finished sixth in the tournament with a four-day total of 20 bass that weighed 47-15 to earn $24,000.
Sports on 08/11/2016