Inductees

Weekend anglers who know of Stacey King’s success certainly ooh and ahh. For others? Well, there may be some understandable envy. And, for both camps, their reactions are for the very same reason.

After all, King certainly will never run out of fishing stories.

“After college, I worked at Sears & Roebuck, and there were times,” King said, “when I wished I could be out fishing.”

Eventually, he chased his dream, first becoming a full-time guide on Table Rock Lake and then carving out a tremendous professional career in bass fishing. It’s been quite the journey and perfectly suited for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, which is proud to induct King with the Class of 2020.

A 1967 Parkview High School graduate, King is one of the most successful professional bass fishermen around, with combined career earnings of roughly $1.2 million on the B.A.S.S. (Bass Anglers Sportsman Society) and Fishing League Worldwide (FLW) circuits.

In the early 1980s, King began fishing B.A.S.S. tournaments and went on to earn 31 Top 10 finishes, with two championships, plus earned 12 Bassmaster Classic appearances.

In the FLW, he completed 97 total events, with 13 Top 10 finishes and four Cup appearances (top 50 in points, out of up to 200 regular-season anglers). In 2011 alone, he notched two Top 10s, earning King a sixth-place showing for Angler of the Year.

All of which is only skimming the water’s surface of his incredible career, which King credits to many mentors. Among them were an uncle, the Ozarks Bass Club and Charlie Campbell (MSHOF 2003).

“I started when I was very young. My dad’s cousin loved to fish. He was the one who got me going to lakes, and I took right to it,” King said.

As he grew into a teenager and college student at Missouri State University, King tried to sneak off for fishing trips whenever he could. But with life tugging on his fishing line, he had to feed himself.

So he took a job at Sears & Roebuck. That is, until the thought of not fishing – at least not enough – became too much.

In 1970, he joined the Ozarks Bass Club, which was Springfield’s first ever. At the time, he also became a part-time fishing guide on Lake Taneycomo and eventually turned his sights full time on Table Rock Lake.

Given their expertise and advice, the gentlemen in the Ozarks Bass Club were positive influences. Among them was Campbell (MSHOF 2003), who later in the decade joined Bass Pro Shops, designed Bass Tracker boats and promoted fishing in numerous ways. He was a mentor to King.

“Charlie was very influential in getting me more involved and taking me under his wing,” King said. “In fact, he fished the Bassmaster tournament a few years before I got involved. But he taught me patience and confidence and the ability to keep going forward and being the best person you can be.”

In the 1970s, King competed in local and regional fishing tournaments, and soon entered Bassmaster events. In 1985, he jumped to full-time pro in Bassmaster thanks to securing several sponsors, including Bass Pro Shops.

What observers realized was that King was a natural fit for it all, largely because of his versatility and ability to promote sponsors’ products.

“I could pick up on any technique,” King said, explaining that he tried different patterns, different lures and so forth. “For some, they like to stick to one technique, but being versatile helped quite a bit.”

King often fished with jigs, sometimes with a trailer, but did so at a deliberately, easy-going, methodical pace.

“Slow and thorough,” he called it.

In doing so, his success led to fishing across North America as well as in China and Spain.

Among King’s notable tournaments was winning a Bassmaster on Lake Murray Lake in South Carolina, where he hauled in five bass weighing a combined 33 pounds, 7 ounces.

In 2018, he was the FLW Costa Angler of the Year. King, who also appears on fishing shows such as “The Bass Pros” on the Outdoor Channel, has served on the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame Board of Directors and the Professional Anglers Association Board of Directors.

That said, he credits his wife Peggy’s support especially “for a lot of years when I wasn’t winning anything,” King said. “I turned 71 on the 21^st of February, but I still get excited every time I feel that tug on the line. It’s like I’m still 5 or 6 years old.”