Photo by Ron Sinfelt

I was not in Texas when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Yet Oswald's grimace and the utter chaos of the moment are as burned into my brain as the visages of Marilyn Monroe's wind-lifted skirt, the plantings of the American flag on the moon and at Iwo Jima, and of a smiling Harry Truman holding up the newspaper proclaiming his defeat. Photographs are powerful medicine.

One of the many black-and-white images tucked into the slide show of my memory evokes the fish market smell of a pre-politically-correct weigh-in at a bass tournament on Lake Eufaula. It was 1968, the first time Ray Scott brought his fledgling Bass Anglers Sportsman Society to those waters. Catch-and-release was not practiced, and the anglers' limit was 15 fish.

Live, dead and dying bass were stacked almost like firewood. Huge fish, too, with eyes like giant marbles in need of polishing. John Powell of Montgomery took first place with 15 largemouths totaling 132 pounds. As unbelievable as that sounds, Blake Honeycutt bettered it the following year with a 15-fish stringer that tallied 138 pounds, 6 ounces -- the heaviest catch ever recorded anywhere before the limit was knocked down to a more acceptable five fish.

Such routine results are what made Alabama's Lake Eufaula the undisputed bass fishing capital of the world in that era and a 16-time stop on the BASS Masters tournament trail. Even after a five-fish limit and catch-and-release were incorporated into the rules, the Chattahoochee River reservoir continued to wow anglers.

Back in 1996, a time when many thought the 46,000-acre lake was used up, Bobby Padgett of Columbus, Ga., showed everyone that it still was capable of yielding breathtaking stringers. Even after nearly three decades of unprecedented pressure on the fishery, Padgett's three-day creel of 15 fish registered 77 pounds, 9 ounces.

Jackie Thompson of Eufaula was among the first to capitalize on the lake's reputation to build a successful guide service. He has now been at it for nearly 40 years, through good times and bad. Since Thompson's first season on the water, the majority of his clients have come to Eufaula with hopes of catching a bass for the wall.

"Back when I first started guiding on this lake, I kept a boat in the slip there all the time," Thompson said. "I was sitting in it one morning, and this guy drives up in a big Lincoln automobile. He was a big fellow, and a loudmouth. He was from Chicago, Ill., traveling through, and he'd heard about the lake's reputation. He wanted to go bass fishing.

"Mr. Wilson, the man who ran the marina, heard all of this. So the big fellow and I agreed on a price. Back then, guides were getting $35 a day. He told me, 'I came down here to catch a trophy fish. If I catch an 8-pound bass the first hour we're out there, I'll be ready to go. That's what I've come for -- an 8- to 10-pound bass!'

"I've been around a lot of people who like to run their mouths," Thompson continued. "I took him out to a ledge. About 20 minutes after we got there, he caught a bass that weighed 8 1/2 pounds. When he caught the bass, I picked up the trolling motor. He asked me, 'Where we going?' I told him, 'We're going to the marina!'

"Then he said to me, 'What are you going up there for?' And I answered, 'You told me when we left the marina that if I put you on an 8-pound fish, that my day would be over.'

"That rascal sulked up, and he didn't say another word until we got to the marina. He went inside and started complaining: 'This guy wants me to pay him $35, and we've only been out there an hour and a half.' He asked the guy in charge, 'Do you think I should pay him?' and Mr. Wilson said, 'You better pay him, or I'm going to call the police!