CALIFORNIA NATIVE George Kramer was referred to as the “resident bass fishing expert” for Western Outdoor News for many years, but began his freelance career in 1973. Today he prefers to think of himself as a long-time student of the game.

Over the years he has fished all over the continental U.S. and occasionally south of the border, contributed to most of the major bass fishing publications and shares a passion with thousands of other bass anglers. His 1990 work, Bass Fishing: An American Tradition, is often quoted, even though Kramer admits, it almost contained a flawed Civil War reference–but he was saved by a dedicated copy editor.

And yeah, the guy can fish a little, too.