Article: The Family And Fishing Lives Of Dion And Guido Hibdon

[Flysmallie]

First time I ever met one of them I ran into Dion in BPS in Springfield. And when I say ran into, I mean we collided. Good thing I was a good sized boy too. What a great guy with a great family.

[Champ188]

Good read, for sure. Been around the whole clan myself as an outdoors writer and have loads of respect and admiration for them.

Funny story, I was fishing as a press observer in the 1987 Bassmasters Classic on Chickamauga/Nick-a-Jack. I was with Arkansas pro Jim Nolan the second day and we were fishing within about 150 yards of Guido, who had caught a good sack the first day and was in contention to win. Both guys were pitching jigs and worms to matted grass when here comes this big TVA barge with sprayer arms hanging off the front. They were spraying herbicide on the grass to retard its growth and started in on the stretch Guido was fishing. He started yelling like a madman at them, yanked up his trolling motor and went tearing right up to them raising holy heck about the spraying. Needless to say, he didn't make any new friends and they went right on down that stretch, spraying the crap out of his grass. Given his history of heart problems, it's a wonder he didn't just fall out in the boat right there. It was one of those deals that was funny but not funny at the same time.

[Guest]

Champ,

they killed all the grass at Quachita & parts of the lower Arkansas river back in the 90's.

Idk if the governor approved it, but that was incredibly stupid.

They are constantly killing the grass at Bella Vista to appease to handful of dock owners that dont even fish or use the lake. They just like to gripe.

Really irritates me

[Champ188]

I'm with you 110 percent, TrophyFishR. I grew up fishing Ouachita and DeGray and was lost when I moved up here in 2000 and couldn't find any deep grass to fish.

The crowning snafu at Ouachita and DeGray was when they released some sort of larvae from Egyptian gnats to hatch bugs that would kill the grass. They SAID they were only going to kill a certain percentage but as you know, they wiped out every last stalk in DeGray and nearly all of it in Ouachita.

My old buddies down there tell me it's coming back pretty good in Ouachita, and there was a 150-boat Arkansas Team Trail tournament down there a couple weeks ago where they just hammered them like back in the old days. There were 15-pound limits way down deep in the standings.

Of course, the cycle will likely repeat itself and the pleasure boaters/rich marina owners will again make enough noise to get it eradicated again.

I'm also with you on the Bella Vista lakes. They were really kicking out some big bass back in the days when they had grass.

[doroger]

Dennis Davey, the guy in the middle of the picture is my tournament fishing buddy!!! Called and told him to check out the pic, as he was now an internet star! Just needs a cool new jersey like all them other tourney fellas!!

Don