The Tournament Years
at the Falcon Lake Southwestern
Division tournament in 2010 when
Keith Combs brought in the all-time
FLW record single-day weight of 41
pounds, 1 ounce. By and large, Costa
FLW Series events have been the
bridge connecting aspiring anglers
from the BFL to stardom on the FLW
Tour, with fisheries from New York’s
Lake Champlain to California’s Clear
Lake the proving grounds.
Life After FLW
Lappin isn’t leaving the Costa FLW
Series because of some preconceived
notion about when he would retire.
Various ailments and injuries have
taken their toll, and he simply wants to
enjoy the years of reasonably good
health he has left.
The Lappins have a daughter and
two grandchildren, and they plan to
spend more time with them as well as
the rest of their families. Likewise, Ron
will fish “for whatever’s biting best,”
which is sure to include Kentucky
Lake’s yellow bass, his favorite table
fare.
Then there are the various charita-
ble projects the Lappins have engaged
in over the years. That includes cooking
for Marcella’s Kitchen, a Benton, Ky.,
ministry that provides meals to per-
sons of limited income and others,
organizing fish fries and cookouts for
local charities, pitching in to help chari-
ty tournaments, and otherwise lending
a helping hand to anyone who needs it.
The Lappins have worked with
Marcella’s Kitchen since it opened
seven years ago. Along the way, Ron
also started the Ronald McDonald
House Charity Tournament. It’s staged
on Kentucky Lake the first weekend in
June and has raised thousands of dol-
lars. Likewise, under the auspices of
their church, First Baptist Church of
Calvert City, the Lappins cook for the
Veteran’s Fish Fry that takes place on
the Friday closest to Veteran’s Day each
November. Veterans eat for free, and
others pay a nominal fee that’s for-
warded to the Wounded Warrior
Project.
Somewhere along the way, Ron also
found the time to help jump-start the
Marshall County High School fishing
program, more or less building it from
the ground up for two years until a
teacher with a passion for fishing was
able to take over.
“We’ve got a lot to keep us busy,” he
observes. “We’ll have more time to do
some of the things we enjoy, and we’ll
still be around tournaments as much
as we can. That’s where most of our
friends are.
“We’ve experienced things, seen
wonderful places and enjoyed interest-
ing lifestyles. Mainly, though, we’ve met
a lot of great people through our posi-
tions at FLW that we otherwise wouldn’t
have known,” continues Ron. “Chris
Jones [FLW Tour weighmaster and mas-
ter of ceremonies] said it best at the
Forrest Wood Cup when he said that
Joan and I love our customers.”
The thousands of Costa FLW Series
fishermen who have known the Lappins
for the past 20 years and fished their
tournaments would no doubt say that
the feeling is mutual.
30
As the clock ticked down on his final
hours as an FLW tournament director,
Lappin was reminded at every stop
that he will be missed. Anglers he’s
known for years, and who love him like
a brother, made it a point to wish him
well as he was in the process of finish-
ing a long career as Costa FLW Series
tournament director. Many of them call
him “Pop,” not so much because of any
age variance, but because Lappin has
become a fatherly figure even to the
veterans.
Lappin’s mannerisms and expres-
sions on a weigh-in stage indicated
that, heavy sacks or light sacks, he
empathized with the competitors. Old
friends or newcomers with promising
futures – he wanted all of them to fish
up to their potential and to do well,
though only a relative handful would.
A stickler for the rules, Lappin never-
theless was hard when he had to be. He
never took a chance on safety no mat-
ter how many anglers grumbled.
Without hesitation, he postponed or
suspended fishing days because of fog
or high winds, using his own experience
as a fisherman to inform his decisions.
“I’ve always said that if every tourna-
ment fisherman had to go through the
process of applying for the required per-
mits, putting a tournament together and
then conducting one from start to finish,
he’d understand what it’s like to be a
tournament director and make the hard
decisions you sometimes have to make,”
notes Lappin. “You’re responsible for the
safety and lives of people.
“But I also understand that fisher-
men have strong competitive feelings
that come out in a tournament. It’s
wild. I know people who are meek and
mild until you say ‘go,’ and then the
competitive spirit comes out and they
change completely. A tournament
director has to balance what everybody
wants with what has to be because of
considerations for safety.”
With Joan as his working partner,
Ron oversaw more than 500 tourna-
ments, spent an average of 150 nights
a year away from home and put more
than 40,000 miles per year on his com-
pany vehicle. A witness to triumph and
tragedy, he’s also been at the center of
tournament history. There was Ray
Hanselman, who won three straight
Southwestern Division tournaments in
2015 and then the championship – a
feat that likely will never be repeated
on any level. Ron was also weighmaster
FLWFISHING.COM I WINTER 2019