THE MILK RUN
Edited by
Justin Onslow
SAY WHAT?
BASS FISHING LEGEND JIMMY HOUSTON IS ALWAYS
QUICK TO MAKE US (AND HIMSELF) LAUGH OUT LOUD
There may not be a bigger personality in the history of bass fishing than the one and
only Jimmy Houston. From his signature blond locks to his colorful quips and metaphors,
the bass fishing icon has made a career of catching fish and being incomparably enter-
taining in the process.
Houston’s career has spanned six decades, and it would be impossible to pin down all
of his greatest quotes and jokes from the water to the weigh-in stage. But, even in 2019 –
51 years since his first professional tournament – he’s still giving us pure gold every time
he has a microphone under his nose and a camera in his face.
Here’s Jimmy Houston, in 2019, from the FLW Tour weigh-in stage.
“I let Gary go first.
My daddy taught
me to respect my
elders.”
After weighing in
behind Gary
Yamamoto (age
75; Houston is 74)
on day one at
Seminole
18
“One of the good
things I figured
out by these two
days I’ve been
here is I haven’t
been fishing
around any other
boats. I think
that’s kind of a
bad deal. I proba-
bly should have
gone out there
yesterday morn-
ing and looked
for a couple of
boats and pulled
in there and start-
ed fishing.”
“I called him 5
pounds. You
want to check
that again?”
After weighing in
his lone fish for
the day which
measured to be a
4-pound, 15-ounce
largemouth
“I figure I’m
going to do pret-
ty good tomor-
row. I should
have a good day
out there. One
thing I can figure
is I’m not going
to have much
competition.”
After finding out he
probably missed
the top-30 cut at
Chickamauga
“I don’t have
any trouble
being humble,
because I’m
married and I’m
a tournament
fisherman. If
you got any
pride and you’re
those two deals,
you’re divorced
and you’re
broke.”
“I’ve been catch-
ing a lot of little
bitty fish [in prac-
tice]. I caught one
the first day, and
Chris [Houston’s
wife] caught
three, and then I
caught three and
she caught six,
and then I caught
four and she
caught 10. But I
didn’t take her
today, so I caught
them all.”
“As long as you
got those blue-
birds and
canaries that are
flying south and
not north this
time of year, you
can usually get a
few bites on a
spinnerbait.”
FLWFISHING.COM I FALL 2019