As this young Texas Fishing Guide boated solid Rayburn chunks all day on the first day of competition of the 1996 BASSMASTER Texas Invitational he had no idea what a challenge he would face later that day.

Cannan had located some strong fish on the north end of “Big Sam” in practice. When he got to his fish on the first day of competition they were aggressive and shallow. He was fishing a spinnerbait in shallow water and the fish were crashing it. He and his partner caught over 40 for the day.

As the day went on the wind began to get up due to a strong front approaching from the northwest. An hour before he needed to be at weigh-in, twenty miles down the lake, the wind was howling and gusting to 30 mph.

When he left the protected water of the creek, where he’d been fishing all day, he realized what a challenge was ahead getting to weigh-in. The waves were 8 feet high and breaking like surf.

Bill will recount every heart stopping detail for you in his column, but I’ll summarize here by telling you he ended up having to abandon his boat when the motor failed. I’ve heard the story, and believe me you’ll want to read it in his own words.

He went on to finish only .3 pounds behind veteran Lonnie Stanley. Bill’s total for the event was 50 pounds 9 ounces, which netted him a brand new, fully rigged Ranger 481 and $2,000.00 in cash.

Cannan, who has been a staff writer for the Texas SportsGuide since his professional career started, is a very successful fishing guide in East Texas as well as being a good outdoor writer. He is sponsored by one of the SportsGuide’s long-time advertisers, Family Boating Center. Houston’s only Nitro and Tracker dealer.

This win is, no doubt, just one step in a long and successful journey in this young Texas pro’s career. We will be reading about him as often as we read his interesting stories in the years ahead.

Bill writes our Lake Livingston fishing report and knows the lake well. If you would like to contact him you can find his number at the end of his fishing report or on his guide ad on that page – Lake Havasu

– Lake Havasu