Glen Lau

Glen Lau (1933 – 2020) — As a fishing guide for bass, trout and walleye on Lake Erie, Glen Lau was legendary. He offered money-back guarantees to his guide clients, and he never had to pay off. When the King of Ohio Fishing Tournament was held in 1958 to honor the angler who brought in the most total weight of game fish in a season, Lau won, hands-down, with nearly 3,000 pounds.

The prize enabled Lau to travel to central Florida, where he fell in love with the region’s crystal-clear, spring-fed rivers, as well as the giant bass of the Ocklawaha River and other nearby fisheries. He eventually moved to the region, living for many years near Ocala, Florida, the home of Bass Fishing Hall of Fame journalist Homer Circle.

As skilled and knowledgeable as he was in finding and catching bass, Lau was even more gifted as a cinematographer. He taught himself to film underwater sequences so he could document the life cycle of the black bass. After more than two years of filming above and below the surface, Lau created the full-length movie, Bigmouth, with fishing scenes featuring Homer Circle and narration provided by Rod Serling of “Twilight Zone” fame.

Arguably the most important documentary ever made about bass and bass fishing, Bigmouth drew critical acclaim and was a theatrical success when it was released in 1973. The movie played in art houses and auditoriums, as well as theaters, often drawing audiences more than double the available seating capacity. A sequel, Bigmouth Forever, also was hugely popular, winning the 1996 North American Film & Video Award and numerous other national honors.

The success of Bigmouth made Lau much in demand for filming commercials, short films and documentaries for major manufacturers in the fishing industry, and his still photos of leaping bass graced the pages and covers of Bassmaster and many other outdoor magazines.

As a producer and director, he created more than 300 commercials and 200 television programs, including several segments of The American Sportsman, the Wild, Wild World of Animals, Quest for Adventure, The Fisherman, Sports Afield and The Outdoorsman.

His book, Bass Forever, chronicles many of Lau’s lifelong achievements, both as an angler and filmmaker, and it reveals some of his most productive lures and tactics for catching bass.

Lau hosted or appeared on more than 300 television programs and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, the American Society of Media Photographers and the Amirian Fisheries Society. He was one of the founders of the “Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs” campaign, and he has been inducted into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.
Glen passed away on June 5, 2021