Jack Wingate
Jack Wingate
Inducted: 2013
Jack Wingate (1929-2011)—Revered as the “Sage of Seminole,” Jack Wingate started out in the fishing business during Harry Truman’s presidency. He was a tireless promoter of Lake Seminole, a big bass factory on the Georgia/Florida border. As the owner of Wingate’s Lunker Lodge, he attracted the most talented anglers from within a day’s drive of the legendary reservoir near Bainbridge, Georgia.
Wingate kept a card file on those regular customers, and when Ray Scott contacted him for referrals of top anglers to compete in his first bass tournament in 1967, Jack generously shared their names and contact information. When the first All American Bass Tournament got underway on Beaver Lake, Arkansas, in June 1967, 22 of the 106 competitors were Wingate’s customers. Wingate himself fished the landmark event, which marked the birth of competitive bass fishing, finishing in the Top 10.
After a brief flirtation with life as a bass pro, Wingate settled back down as lodge owner, fishing guide and family man. Working with local tourism officials, he arranged to host one of Scott’s first fishing derbies on Lake Seminole. The Seminole Lunker Bass Tournament was the first to be held after Scott founded the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.), and it drew 150 anglers from 15 states. Wingate — smiling broadly and holding up two lunker bass from Seminole — was the cover model for the second issue of Bassmaster Magazine.
Wingate devoted his life to helping others learn to love fishing. In 1966, he founded Wingate’s Fishing Camp for Boys at Lake Seminole. For more than three decades, he and his staff taught thousands of youngsters all about bass fishing, fly fishing, gun safety, boat handling, Native American lore and conservation ethics. “I never made a cent off of it,” he once told a writer, “but by God I had a good time. I wouldn’t trade it for nothing.” He added, “You ain’t never seen an excited face until you’ve seen a kid catch his first bass.”
Born September 1, 1929, in Faceville, Georgia, Wingate grew up on ground that eventually was flooded by George Woodruff Dam to impound Lake Seminole. He died in 2011 and was inducted posthumously into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame the following year. He had previously been inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame, and he was named a “Legendary Guide” by the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wisconsin. Shortly before his death, he said, “My only wish is that I had more time on this earth to teach more young people the sport of just fishin’.”
Customers visiting Wingate’s Lunker Lodge during that era will remember the pair of signs at the entrance to the property. The one at the entrance read, “Cuz, They Bit Yesterday.” At the exit, the other sign said, “Cuz, They’ll Tare It Up Tomorrow” — typical homespun humor from Jack Wingate.
