Steve Bowman

Steve Bowman (1963—) Raised in a single-parent home and with no one to teach him how to fish, Steve Bowman found a way to stoke his outdoor passions. He mowed lawns to buy a Zebco 33, which he somehow attached to a car radio antenna, and went to work figuring out how to catch whatever swam in the Fourche Creek bottoms near his home in southwest Little Rock, Arkansas.

Those earliest days of his fishing career shaped Bowman in important ways. The resourcefulness he developed enabled him to pioneer digital media coverage of bass fishing, and his childhood passion for fishing inspired him to help develop new opportunities for youngsters to follow in his footsteps.

As outdoor editor of the Arkansas Democrat and (later) the Democrat-Gazette, Bowman was one of the most influential outdoor journalists in the nation. His crusade blocked a plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to channelize the lower White River, a wilderness treasure of habitat for deer, waterfowl and game fish. He worked with the Corps to improve aquatic habitat along the Arkansas River. And he devised and helped launch a project to use ponds on Arkansas’ prison lands as nurseries for stocking bass in the Arkansas River.

His pet project from his days at the Democrat-Gazette was the creation — in partnership with then-Governor Mike Huckabee — of the Coleman Creek Pond fishery, a highly utilized fishing hole for urban youth.

He set the standards for newspaper coverage of competitive bass fishing, devoting enormous amounts of space and words to reporting on all levels of bass tournaments, from local weekend events to the prestigious Bassmaster Classic.

After leaving the newspaper business in 2001, Bowman was hired to launch ESPNOutdoors.com, which quickly became the most-read and most-visited outdoor sports website in the nation. Tasked to oversee tournament coverage for Bassmaster.com, Bowman dramatically changed the way Bassmaster events were covered. His ideas included color photo galleries, the “Bass Blog” with reports and videos in real time from the water, and the War Room, which served as the precursor to the groundbreaking Bassmaster LIVE programming.

In 2003 he was a key leader on the team that created College Bass Fishing, and intercollegiate fishing circuit that evolved into the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series.

He is the author or co-author of three outdoor books, including The Arkansas Duck Hunter’s Almanac, one of the most successful duck hunting books in the country, and The Series, a coffee table book on the launch of the Bassmaster Elite Series. Among his duties as content director for JM Associates in Little Rock, Bowman edited Redfish Nation Magazine and Boat US Angler magazine while also managing Bassmaster.com, the current most-visited outdoor-centric website in the world.

Over the course of his more than three decades as an outdoor journalist, Bowman also hosted a successful television show, “Water Dog” on the Outdoor Life Network, and “The Arkansas Sportsman” radio show on the Signal Network.

In addition to his work as editor and manager for tournament coverage on Bassmaster.com and manager, Angler Relations for B.A.S.S., Bowman serves on the advisory board of Vanishing Paradise, an advocacy group dedicated to stemming the loss of marshland in the Louisiana Delta. He also serves as an auxiliary sheriff’s deputy for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas.

He was inducted into the Arkansas Outdoors Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Waterfowl Hall of Fame in 2017. He has served on the board of directors of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame since 2012.