Few have attained the stature and reputation as a guide, sportsman and educator as Garry Mason. From growing up in rural West Tennessee to the founder of the Legends of the Outdoors National Hall of Fame to local fishing and hunting guide to the founder and coach of America’s most successful college bass fishing team, Garry has accomplished what many lives might have in just one.
The following is his story, and why he is a Mid-South Legend.
Garry Mason grew up in Buchanan; a small rural community in West Tennessee where hunting and fishing was as much a way of life as it was outdoor recreation. Loving nature and all that it encompasses, Garry spent as much time as possible in the woodlands and waterways which comprise the lower Tennessee and Cumberland valleys, including the waters of Kentucky Lake.
After high school, Garry married his high school sweetheart, Cindy, and settled down to working in a factory, all the while building a name for himself in the outdoor world as a part-time professional hunting and fishing guide.
The year 1991 brought about a lot of changes in the Paris, Tennessee area with several plant closings, one of which was the factory that Garry had worked at for 16-plus years.
Without a career to fall back on, Garry decided to pursue the career of becoming a full-time professional guide. Traveling and guiding in several other states besides Tennessee, Garry soon became one of the most respected professional guides in America. Waterfowl hunting and wing shooting, as well as crappie, bass and bluegill fishing were his passions.
Soon, outdoors news media people such as outdoor writers and television hosts from across America began to use Garry for articles and TV shows. Garry has been featured in almost every outdoors magazine in America, including the past 16 issues of Crappie World Magazine.
Having gotten to know many other well-known outdoorsmen in his travels, Garry saw a need for some type of award ceremony for those men and women who had helped to blaze trails and set guidelines and standards in the outdoors industry in which he and others had devoted so much of their lives to, therefore giving birth to The Legends of the Outdoors National Hall of Fame in 2002.
Each year a new class of Hall of Fame members is inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors National Hall of Fame with Garry as the host and coordinator of the event.
In 2006 Garry became the Executive Director of Northwest Tennessee Tourism, covering a nine-county region. Garry has brought many fishing tournaments to Northwest Tennessee and continues to work with outdoor writers and television outdoors news media to promote all aspects of outdoor tourism in Tennessee.
In 2009 Garry began America’s first collegiate scholarship program for bass fishing in a college or university at Bethel University and has coached the Wildcat Bass Team to five national championships and one Bassmasters Bracket Series Championship, as well as over 12 regional Championships.
In 2018 Mason’s Bass Cats won the ACA School of the Year by a record 720 points. His Bethel bass team has remained in the top seven bass fishing programs in America for the past 10n years and Bassmasters has named his program No. 1 in the nation two different years.
“Garry Mason is a true outdoor sportsman and a great American,” said Ray Scott, BASS founder.
Soc Clay, world renowned outdoors writer and photojournalist said, “Garry Mason has a better understanding of what his clients want more than anyone I have ever personally hunted or fished with. His unselfish mannerism and kindhearted wit is the reason most of his clients use him over and over for the hunting and fishing needs.”
