It’s a theological maneuver that a lot of tournament anglers turn to in the last moments before stowing the rods and running to weigh-in. And for Toledo Bend guide and B.A.S.S. Open angler Darold Gleason, this time, his silent request for divine assistance got answered in a big way. Like 11 pounds and 3 ounces worth.
“It was the last cast, it was 3:19 p.m., I had a 3:30 weigh-in time, and I was literally saying a prayer with my eyes closed when I felt the bite,” admitted Gleason, a schoolteacher, who recently began a business he calls South Toledo Bend Guide Service.
Gleason and partner Kevin Jeane were competing in a Fishers of Men team tournament on Saturday when the Toledo Bend ‘toad’ bit. They finished in 5th Place. He caught it using a ¾-ounce, brown/purple V & M Cliff Pace Pacemaker Flatline football jig; tipped with a color matched V & M Swamp Hog trailer.
Gleason will receive a free fiberglass replica mount courtesy of the highly admirable Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program that rewards anglers who catch bass 10-pounds or larger from Toledo Bend, and release them alive.
The Bassmaster Elite Series returns to Toledo Bend on May 1st. When they were last in June of 2012, Terry “Big Show” Scroggins won the Carhartt Big Bass award of the tournament with a 9 pound 3 ounce beast he landed on spinning tackle and light line.
Amid a fishing trip on the bass-starved Ohio River in the summer of 1987, Alan McGuckin’s Dad told a then 16-year-old “Guck” — “I don’t care what you do for a living, just promise me you’ll do something you love.”
Originally from Pittsburgh, McGuckin considers himself a blue-collar kid, who has been richly blessed to live-out the best piece of advice his dad ever gave him for many years now in the Tulsa area.
After earning a degree in ecology at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, where he placed radio transmitters in largemouth bass to track their habitat preferences, he moved his life to Oklahoma in 1992, where he earned a Masters in Zoology and Fisheries under the direction of Gene Gilliland at the University of Oklahoma, before then embarking on what’s now a nearly three decade long career as a marketing and media veteran in the fishing industry.
His career spans 28 years of wisdom-rich marketing experience working to strengthen brands and increase sales for Lowrance, Terminator Lures, Toyota, Yamaha Outboards, Boat U.S., Carhartt, Costa, Quantum, Vexus Boats, and Zebco.
- Member of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame voting committee, as well as a Board of Directors member for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful
- Co-piloted the Terminator brand of premium lures from its birth to more than 10 Million pieces sold between 1997-2006.
- Has authored and published more than 800 stories on Bassmaster.com, along with several other popular bass fishing websites.
- He has generated $3 Million dollars’ worth of branded digital media since 2020, as a content creator.
- Serves as emcee for hundreds of guests at the annual Toyota Bonus Bucks Owners event.
- Avid angler, who fishes nearly every weekend when not on the road working.
- 13,000 followers on Instagram @GuckFishing.
“Guck” lives just north of Tulsa, OK at Lake Skiatook with wife Sherrie, an elementary school principal who also loves her job, and has a genuine passion for slinging a Rapala Brat crankbait on shallow points and habitat-laden flats.
