I too am a Bill murphy fan,he was the man and didnt have to fish closed sections of the lake to get his big fish.

Bill Murphy loses his battle against melanoma at 65

By Ed Zieralski
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 18, 2004





Perhaps the truest testament to Bill Murphy is the area at Lake Wohlford simply known as Murphy's Rocks.

Jack Murphy once had a stadium named after him. "Lunker" Bill Murphy had his rockpile, where the fishing legend once caught the huge bass that earned him his celebrated nickname.

Murphy, who owned and operated a dental lab in Santee, died Sunday at his home in El Cajon after a courageous battle with melanoma. He was 65 and was at home with his wife and family when he died.

"He was unconscious, in a coma, but he suddenly woke up and looked at me before he died," Carole Murphy said. "It was like a blessing. He turned and looked at me as he was dying."

Murphy's last fishing trip was in December at Wohlford with his good friend Gene Dupras, a man Murphy always praised for catching that 20-pound, 4-ounce bass in 1985 at Lake Hodges, a nontrout lake. Murphy's best bass was a 17-pound, 1-ounce largemouth from San Vicente, but he spent his fishing career searching for a world-record bass.

"Bill Murphy was a legend, and he'll be sorely missed here," said Jay Cowan, supervising ranger at Lake Wohlford. "He had such a unique way of fishing, more like a scientist than a fisherman. I've been here 30 years, and I've never seen anyone approach fishing the way he did. He was old school. He never showboated his catches. He didn't have a fancy bass boat. He just knew how to catch bass."

Longtime friend Don Smith of Point Loma said Murphy "is the guy who made San Diego lakes famous."

"Bill's influence on bass fishermen all over the world is incalculable," Smith said.

Smith said Murphy's book, "In Pursuit of Giant Bass," recruited devoted disciples to big-bass fishing. Murphy poured all of his fishing secrets learned over a lifetime into what is considered today as the Bible for big-bass angling.

The late Henry "Red" DeZeeuw, a mentor of Murphy's, once said Murphy had the two qualities necessary to be a big-bass fisherman – "patience and consistency."

Jim Brown, who retired last year as city lakes manager, said Murphy learned his bass-fishing lessons well from the likes of Brown's father, Mike, along with DeZeeuw and Bill "Pappy" Wade.

"There was a huge period of time there from the 1960s to the 1980s when Bill Murphy was recognized as the most dominant big-bass fisherman in the country," Brown said.

Larry Bottroff, who recently retired as the city lakes fisheries biologist, said: "He was one of the best fishermen I can remember. There was a time when every time he came in, he had a 7-, 8-, or 9-pound bass. It was amazing. He was fishing structure and spots before there were graphs. He just really knew the lakes and the fish."

Carole and Bill Murphy celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary on May 5. He is survived by his wife and four children, Suzi (Murphy) Sardina, 42, of Santee; Gary Murphy, 33, of San Diego; Linda Saffer, 41, El Cajon; and Kristi Murphy, 19, El Cajon.

Funeral services will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Chapel of Roses at Glen Abbey Mortuary and Memorial Park, 3838 Bonita Road in Bonita. A Navy veteran, Murphy will be buried with full military honors at a site near the Lake of Dreams, Carole Murphy said.