If you’re a river bass angler or enjoy fishing Michiana lakes, you probably gained some of your knowledge from Don Rank.

Even you may not know him, the expertise he has passed along to generations of local anglers has somehow made it into your tackle box.

Sadly, the Michiana fishing legend from Elkhart was laid to rest this week after an extended illness at the age of 71.

The rest of us geezers will remember him as one of the region’s fiercest bass tournament competitors and a guy who just loved fishing.

It didn’t matter whether he was fishing for carp off the bank of the St. Joseph River (as he often did) or was jerking crappies and bluegills out of an ice hole, Don Rank made fishin’ fun.

He also made his mark on the national scene, fishing several national bass tournaments through the 1980s and even qualified for the Bassmaster Classic in 1981.

Many of the things he learned while fishing against the nation’s best anglers were carried back to Michiana. He was truly a pioneer of many of the techniques in use on our lakes today and that so many of us take for granted.

For example, he created “the Rank Rig,” a deadly finesse fishing technique that has caught countless bass on Michiana lakes by local anglers who never met Don Rank.

“All of us old guys learned a lot from him,” said South Bend native Greg Mangus, another great angler who now lives in Fremont, Ind. “I’ll never forget how Don motivated me to learn how to fish a Silver Buddy. I won a lot of money on that bait when other people had little knowledge of it. And it was all because of Don.”

A founding member of the St. Joseph Valley Bassmasters, one of Indiana’s first bass clubs, Rank changed the way people fished the river for bass. He was an incredible jig fisherman and was free with his knowledge of how and where to fish jigs in heavy cover.

“He taught me a lot about fishing jigs in cold water, something most guys never did before Don showed them,” says Tony Olivier of South Bend, Rank’s frequent fishing partner in recent years.

Rank had his rough side, too. He could be a grouchy, stubborn curmudgeon and wasn’t one to bite his tongue when something ruffled his feathers.

“No doubt about it – he could be grouchy,” said Olivier. “But beneath his gruffness was a heckuva good man.”

Rank battled cancer and diabetes the past couple of years but it didn’t keep him off the water.

“We did a lot of fun fishing the past three years and you could tell his illness slowed him down,” said Olivier. “But he still loved to compete and will remain one of the greatest anglers to come out of this region.”

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