Emory Moyer founded the Dayton Dumb Bassers in 1974
Emory, while on crutches due to being a victim of Polio at birth, was an avid Trap Shooter. After being diagnosed with a heart problem doctors informed Emory he would have to stop shooting Trap. This is what directly led Emory to form the Dayton Dumb Bassers.
Emory Moyer, Hershal Smith, Ralph Hoyt, Al Mortimer, Carl Bryant, Arnold Deaton, and George Deniwich made up the majority of the original members. I joined in 1975.
The club was formed just to fish and have fun. On top of the local tournaments, there was a club picnic every year, an annual Husband and Wife tournament held at Lake Barkley, an annual Youth tournament where kids got a patch weather they caught fish or not, weeklong fishing trip, and a Thanksgiving weekend out of state event.
For the Husband and Wife tournaments we’d fish for four of five hours and then get together and 
go out for dinner. The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying each other’s company and having fun.
Some Sundays we’d get together for Brunch and fellowship. The club included family much more in the early days than it does now.
The club used to give place patches for 1st through 5th place, big fish, and champion. Trophies were also awarded. Some of the trophies were roaming, had a plaque with the winners names on it.
There were tournaments were the trophy couldn’t be given away, no fish over 12 inches were caught. The size limit was adjusted down to 10 inches back then, to try and 
improve weigh ins, and there were times that there were still problems with not enough fish.
During tournaments it wasn’t unusual to see boats floating together in the middle of the lake. We’d exchange information or just shoot the breeze. Our fishing was for fun and the winning for bragging rights.
Emory Moyer has since passed on and so have a lot of the other originals. Arnold Deaton is an honorary member but doesn’t attend anymore; he has heart issues of his own. Arnold and I are the last two of the original members still in the club. Very few of the others are still living.
We now have meeting every month, seven tournaments a year, and Federation events. The fellowship is still great and we continue to fish for bragging rights.
Merrill Wilson
mw/me
Early Merrill Wilson Club Jacket