Former Forrest Wood Cup and Bassmaster Classic champion Dion Hibdon passed away Monday at the age of 58. The son of legendary angler Guido Hibdon, he is survived by his wife, Amy; his children, Payden, Connor and Lawson; and his siblings, Dotty and Chuck.
Growing up in mid-Missouri, Dion decided early on to follow in the footsteps of his father, a fellow Bassmaster Classic champion and Bass Fishing Hall of Fame inductee, both in guiding on Lake of the Ozarks and, eventually, fishing professionally. He competed on the FLW Tour for 21 seasons and qualified for 11 Forrest Wood Cups.
Longtime former FLW tournament director Bill Taylor remembered Dion as a kind, well-liked competitor who wore the Hibdon name well.
“Dion was special,” Taylor said. “He had no enemies. Everyone loved both he and Guido. Especially Dion, he was there to help others as well as himself.
“He got along great with all the other anglers and really epitomized what professional bass fishing is all about.”
While his legacy is inextricably linked with his father, Dion experienced plenty of his own success. His breakthrough moment came at the 1997 Classic on Logan Martin Lake, which Dion won by a single ounce. He then added a Forrest Wood Cup title on the Red River in 2000. To this day, he is one of just five anglers ever to win both championships.
“Dion didn’t necessarily depend on his dad the way he was going to fish,” Taylor said. “They went about it in two different ways. I think Dion was a little bit more versatile than his dad, to be honest.”
Dion, however, was never concerned about paving his own way. After each of his major victories, he never failed to credit his father, with whom he traveled for much of his pro career.
“When I won the Classic, people made a big deal about me becoming my own fisherman and getting out from beneath my father’s shadow,” he told longtime FLW writer Rob Newell in a 2000 Bass Fishing Magazine interview. “We just do not see it that way and we never have. If you want to think about this in terms of proverbial shadows, then what people need to realize is that dad casts a pretty big shadow. There are a lot of fishermen under my father’s shadow, and we are going to be there for a long time. We can only hope, as bass fishermen, that one day we are half as good as he is. I am proud to be under his shadow.”
Guido, meanwhile, credited Dion with inventing the bait that became synonymous with the family – the Guido Bug. The story goes that Dion made the soft-plastic crawfish imitator, which played a major role in both Guido’s Bassmaster Classic and Dion’s Forrest Wood Cup wins as a jig trailer, in a middle school science class.
Dion went on to claim an FLW Series win in 2006 as well as a Toyota Series and two Phoenix Bass Fishing League victories on his home lake, Lake of the Ozarks. Two of his children, Payden and Lawson, have also earned BFL wins on Lake of the Ozarks.
Funeral arrangements have not been made public as of this writing.