Many people have asked me why and how the name "MAJESTIC" was given to a bass tournament. Let me explain.

    In 1997, the late Ed Pittman put together a format for the Peach Festival Big Bass Tournament on D'Arbonne Lake. The event was part of the Ruston Peach Festival held each year in June and was the same 24 hour Big Bass, Heavy Stringer, Hourly payout that we use today. Ed was an avid bass fisherman himself and was also a superintendent for the Ruston Public Works Department. Ed soon found out that the popularity of this event demanded more time than he could give, so in 1999 he asked me if i would take it over.

    The Ruston Peach Festival was an event that I was very familiar with since my dad, JC Taylor was one of the judges for the peach quality contest. Daddy was A horticulturist at the LSU Experiment Station in Calhoun who specialized in the development of the new peach varieties. I spent many days in the peach orchards at the station and traveling around to the area peach growers with daddy. Mickey Summerall and Ed Mitcham were two growers in Ruston that I remember well.

    In 30 years at the Experiment Station, daddy along with Lynn Hawthorn developed and released 14 varieties of peaches including the number 1 variety in the nation named the HARVESTER. There was however one variety that was my favorite named the "MAJESTIC".

    In 2000, the Truist Bureau in Ruston sent me a letter stating that unless I paid $1000 I could no longer us the name PEACH FESTIVAL for the Big Bass Tournament. This did not sit well with me since my daddy was actually one of the reasons the PEACH FESTIVAL even existed, so I decided to honor him and the real people that made the Festival possible, the growers, by changing the name to THE D'ARBONNE "MAJESTIC" BIG BASS CLASSIC.

 - DALE TAYLOR

The Majestic Big Bass Tournament 

staff

        Dale Taylor                                        Gayle Taylor                                     Dakota Taylor                                     Daniel Taylor