Field & Stream Award and Honor Badges

Field & Stream magazine carried on a program for about 40 years of providing badges to fishermen that caught and registered their fish with the magazine. From 1937 to 1977, Field and Stream would send you a badge if you met their minimum size requirements and documented it on their application form. The program started out with 28 different fish categories for prizes. In 1962, this was expanded to 74 fish species. The earliest badges have no markings other than "Field & Stream." The weight of the fish was not on the back of the badge either. Later, applicants that met the minimum requirements would get a badge marked "Honor Badge" and the winner for the year in each category would receive an "Award" badge. The weight of the fish was also stamped on the back of the badge. The older badges are found in bronze and sterling silver. Later badges were awarded in gold, silver and bronze. The largemouth bass badges below show some of the variation in markings and metal. The stylized bass is the earliest one and the realistic one came later. If you have a Field & Stream pin, please contact me.