Harder Than It Needs to Be

More competitive fishing opportunities continue to pop up, as this week brought news of The Champions, a single-event tournament pitting the best of the BPT against top Elite Series pros. At least 50 anglers will compete for the largest first-place prize of all time, a cool $1.25 million. Second and third place finishers will earn $500K and $300K, respectively. 

Now we’re playing at the adult’s table! 

Here's what we know so far: The Champions is set for Old Hickory Lake this fall. The initial announcement says the field will consist of the top 25 in the Angler of the Year standings from each trail will qualify with automatic berths also going to the winners of each Elite Series and BPT event. Forward-facing sonar will be allowed, sometimes. The event is backed by a wealthy entrepreneur that seems determined to give his money away. No other sponsors are listed.

In a strange case of deja-vu, we experienced the same with the recent inception of Dual Threat Fishing, where investors seem to be operating with no concern of ROI. 

I bet The Champions will bring in a partner eventually. We’ll see a mega outdoor name tied to this soon, or perhaps a representative from one of those industries that prints money like pharmaceuticals or oil and gas. 

Each time I learn of movement like this in our industry, I get excited for the possibilities. Will the true athletes of our sport – the road warrior Tour players who give up their existence to chase a dream – will these guys finally get their due? Will a time come when a professional bass angler can make a handsome living from earnings alone, instead of being forced to sell-out to the highest bidder and endlessly hawk hardbaits?

If The Champions awards the prizes being advertised it’s certain to get attention. However, if the event wanted to truly knock it out of the park, establishing once and for all bass fishing as a professional sport, it’s already going about it wrong. 

I’m amazed that the organizers of our sport can’t find a way to see this. But “professional” bass fishing continues to operate with an identity problem.

Either we're a spectator sport with big purses awarded to gifted athletes operating at a level the rest of us could never attain, or we're a participant sport with reasonable prizes awarded to winners of competitions the rest of us aspire to enter.

In the case of a tournament that awards over a million dollars to the winner, the natural direction is to operate as option A. However, for that to happen, public interest must be high, requiring an easy pathway to follow a game representing a true test of skill. 

Nowhere in this scenario does forward-facing sonar help the cause. Neither does including one-time winners, complex differences in equipment, or, for that matter, weigh-ins.

All of these serve to confuse viewers and followers, create discrepancies and eliminate relevance in the game. Quite simply, pro bass anglers cannot be viewed as techno-wizards all playing a perplexing game with rules that come and go. 

It’s so simple. Assemble a moderate field of the best, most notable anglers. Put them in nearly identical boats. Allow moderate technology like the type that comes on a stock rig. Eliminate FFS once and for all. Keep the rules simple and easy to follow. Pay a boat load to the winner. Repeat. 

Tournament organizers need to quit trying to appease everyone who buys a depth finder or attends an expo. Because, by doing so, they’re disengaging more viewers than they’re attracting. 

Once again, we have another big chance here. A million bucks creates the stampede on its own. But can we finally get out of the way?

Perhaps the organizer of The Champions couldn’t care less about pushing pro bass fishing to the next frontier. Maybe there will never be any desire to elevate the sport or its players. 

That, of course, would bring up the biggest question of them all: Why even bother?

Joe Balog is the Executive Director of Mighty River Recovery, a nonprofit organization working to restore Florida’s St. Johns River. A former national tournament angler, product designer, seminar speaker and guide, Balog has worn just about every hat available to a professional angler. Today, he enjoys rehashing his experiences and adding veteran insight through his weekly Bass Wars column.

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