What are some of the dark sides to professional bass fishing tournaments? Is there a dark side? Professional large mouth bass fishing anglers have many problems within the hobby right now, and new fisherman who have the dream to become pros need to know the ins and outs of the sport/hobby. Is there light at the end of the tunnel for pro fishing? Can the industry get out of the hole it is in currently? Let’s talk about it.
#darksidefishing #fishing #bassfishing
Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/geturfishon?sub_confirmation=1
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5M0Nw7NfoOH3NN2mVGT8fA/join
To have your lures/baits featured in a Closer Look video, please email me at ffrsteve@gmail.com
Why are entry fees so high – what can BASS and MLF do to bring those down?
On the local level people figured out there’s not enough fish to go around
I totally agree with you on anglers attacking each other on social media. They focus so hard on getting clicks by insult thumbnails, calling each other names and attacking each other's brands. Add to that the differing views on FFS where some anglers even encourage their followers to insult and trash anglers that don't feel like they do. These are supposed to be the people that represent and promote the sport and it's done pretty much the opposite.
Whenever money or even a trophy is involved people are going to try and cheat . It’s just a sad part of human nature. I think social media and content creators doesn’t help anything either . It’s all about click bait and views unfortunately
One sport, doesnt cost as much, kinda close on sponsorship deals.
Golf was a rich mans sport, only a handfull could afford memberships to country clubs.
Today, every really look at the majority of commercials aired during golf event?
The corporations that put the prize money for said tournaments? Most fisherman never heard of these investment companies.
Nothing has changed since the evolution of fishing or even golf.
The other parallel, both so called atheletes back 50 yrs ago openly smoked and drank.
Then came a Tiger, who lifted weights and practiced often, and was winning often.
All of a sudden, the PGAs tour, 50s and up gained huge momentum, why, those middle class guys were not as good in their ptime as s young Tiger was.
Same happened in bass fishing, young guys getting schooled in tournament in High School and college.
The learning curve in the 70s was 3 to 4 yrs on tour, now, with youtube alone, yhere is no learning curve on tecniques. No video can make up for boat handling skills.
There are darksides in life.
Being the best Qb drafted and thrown into the fire with no protection has ruined more possible talent than anything. Thats a darker side than a reality show squabble.
How come you dont see poker pros with huge sponsor deals? Tv viewership. Bigger than bass, but not enough to generate sponsors like bass fishing.
Light come on yet
Thanks Steve. Sounds like some serious changes are needed to keep pro tournament fishing alive. Catch, weigh, and release. An official in every boat may be impossible with large fields. Some of the locations are the same over and over again. Big money talks, everything else walks (or beats the bank) as they say. Is professional fishing as we know it going to go away before it changes?
There’s not much “professional” about fishing. It’s more like poker. Anyone with the cash can play. Sure they may not make the elite series, they’ll just go broke trying to gamble their way to the “top”. It will never be a sport because there’s no gate. World Series tickets cost thousands of dollars, the Bassmaster Classic is free.
Saw the MLF team format live at Lake Ivie and Lake Brownwood Texas. It was cool 😎 seeing it live. 👍
All good points. When money is involved there will always be someone trying to get some type of advantage and skate the rules. We have talked about this in other post but I do believe there is an over saturation in this sport. I have heard pros say "there is plenty of room for more" because they see the demand of people wanting to get in but they are totally wrong. There is just simply not enough endemic sponsorship money to go around. Non endemics are temporary , most are only around for a couple of years. Toyota is probably the only non endemic sponsor I can think of that has stuck around for as long as they have. Unless something changes soon I think all leagues will have to reduce their fields. I do believe they need to find a way to take out the entry fees and trust me it can be done, not with the large field sizes they have now but a reduced field size makes it possible. I don't know that you will ever do away with some of the dark sides to this sport or hobby, or whatever anyone chooses to call it but the same can be said for any sport. I do however believe they can make it better and sustainable. For now it is on very shaky ground and the leagues best get it together or I'm afraid there will be some dark times for all involved.
When will the very top of tournament fishing become like the very top of car racing? Can you imagine a race car driver paying for his own car, crew and entry? F1, Indy, NASCAR? Nope! Sure there are smaller venues to get started, where the driver is the whole deal like the fisherman, but no way on the very top. Or compare to a race horse jockey. How many jockeys own the horse? Ha. Imagine team Lews versus team Strike King versus team Nitro vs team Skeeter versus team Lowrance vs team Garmin, vs team Lowe’s vs team Home Depot, etc, etc. Back in the day when Bass Clubs were big we had “Top 6” clubs competing against other clubs at year end. Imagine team owned platforms: boat, motor, trailer, tow vehicle, pit crew, electronics, rods, reels, baits, everything with a multi-million dollar budget and prizes rivaling the racers. Imagine Parimutuel betting! Just a wild and crazy thought! Cheers.
Really don't need pro tournaments anymore with social media if you can fish and have good content I would rather watch that for sure anymore with the way the pro series are going. Sure wish John cox would do a YouTube channel love to watch and listen to him talk about fishing.
You hit the nail on the head, sponsors don't want to get involved in Professional Bass fishing because it is small nich market. Industry sponsors only want the best of the best so everybody else is on their own. They have no skin in the game because they are bought and paid for. There's way to much pressure to win so cheating will there until the penalties so severe they can't afford to get caught. Bass fishing needs to wake up fast or there will be dyer consequences.
Hello, Steve. There is a dark side of sports, whether it's an individual sport or a team sport. If it's a pay to play deal or a million dollar contract. You are right. The one thing that's needs to be done in our sport is a set rule brake punishment, with an upfront set of fines, time penalties, or dq's set in writing and enforced.
The only way to eliminate the pay part of our sport is to increase sponsorship to a level where it covers cost.
That can only be done with increased viewership. Dragging fish across a stage for a crowd of 100 to 200 people, on average. knowing a percentage of them are friends and family. Compared to having 100K watching live.
As hard as they preach the catch release rates of survival, their is environmental backlash coming sooner or later.
I believe Bassmaster will have to do something to increase, none endemic sponsors. This should increase payouts and reduce if not eliminate entry fees.
I believe MLS is on the right track, going live stream and rebroadcast on network programming. If you check their sponsorship, it has quite the stable of none endemics.
Let's hope the light shines on the anglers in a positive way.
Tight lines.
Regards, Steven.
I have to admit that I agree with you this time. I fished in 9 straight Invitationals and watched how the cut throat was going on back then. I hate to see the cut throating that is happening today. I also have seen cheating going on and when you reported it the tournament director, he/she just blows it off. That's why today I just fish for fun. It's just not worth the aggravation to fish big tournaments anymore. I have spent countless hours on the water pre-fishing, spending my money, and then see their favorite anglers get a free pass for violating the rules. There are a some companies making changes due to the economy. Companies have to look at were they have to make cuts to, in order to balance their budget. Unfortunately, some anglers will have to pay the price.
Bass fishing is not a real job, it is gambling there is no guarantee that you will get paid
Where do you agree with you were saying that you are against your stuff and get a long together Naruto the fishing drama should not be just getting along
If you don’t have 100,000 in your boat and electronics, you can’t even compete.
I’m sure A lot of them bass that spend hours and hours in a livewell, and waiting hours to get weighed die. There is no doubt. They might swim away, but they die.
Ughhh, yep!
BPT has the right idea. Official in every boat. You can do that with 5 fish limit or with every fish counts. But, you've got to have smaller fields to make it feasible. You can't have a 150 boat field or even 100 with official in every boat.
I think we blew it in the 2000s by not trying to get the non emdmic money to pay the entry fees and make it a lieghtament sport. I personally don't think it will ever be a sport other than pay to play. It will be much like the offshore tournaments where people with lots of money pay to win prizes. I really wish that wasn't the case.
I will send you a comment on this subject soon but i'm pissed at the way these F ERS treat the bass i seen it today on team trail thanks
KVD needs to come back
The pay to play is stupid at the top levels. The drama will always happen and I’m all for chirping. The leagues need to step in when it gets too much,
Where are the veteran anglers? Why are they not stepping up and telling these drama queens to stop.