I've always had the problem that I can make a lot more money in the business world than I can fishing. Even so, after 30 years of tournament fishing, my one big dream was to make a good living as a full-time tournament angler.
Then in mid-2004, the FLW Tour announced its new tournament payoff. With 50th place paying $10,000 and a six-figure 1st prize, I thought this might be a good time for me to make a run for my dream.
First I fished the Bassmaster Opens as a test. I would be fishing against some of the same anglers as in the FLW Tour, so I felt this would be a good representation of my abilities. In two of three tournaments, I finished far better than 50th place. However, due to the BASS payouts, it was obvious that you couldn't make any money in the Opens.
Nonetheless, by the end of the Open circuit, I felt that competing in the FLW Tour the following year – with the new payout schedule – provided an opportunity to become a full-time angler and make money doing it. Considering that I've spent most of my life as a businessman (entrepreneur), I generally look at everything in a business sense.
But I realize there is something about the sport of bass fishing that causes us to let our egos do our thinking. Moreover, it seems that Irwin Jacobs has managed to find a way to manipulate us into spending large sums of money in the hopes of being able to live our dreams.
My experience in the first two FLW Tour tournaments was not what most anglers would hope for. At blastoff on the first day of the first tournament on Okeechobee, my prop threw a blade which jammed into the lower unit, breaking my drive shaft. I quickly learned about little disputes between major manufacturers – because there was no Mercury trailer to help me with my repairs.
Subsequently, I lost the entire day. With the first tournament unsalvageable (I finished 183rd), I moved on to Toho, which didn't really go bad but I finished just outside of the money (87th).
At this point, I have $10,000 invested into the circuit (entry fees and expenses), and the tournaments are preparing to leave my home state of Florida. My ego is still keeping me alive, thinking I can make that $10,000 check at the next tournament and recoup some of my losses. However, the businessman in me started seeing numbers that just didn't work: One more tournament would have been $15,000 invested.
After losing a few nights of sleep, I realized this wasn't going to work. At the time, I thought this was a personal problem, not realizing that many other anglers were experiencing the same issues. Due to very high entry fees, high gas prices and extended periods away from home in hotel rooms, it was almost impossible to make a good living in just the fishing end of the sport.
With the FLW Tour over for 2005, we can stand back and actually look at the earnings of the anglers. The ones that did well were 1st- or 2nd-place winners. If you look at the final point standings, you'll see that among the Top 10 anglers, most made $40-$60,000, gross.
Now, consider that fishing the whole tour would have cost me $30,000 within a 6-month period. Also take into consideration that during this period, I would be working 80-hour work weeks. Granted, I love fishing and truly enjoy that level of competition, but had I finished within the Top 10 and netted $10-$20,000, I probably could have worked at Burger King for those same hours and made more money.
I think that Mr. Jacobs understands us anglers. He realizes what strong wills we have to participate in the sport and how large our egos really are. He has used this information, as any good business owner would, to draw us in and get those entry fees paid. (I would mention BASS at this point, but their payoffs are so weak that its obvious to me that Mr. Jacobs is the better businessman.)
I have no ill feelings towards the FLW Tour or anyone else – I enjoyed my time on tour. However, it is apparent to me that without corporate sponsorship, even the top anglers could not do this out of their own pocket.
If I had to advise anglers (after my own experience), I would say to start young, and dedicate several hardworking years to getting corporate sponsors. Without question, your fishing abilities also need to be developed, but they do seem secondary to the financial end of this sport.
I highly respect many of the professional anglers I have met in my life, but I feel that professional fishing at that level is made up of the anglers who are the best businessmen and salesmen, not necessarily the best anglers.
I don't see any change coming anywhere in the future. I do think the tours will eventually fish smaller fields, but will have heavily corporate-sponsored anglers. I've watched this sport since its inception and I do think it's unfortunate that we might be saying, Let the best businessperson win.
Steve Naas, of Inverness, Fla., is a dental technician and businessman who fished the pro side of the Okeechobee and Toho FLW Tour events this year. He's now fishing the FLW Redfish Tour and only local bass tournaments.
