Good things happen in bass fishing almost every day (especially on the weekends, and double-especially with kids), but here are several things that deserve "props," kudos, whatever you want to call them, that have happened lately. Just my opinion, of course.
Toyota and the 'Other' Classic
Toyota, the Professional Anglers Association (PAA) and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept., plus anyone else who participated, deserve huge props for putting on one heck of an event in the Toyota Texas Bass Classic – though to be fair, it'd be pretty tough to strike out after plowing that much money into it.
The format was different, and that had its challenges, but at least they tried something different, which is always good.
The team thing aside, I also like the fact that Toyota basically held its own pro-level tournament. We (BassFan) did that in 2005 with Top Gun, and it's not easy. Doing something "outside" of the superpowers can be tough, but Toyota did it, and managed to get a ton of coverage for it.
Seems the pros had a good, relaxing time there, which they need during the season. BassFan folks heard from several who said they hadn't experienced an event like this – fun, low stress, everyone gets paid to show up, mixing of BASS and FLW guys – since Top Gun.
I hope for their sake and the fans that Toyota does it again. But they have the encore problem: The next one has to be at least as good as this one was.
And what about guys like the Hack Attack? Either Toyota has to figure out a way to include non-PAA members (the BassFan World Rankings anyone?) next time, or the PAA has to sit down with big sticks like Hack and find out what they need to do to get them to join.
Good Shooter
For a time, FLW Outdoors' tournament photos couldn't be beat. That's because they'd retained Japanese shooter Yasutaka Ogasawara ("Oga"), one of the best bass-fishing photographers on the planet (he also shot some of the photos in BassFan MAG).
Unfortunately, a couple years ago, FLW stopped using Oga and the photos haven't been the same.
But BASS's photos have been getting steadily better. They started in a good place with their own folks headed up by Gerald "Crawfish" Crawford, added a great ESPN shooter whose name I'm sorry I can't recall (James Overstreet – Ed.), and this year really slammed the accelerator down by hiring Oga's countryman, Seigo Saito.
Check out the photos this man shoots. You can see them here on BassFan and on Bassmaster.com. Awesome stuff.
As a fan of the sport myself, thanks to Sego and BASS. His shots really give life to the events and the competitors, like they should be shown.
Ranger's $3 Million
Everyone who owns a boat knows about contingency programs now – "contingency" meaning you run a certain brand of boat, you do well in certain tournaments, you get cash for running that boat. Contingencies are now all across the product board, including outboards and even baits via the BassFan Army.
Well, Ranger Boats started that party back in 2000 with the Ranger Cup program. Yes, Skeeter had a program before that, and maybe others did too, but it never went into the stratosphere (and took the rest of the industry with it) like the Ranger Cup did.
Since 2000 Ranger has paid out an amazing $3,011,616 in cash to Ranger boat owners – not all won by David Dudley and Luke Clausen, believe it or not (ha, ha). Ranger claims that figure is bigger than all the other major manufacturer contingency programs combined, and I believe it.
This is one of those "changed the face of fishing forever" programs, and in a good way.
So the next time you get a contingency check, no matter who it's from, thank the folks in Flippin for cooking up yet another winner.
> Click here to learn more about the Ranger Cup program.
Weekend Warriors
I don't like crowing about BassFan.com (especially to my wife – hey, aren't I the comedian today?) because I'm not a big fan of people blowing their own horns. So I thought three or four times about whether to write something about the BassFan Army Weekend Warrior Championship we held a couple weeks ago down at Guntersville.
The reason I decided to write something is that what I wanted to write about had nothing to do with BassFan. Our guys did a heck of a job, but I've already told them that. Instead, I wanted to convey my sincere thanks again to all of the competitors who were there, as well as their families and friends, and the companies which made it all happen.
Both parties took a chance. We had five or so repeat qualifiers, but the rest of the field didn't know what to expect. And we explained to the event sponsors and Army sponsors how this wouldn't be "just another tournament" and wouldn't be covered that way, but they'd probably heard some version of that before.
So I'm grateful everyone trusted BassFan enough to pull it off. And that's all we did. BassFan was merely the conduit, the connection, as we always are.
> Thanks also to the great state of Alabama for producing one heck of a fishery. Guntersville is as awesome as its reputation.
Elite Series?
The recently announced changes about Elite Series qualification are a step in the right direction – again, my opinion as a non-competitor. But I'd like to see more, or at least more clarification.
I'm glad Tom Ricks' BASS now seems more interested in keeping Elite talent around rather than showing most of them the door. And I'm also glad the Opens seem to be going back to what they were.
But I'd like to see any really good pro currently fishing (meaning not retired) who wants to fish BASS – and maybe who deserves to fish BASS based on BASS accomplishments (Davis, Yelas, Nixon, King, Shuffield, etc.) – be able to do so.
Maybe some golf-like "legends" qualification/exemption process needs to be enacted – and I'd like to see FLW do this too, along with fielding an elite event or three.
But maybe BASS has already taken care of this or is heading that way. Depends what "an angler in good standing" means. Does it mean that the angler has to be in the Elite Series? Does it mean that the angler merely has to be fishing BASS events?
Guys around my age (the big 40) will remember when the upstart USFL stole a bunch of players from the NFL. (Just to make sure no one's feelings get hurt, I'm NOT saying FLW is like the USFL. Sheesh.) When Herschel Walker, among many other good players, went to the USFL, they didn't make him go back to play in the NCAA before he could go back to the NFL.
Yeah, I know it's not apples-to-apples, but you see my point.
And I'm not going back at all on my mantra about strict qualifying being needed in bass fishing, at least assuming I'm being realistic by saying that (will it ever happen?). Assuming the lower Elite Series performers really will drop out, performance is built in that way.
Maybe, anyway.
