I was at the Ranger Owners Tournament (ROT) on Table Rock last weekend. Why? For one, I'd never fished nor seen Table Rock before. Always a good reason to go anywhere.

But the bigger reason was the fact that Ranger owners can now qualify directly to the Forrest Wood Cup (FLW Championship) and therein have a shot at winning $1 million.

Got that? You can be a regular Joe, fish one tournament to get into the Cup and then have a chance at winning $500,000 plus another $500,000 if you own a Ranger.



Now, this is a relatively new thing – this year is the first year of both the ROTs and the direct qualification into the Cup via the ROTs, the BFLs and other mechanisms under the FLW Outdoors umbrella. So I went to Table Rock to find out whether the people fishing the ROT were there for the chance to qualify for the Cup or just to have a good time.

After talking to them and some folks who were at the prior Buggs Island ROT, I found that a lot of Ranger owners were there to fish for a shot at getting into the Cup. For them, the FLW Cup has the prestige and feel of the Bassmaster Classic, plus $1 million.

So there I am listening to Charlie Evans, FLW Outdoors' CEO, on the mic, warming up the crowd at registration before Forrest Wood said a few words. Here's some of what Evans said:

    The Cup "is not just a championship. It is a celebration of our entire sport. It's the granddaddy of all granddaddies. It's the biggest, baddest boy on the block. There's no bigger thing.

    "The 1st-place prize pays a half a million dollars. That's a great deal. We were the first to do it, but we're not the only one (BASS now offers that at the Classic). This year, the winner of that event, if he's a qualified Ranger owner, Ranger is going to match that ($500,000, for $1 million total)."

    Insert big applause by Ranger owners here.

    Evans: "I'm not real good at math, but I think that totals to $1 million. That's probably going to happen, and it could happen to someone here. It'll be the first millionaire in one event in bass fishing."

As recently as last year I would've tuned out right at the "celebration of our entire sport" line. Everybody says that kind of thing. And let's face it: The Bassmaster Classic still is the most prestigious bass tournament on the planet.

But after thinking about it, I think Evans is right. For the non-pro fisherman, the Forrest Wood Cup is the new Classic plus a million (or plus $500,000). The chance at having multiple ways to qualify from the grassroots level to a big championship where you can win $1 million is, in a word, awesome.

If you're an FLW Tour pro, however, you might not be too psyched. You probably like having the chance to win $1 million in one check. But you're fishing against 80-plus fishermen, many of whom haven't fished as hard or taken the same risks as you, and that's tough to swallow.

FLW pros might not like it, but they shouldn't be surprised. FLW Outdoors was grown out of Operation Bass, the premier grassroots circuit in the country. And that's still at the core of what FLW Outdoors is and how it operates.

In my opinion though, top pros who fish FLW aren't valued as highly as they are on the BASS side. I may of course be wrong, and if I'm right, that may or may not be a bad thing, depending on where you sit.

But one thing's for sure: While I am in no way implying that BASS or the Classic is kaput (far from it), in my mind FLW Outdoors has kept the dream alive for the "everyman" in bass fishing, the guys who get out on the water whenever they can, the guys who pay the freight for the entire industry.

More than that: FLW and Ranger have made the dream more accessible for more people, and made the dream bigger thanks to that $1 million.

(Qualifying anglers directly from The Bass Federation National Championship into the $100,000 BFL All-American is pretty cool too.)

Tall Man's Syndrome

I believe Ranger Boats was Operation Bass's first sponsor, or maybe it was one of the first. In any case, it's turned out to be the most important relationship Operation Bass (now FLW Outdoors) has had.

Evans credited the success of FLW to Ranger, and said it was "all made possible by Forrest L. Wood." Then he introduced him: "Please welcome 'the tall man' of bass fishing."

If you didn't know, that's sort of Forrest's nickname.

We've all heard of "short-man's syndrome." And if you know bass fishing, which you do, you can figure out for yourself what tall-man's syndrome is: It's what Forrest, the folks at Ranger, Ray Scott, Bob Cobb, Helen Sevier and other pioneers in this industry (including fishermen like Brauer, Clunn, Nixon, Cochran and others) have done – and continue to do.

They're all tall folks in my eyes, and I just wanted to say, as one fisherman, thanks again.