Pat Fisher of Georgia wouldn't divulge what kind of conversation he had the Saturday morning after his Wal-Mart FLW Tour camera crew mistakenly followed another angler in the final round of the season-opener on Lake Okeechobee.
FLW Tour anglers must have the camera crews with them as official observers. Without an observer, the theory is, an angler could break the rules with no one watching. Valid thought, although I doubt any pro on the FLW or BASSMASTER tours would risk their reputation and career by cheating.
Fisher got to his first area Saturday, began fishing and caught a 3-pounder. He still hadn't seen his camera crew and called a tournament official. Fisher was told to stop fishing and toss back the 3-pounder because it would not be counted.
Throw back a 3-pounder in the championship round? You don't take points off the scoreboard in a football game and you don't giggle over a 6-inch putt at the Masters. But in fishing, at least with the FLW Tour, you toss back the fish if there is no observer. Rules are rules.
Fisher left and found his camera crew. He told BassFan.com he used some choice words, showed them the bass he had to put back and then returned with them to his best area. It was 2 hours before he caught another keeper. He finished the day with a 5-fish limit.
Before returning to the ramp to check in, Fisher said he told the crew to follow him. They didn't. His boat quit running. He got a jump from another angler and made it to the ramp on time. None of it mattered, because Fisher won by about nine pounds.
With a $100,000 payday on the line, though, ounces matter. A 3-pound fish really could have mattered. But it's merely the principle.
I've been an observer in eight BASS Masters Classics and one Red Man All- American. Ray Scott and Bob Cobb put writers in the Classic boats more than 30 years ago to garner publicity and ensure fair play. But it is not a picnic, sitting in the summer sun for roughly eight hours watching someone fish. I've learned a lot from the pros. Most have been fun to be with. A couple were so focused they ignored me, which was fine.
But even with television coverage a must to help sponsors, forcing an angler to wait on a second boat is wrong. The trailing boat could break down or get lost. What if the camera boat driver had some hidden angst for the pro he's supposed to shadow, perhaps from a real or perceived wrong from years ago? He could "get lost" on purpose to throw off the pro's concentration.
It's imperative the FLW Tour solve this dilemma. The easiest thing would be to put an observer or a camera man in the boat with the angler, which B.A.S.S. does. Cameras would be more interesting.
Mountable lipstick-sized cameras are used on hydroplane boats, dragsters, parachute jumpers, and open-wheel and NASCAR race cars all going 190 to 230 mph or more.
ESPN, which owns B.A.S.S., knows all this. JM Associates, which produces the Bassmaster shows, has tinkered with the cameras. But they're not used, as B.A.S.S. general manager Dean Kessel told me at last year's Classic, because the best camera technology "isn't there yet." They're expensive and the reliability of a small camera in remote areas of a vast fishery, say on the Mississippi Delta, hasn't been proven beyond doubt.
Because a camera crew followed the wrong guy and took a shortcut at the end of the day, Pat Fisher could have lost $100,000 and his first major championship last weekend. And only when that happens, or when the anglers band together and voice their concerns loudly enough, will something be done.
But by then, for one of them, it will be too late.
Alan Clemons is the outdoors editor for the Huntsville (Ala.) Times and is one of the few newspaper men to regularly report on the national bass fishing scene. See this column and others by clicking here.