LITTLE ROCK — When Ray Scott established what would eventually become BASS in 1967, he envisioned professional bass fishing attaining the same stature as professional golf and tennis.
In a way, it has done even better because it established its own identity and created a niche where none existed. Now, two national tours provide a way for avid anglers to make a living doing what they love the most. Some even get wealthy at it.
In its quest for mainstream acceptance and respectability, though, the sport retains some annoying vestiges of amateurism. One glaring example is the pro anglers’ habit of relentlessly pitching his sponsors onstage during a weigh-in. They spin long odes to their outboard motors, their boats, their fishing line, clothes, even their batteries. Shaw Grigsby plugged his sponsors so shamelessly during the final weigh-in of the Bassmaster Classic in Tulsa that a cold shower seemed in order.
They have been doing it so long that it’s pretty much an accepted part of the sport, and that’s the problem. Professional golfers, tennis players, NBA stars and NFL stars make a whole lot more money from their endorsements than bass fishermen do, but they don’t go on and on about their sponsors after the Masters or the Super Bowl.
The only sport as indelibly linked to sponsors as fishing is NASCAR, but even there, drivers don’t go on and on to the extent of professional anglers. NASCAR drivers, like those in other professional sports, talk about the game and their roles in it. When they lose, or when they perform poorly, they man up and answer questions, even though the pain and embarrassment of a bad performance or clutch-time choke are still raw.
The questions are fair because the game is the only thing that matters. Fans want to know how it was won and how it was lost
Professional anglers don’t talk much about fishing onstage, and most don’t talk about it to the media in detail until after the final round. That was understandable back in the days when they fished in solitude and could reasonably expect to keep their tactics and locations secret from other competitors.
Those days are long gone.Kevin VanDam and Mike Iaconelli said 80-90 boats followed them during the Classic. Bloggers provide real-time information about where anglers fish, the lures they use, how many fish they catch and how big the fish are. There are no secrets anymore, and anglers have no reasonable expectation of privacy on the water.
Likewise, 16,000 people come to a Bassmaster Classic weigh-in to hear how their favorite pros fish. They are avid anglers, too, and they hope to learn something that will help them be better fishermen. They don’t want to hear an endless commercial.
Professional bass fishing would not exist without corporate sponsors, but that’s also true for the NFL, NBA, PGA, NHL, Major League Baseball and college football. Supporting sponsors get plenty of exposure at the Classic. Theirlogos are pasted all over every flat surface, as well as on the anglers’ jerseys, boats and trucks. They also get vast exposure on ESPN and in Bassmaster magazine. Spectators notice the sponsors, too, as illustrated by a reader from Conway who once e-mailed me to express disgust that we ran a photo of BASS pro Mark Davis wearing a ballcap bearing the logo of his former boat sponsor.
From the media’s standpoint, the boat and motor are only important if they played an integral role in catching fish. They don’t. Fishing line is only important to a story if it figures in the outcome, like breaking off a potential tournament-winning bass. That happens often, by the way, but anglers always refuse to comment on it. Otherwise, line is only newsworthy in generic terms, like when and why a pro prefers fluorocarbon orbraid over monofilament, or vice-versa.
If an angler insists on crediting his sponsors when he does well, he should also be prepared to criticize their products when they are to blame for a bad performance. For example, two different trolling motors failed Iaconelli on the second day of the Classic. Reporters pressed him to elaborate, but he refused, digressing instead about cursing at a dog on the bank.
From a sponsor’s standpoint, it seems counterproductive for an angler to come onstage after a bad performance and praise lures that didn’t catch fish, line that broke and boats and motors that didn’t get him to places where he could catch fish.
It is a barrier for competitors who desperately crave professional respect, and also for a sport that is still striving for mainstream credibility.
Sports, Pages 31 on 03/03/2013