Are We Having Fun Yet?

by Pete Robbins
(Who is Pete Robbins & what else has he written?)

Why did you join a Federation bass club?

Why do you remain a member of a Federation bass club?

For me, the answer to the first question is....PURE DUMB LUCK. I was a novice fisherman, looking to learn more about the sport, and the guy who mentored me happened to belong to a Virginia B.A.S.S. Federation club. He asked me to join and that was that. There was no comparing circuits, or benefits, with other organizations. Had the club been a member of some other umbrella entity, I’d likely be a member of them now.

With respect to the second question, I don’t know what my answer is. The pie-in-the-sky rationalization is that the Federation does a lot of good things – environmental programs, youth events, and other forms of community service, but since these do not make up the lion’s share of most of our fishing experience, that can’t be the primary reason. So what does the Federation offer that other circuits do not?

One possible answer is the chance of making the Bassmasters Classic, a chance for the average joe angler to participate in the superbowl of angling. But let’s be realistic: there are tens of thousands of Federation members, and only five make the Classic each year. That’s a pretty long distance from this end of the stick to the carrot.

Another reason is that our umbrella organization, B.A.S.S., provides insurance for accidents occurring during Federation events. Yeah, right. You belong to a particular bass club for the insurance benefits....not.

To tell you the truth, the only answers I can come up with for most bass fishermen are laziness (too lazy to search out another option), and the fact that this is the least of all evils. We have a semi-stable organization in B.A.S.S., we have a longstanding tournament program with the possibility of going to "the big show," and we have certain sponsor benefits related to B.A.S.S. that provide a modicum of product support. Certainly there are other circuits that cost less to fish. Many of them have a greater percentage payout. Some provide the chance to fish a major national championship (the BFL All-American comes to mind). Still, none of them provide the overall "package" that we get from the Federation. IS THAT ENOUGH?

Our lives become more complicated every day. Most of us work more hours in the average week than our predecessors. Traffic seems to be increasing in even the most rural spots. After 9/11, security concerns are prevalent. At the same time, the fishing landscape has become dotted with more entities seeking a larger percentage of the same pie, the angler’s almighty dollar. Whereas Ranger may have ruled the roost a few years back, now Triton has a larger market share. When B.A.S.S. was the only game in town, it could call the shots, but the emergence of FLW and others has forced them to compete.

On the one hand, this diversification in the sport has come on the backs of the average fisherman, particularly the "Federation-type" fisherman. We are the ones buying the $30,000 boats, the $20 crankbaits and pumping money into the sponsors’ pockets. At the same time, we are the segment of the sport that is ignored most. Every year, it seems, more and more fishermen who once competed vigorously at this level drop from sight, taking up golf, or hunting, or just (gulp) spending more time with their wives. Almost universally, their reason for doing so is "It just wasn’t fun any more." The limited time, limited natural resources, reduced payback, and increased bickering all make it less fun.

ESPN doesn’t seem to be making it any better. They seem to have taken a beancounter’s approach to the whole thing, failing to recognize that this is a sport that is built on personalities and people. Among other things, they had to be cajoled into keeping the Federation around at all. I don’t know if the nation’s bass fishermen are organized enough to get it done, but had ESPN dropped the Federation altogether, we would’ve had the muscle to crush some of their sponsors.

Additionally, ESPN dropped the popular Fish Fishburne. Like it or not, this ain’t NASCAR. Even among us diehards, this is not a made-for-TV sport. Think about it – the winner of the Bassmaster’s Classic may only get five bites in an eight hour day. How are you going to broadcast that live????? On a personal note, ESPN cashed my deposit check for the amateur side of a Tour event four months ago. I wasn’t drawn for the event. In the past, when that happened, they did not cash your check, and sent it back to you immediately to tear up. Now, they sit and collect interest on money that is rightfully mine. I know I’ll get it back in the long run, but the aggravation makes it LESS FUN. It’s the little things that contribute to or detract from the experience as a whole. Granted, all of this may just be growing pains for ESPN/B.A.S.S. and they may have some grand master plan that I’m missing. I hope so......for all of our sakes.

Coming back full circle – the Federation. Where does this leave us? It’s a good question, and one that’s not easily answered. A lot depends on what we GET from B.A.S.S. Perhaps even more depends on what we GIVE to bass fishing in general.

We hear talk all the time of the need to "grow the sport" of bass fishing. Funny, though, that this talk seems merely to be parroting the corporate sponsors of the sport. Without us, and future generations like us, the Tritons, the Rangers, the Citgos, the Shimanos and the Lucky Crafts have no one to buy their products. Thus, they need to grow or maintain their customer base. We as fishermen, however, need to grow the sport in a different way – we need to protect our natural resources, protect ourselves from the animal rights extremists, and ensure that we are not legislated or regulated out of existence. In many respects, we are in the driver’s seat, both in respect to the future of our sport in general, and in respect to what we get from our representatives, be they in Montgomery, Alabama, or Washington, D.C.

It’s time to seize the opportunity to make the sport of bass fishing ours again. Rather than lazily allowing some corporate entity (beancounter or otherwise) to dictate our future based on their bottom line, we need to set parameters, and decide how we can "make it fun again." In some respects, this sport is new in general....many of the major innovators (people like Rick Clunn and Roland Martin) are still at the forefront of innovation. Additionally, with the changing ownership of B.A.S.S. and the burgeoning number of new circuits, everything old is new again.

With the internet and a wealth of other communications technologies at our disposal, there is no reason that these circuits, Federation or otherwise, should not be aware of our every whim and desire. You may be lazy with respect to changing organizations, but if you fail to take a leadership role, or at the very least voice your opinions, you have no one but yourself to blame when it "stops being fun."

Feature Column Archives