Posted by TJ
on July 14, 2008, 8:50 am
206.222.171.33
HUNTSVILLE TIMES- JULY 12, 2008
Changes coming for BASS next season
By: Alan Clemons
B.A.S.S. officials have scheduled a couple of press conferences next week at the ICAST fishing trade show in Las Vegas to unveil the 2009 and 2010 season schedules along with what the organization terms "a new tournament structure."
Among the season schedules are sites that include Guntersville, Wheeler and Pickwick lakes. Can't wait to find out the specifics on those so we'll know a little more about what to expect from the fishing.
As for the tournament structure, rumors of the impending departure of co-anglers from the Elite Series could be true. No one at B.A.S.S. will say anything on the record about it and everyone's been as tight-lipped as a cadaver.
But the rumors are circulating more strongly among the anglers, who still have two tournaments remaining in the current season in New York. Those very well could be the final events for co-anglers, a part of the sport begun years ago for myriad reasons including to get the Average Joe to fish, to get the Average Joe interested in tournaments, to make money for B.A.S.S. and to serve as a policeman of sorts with the pros duking it out for big payouts.
Changing times
Things have changed, though.
Today's "Average Joe" angler is pretty darn good. The interest is high for tournaments or there wouldn't be the numbers of them held across the country. B.A.S.S. has made money from its co-anglers -- as has the FLW Tour, which has twice the number of tour-level pros and co-anglers in each event and no plans to do away with the co's.
It's time to do away with the co-angler in the Elite Series events and let the pros fish without having to be concerned with another guy in the boat.
I understand the Average Joe is the guy who fuels the industry. You could remove the pros from the Elite Series, Bassmaster Opens, FLW Tour and FLW Series and the industry would chug along. Ranger still would sell boats, Berkley still would sell stinky lures and BobbyJack's Bait & Barbecue still would sell worms, ice, bobbers, spinnerbaits and smoked chicken plates for $7.99 every weekend.
But a pro angler operating the boat shouldn't have to worry about a guy who paid $750 and is competing for a boat or a $20,000 check pulling the same bait out of his tackle bag and casting ahead up the bank. Or a guy who fires a cast to the treetop where a fish just swirled and missed the pro's topwater before the pro can wind back and make a second cast.
Just fishing you say? No, that's just crap. Want more? I can tell some tales:
-- This season, one California pro had a co-angler repeatedly cast past him to a bedding fish and then run up to the front of the boat, yell and slap the line with his rod to try to knock off a fish. The incredulous and furious pro returned to the dock to meet BASS tournament director Trip Weldon, who removed the co-angler from the tournament. All that interrupted the pro's mental focus and cost him valuable fishing time.
-- An Alabama pro was positioning his boat to make a precision cast to a point when his co-angler cast ahead. The pro's only defense would have been to reposition the boat so the guy couldn't cast, which then would have created a "He's such a jerk" problem.
-- Another Alabama pro was making specific casts to a spot on Kentucky Lake when he caught a fish. While removing the hook on the front deck, the co-angler made a cast over his head to the spot in an attempt to pluck a fish from it while the pro was busy.
-- A Missouri pro, this season, had a co-angler who would try to match him cast-for-cast in the near identical spot every time. If the pro's bait was 10 inches from a stump, the co's bait was about as close to that spot as possible.
-- Another Alabama pro, at Lake Erie, had a co-angler who was more than 70 years old and asked that they stop on the 60-plus mile trip so they could return to the dock because the boat ride was too rough. The pro instead decided to stay close to the ramp and fish so he wouldn't lose at least an hour of time and the co-angler agreed.
Not all roses and thorns
Not all pros have tales as bad as having their line slapped by a rod-wielding co-angler, and not all pros are saints. There are some who flat-out dislike having co-anglers in their boat and don't mince words about it, some of them who if you get a lure hung won't go let you retrieve it and automatically position the boat so you have zero ability to cast to a spot.
Not all co-anglers are terrible, either. Some actually get it. They understand they're not there to compete against the pros, to be able to puff their chests and say, "Yeah, I caught more than JoeBob" today. Some of them fish out of the back of the boat, do not make casts to the front of the boat where the pro is targeting, don't jabber like women at a soccer game and in the words of some pros "are good guys and good to be with."
In either case, good or bad, it's time for the co-anglers to be eliminated.
Money? Of course
The hot word circulating is the Elite pros will pay an extra $500 per tournament and the non-fishing observers selected by B.A.S.S. at each event will pay $250 for three days of up-close learning from some of the best pros in the world. The observers also would be policemen of sorts and required to report any rules violations.
Some of the pros will gladly pay an extra $5,500 next season to get rid of the co-anglers. Some are going to scream to the high heavens about it and will wonder who gets the 11 co-angler tournament payouts if there are no co-anglers. The pros? In these economic times, valid questions are to be expected.
That scenario would match the $750 currently paid by co-anglers at each event, which in the 11-event season is about $875,000. That's a lot of money going in someone's pockets. Whether that scenario comes to fruition is unknown.
But the PGA Tour doesn't pair up Kenny Perry with Bob, Joe and Tom from the local country club in the Greater Hartford Open. The ATP Tour doesn't select Suzie from Slickrock to play tennis with Serena Williams in Cincinnati or Miami.
Bass fishing has been unique in that its highest tournament levels have included amateurs. But they're not amateurs anymore and it's not the highest level if removable influences can create a detriment to the outcome of the event.
A co-angler slapping your fishing line with his rod and requiring you to take an hour out of your day definitely affected at least one guy's outcome, and that's one too many.
B.A.S.S. and a saltwater series?
Nestled in the B.A.S.S. media alert about next week's press conference was this little line: "and Redbone founder Gary Ellis (Thursday)."
That addition was for a press conference, which is interesting since Ellis is the founder of the Redbone saltwater series of tournaments. They originated in South Florida, have raised millions for charity and in the last decade or so have expanded to include charity events and other species including trout.
A B.A.S.S. official said "we have nothing to announce at this time."
Adding a saltwater series that already is established wouldn't be a bad idea. Inshore fishing is incredibly popular and, although in some technical ways similar to bass, has a different demographic.
A saltwater series would be cool. Guess we'll find out in a few days.
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