A few takes on the classic:

The Winner

When Boyd Duckett walked across the stage on day 1 he had a spring in his step. The guy looked confident, he looked calm, he looked like a guy who could win and sure enough he did. I'd never heard of the guy before the Classic but you have to hand it to him, he caught the big fish 2 out of 3 days and he won. Something tells me he didn't win by luck.

Skeet

Skeet strikes me as someone who keeps himself emotionally detached from the fishing, and I don't mean that in a bad way. He seemed very casual for the first two days and you could almost sense that he was doing that to stay on an even keel and avoid making some nervous mistake while fishing. When he finished just short was when you could tell how much he really did care. You can't help but feel for the guy, just like when Aaron came in 2nd so many times. That's part of what makes the Classic so great though, the guys fishing it are laying it all out trying to win - and it shows.

As an aside, they showed some footage of the areas in the river where Skeet and some of the other guys were fishing. There was some seriously knarly cover in there, absolutely the kind of place where you might get busted off by a fish. Skeet said a few fish 'took his gear' on day 1. Makes you wonder what line test and brand and type he was using. And he wasn't the only one who mentioned getting broken off during the tournament. You would think at that level these guys would not break off very often but they do. I would sure like to know exactly how and why that kind of stuff keeps happening.

Swindle

Clearly he deserved the DQ. If you watch the video of it, what he did was just bonehead in light of the BASS rules. There's no possible excuse for not knowing the rules when you are fishing for $500,000.

At the day 2 weigh in, Gerald made a comment to the effect that if he had come off pad he would have thrown a bigger wake on Randy Howell, but that ignores the fact that if he had stopped short and idled past at a no-wake speed he wouldn't have thrown anything. I almost felt bad for him when he cried on stage, no doubt the guy was torn up, but my wife's 6th grade students cry when they screw up and get caught too. The right thing to do is to not make the mistake in the first place.

I do think the punishment from BASS of losing that day's catch was fair in light of the infraction. Too bad that coverage of one guy's bonehead boat driving move wasted so much coverage that could have been dedicated to the fishing.

Fish Care

Ok, I know BASS wants to call a dead fish a, "fish care penalty" but a dead bass is a dead bass. Call it a dead bass please.

As a fisherman I know that catching a bass, carting it around in a livewell, then weighing it in with 5 other bass is going to stress the fish to some extent. But I know that with proper handling those bass will go back to the lake to be caught again and again. I fish tournaments and I don't feel bad about it.

However! The whole bit where guys run around the stage waving the bass like homerun hankies is pretty weak. Think about it this way... The guy waving his fish around the stage is the same guy who would be sick to his stomach seeing a stringer of bass hanging off the side of someone's boat waiting for the fry pan. I don't understand that disconnect. If you respect your quarry, show it by handling the fish correctly, don't cock the jaw back and trot around the stage.

Getting to see the fish in the clear box during the weigh in is cool and all, but for a tournament org like BASS that places a huge emphasis on conservation, wouldn't it make sense to weigh the fish in a bag? Watch the weigh in for a FLW National Guard tournament and you will see an organization that doesn't just give lip service to fish care, they do things right by weighing the fish in bags, quickly, and even going so far as to do the live tank weigh in on the final day. BASS could boost their credibility in my eyes by doing the same.

The Berkeley Paca Chigger

Bassfan.com reports the winning baits to be a Rattle Trap and a Berkley Chigger Craw. Berkeley will no doubt sell a bucket load of Chigger Craws as a result of this tournament. So you know who I feel bad for? The guy who invented the Paca Craw. Why? Because the Chigger Craw is a bait that got designed because Berkeley Pro Staff guys wanted to be able to fish Paca Craws but couldn't do it on TV at the Classic. A blurb on Bassfan.com all but spelled that out a few days before the classic. I have no affiliation with Net Bait, I'm just telling it like it is.

Ike

Speaking of telling like it is, whether you love him or hate him, Ike tells it like it is. His comment at the day 2 weigh in that if Bass fishing was going to be a real sport, the competitors needed to be fishing out of their own boats was one of those comments that half the field is probably thinking but doesn't have the balls to say. Ike had a point.

The Future of Professional Fishing

As awesome as the Classic is, bass fishing still has a long ways to go. Right now there are two competing circuits, both offering a half million dollar first prize for their largest tournament. Right now there is no World Series of bass, no Superbowl, no NBA Finals. There's no venue where the best in the world (as determined by a rigorous qualifying procedure) can go head to head. Yeah most of the best guys are fishing BASS, but there's some mega sticks in the FLW too. Until there is consolidation at the highest levels of the sport, bass fishing will be viewed as second rate sport.

The other reality of professional fishing is that to compete at the highest levels you have to have one of two things: A lot of money and time, or a willingness to gamble your future on your fishing abilities at risk of going broke. In other sports, if you are the best in the world you will make it no matter how much money and time you have. If you can throw a 103mph fastball and break off a mean slider, it doesn't matter if you're living in a cardboard box, you'll get a shot at the bigs. If you can golf like Tiger Woods, you'll get paid big money to do it. If you can run the ball like Reggie Bush, someone will recruit you and if you keep it up, you'll be rich.

In fishing, you can have all the natural talent and fishing catching ability in the world, but if you don't have the entry fees and the time - or you aren't willing to risk financial ruin, you're sitting on the outside looking in. In real sports, the best in the world compete because they are the best, not because they had $55k to burn and the time to make it happen. It's a shame that when we watch the biggest fishing tournaments in the world, we probably aren't watching the best bass fishermen in America.

Closing

I love watching the Classic because I love to watch people give their all in sports. The coverage could always be better but the live internet stream gave you a pretty clear idea what was going down and I enjoyed it.

I believe that some day bass fishing will have a single league, based on talent, that will crown a top angler and honor them with a tremendous cash prize. I don't know if it will happen in 2 years or 20 but I look forward to that day.

I sorta like the way it is with everyone using the same boating equipment. I don think fishing should be such an "arms race". this is fishing not racing. It really makes people rely on their skills as fishermen, not just being the first one to a nice point because you have the fastest boat in the crowd. It kind of gets back to what you were saying about needing money to be a professional tournament fisherman.

Ryan Thoni


If people concentrated on the important things in life there would be a shortage of fishing poles.
~Doug Larson

Rob: I love this post. I actually sorta paid attention and saw some of the coverage on ESPN and of course on the Internet.

Thoughts:

Boyd Duckett: Right on dude. Nice win, clearly knew how to get a big bite.

Skeete: I like this guy more and more with time. He came close, and has plenty of time left to make it happen. Love to see him growing up, family man, and just flat doing the best he can.

Swindle: I somehow caught that on ESPN late on Saturday night...I saw the footage of him ripping thru a crowd of boats, on plane, waving arms and stuff. Bad move, in ANY tournament, lake, river or stream...just flat dangerous. I told my girlfriend he'll be DQ'd for that move, and sure enough.........I like Gerald and his energy and style...sorta. I don't get how some of these nice guys from the country got so into the HipHop/PopCulture flow of the world, but I would recommend to Gerald to stick to his roots and not try to be like Ike so much. Just be yourself, and fish hard. Enough with the hook 'em horns and all the stupid gestures I see this guy doing in front of the cameras....Maybe I'm flat wrong here about Gerald, but man, that was stupid boat handling, and I would prefer to see a more serious side of Gerald...more often.

Conclusions/Thoughts: Yes, everytime I went on TV to watch the weigh in...yep, college basketball. So, no, this sport is still pre-television contract for live TV coverage and footage. Yes, you still have to pay to play, and there are 1000s of us all who wear patches and "sponsor" gear for a prostaff package that isn't worth squat. The sport is progressing, each year, there is progress made, and coverage gets better, etc. Still, we aren't there yet. As far as guys fishing out of the same boats, I think thats lame. Fish from your boat, your equipment and your tackle...whatever got you their in the first place. Represent your sponsors by fishing with their stuff...Would you ever see Tony Stewart and Team Home Depot/Chevy show up at the Nextel Cup final race all with Dodge cars, and Nextel yellow cars? No Way. How can this sport be serious when you have guys fishing out of boats they aren't sponsored by, powered by motor and electronics they don't endorse? Where does it stop? Next year, everyone will have the same rods/reels/line and lures...all courtesy of PureFishing/Berkley. How would that be? Way way way lame, bad business, bad precedent, and way good ole boy style. Anglers get strong armed in this sport, where in others sports, NASCAR for example, Home Depot would threaten to pull their $ out of NASCAR and that would end that...it wouldn't happen in the first place since NASCAR doesn't compete with FLWCAR or someother faction, but you get the idea. Anyway, not trying to be overly negative...just telling it like it is.

Here is what I did like:

--props to ESPN's online media team. Great online coverage, and real-time coverage
--weigh-in coverage. I think the length of the weigh-in is drawn out, but it did give guys ample chance to talk about their day on the water, their sponsors, etc. I was impressed with how guys who didn't catch fish would say, "it wasn't for lack of good equipment...I would like to thank: XYZ for their support..." nicely done.
--radio coverage. I heard advertisements of the Classic on my local Atlanta COUNTRY radio station. Key word: Country. Bass fishing should remember their roots. Somehow hip hop and break dancing (thanks skeete) got mixed into bass fishing...
--mad props to James Niggemeyer, Jared Litner, Aaron Martens and Skeete Reese for their finishes. Always pulling for the Western crews...Good to see John Murray in there, and sorry John things didn't pan out better for you, this time around.

The Classic is like the World Trade Fair back in Medieval Europe or something. It's the State of the Union. This post is relavant as heck to understand where this sport is at, and what is going on behind the scenes.

MP

Thanks for the post Rob. I do think the sport has a way to go and agree with the other posts about using the equipment these guys are sponsored and WANT to use rather than having to use someone else's.

I think we missed a few western guys here...besides Skeet, Litner, Niggemeyer, Murray and Martens...what about Monroe and Klein!

Todd
http://www.bassanglerprofiles.com/toddiwamoto.htm

Doh! Yep, I'm an idiot...Monroe and Klein. Ish of course. He frickin charges and continues to execute. Ole Gary Klein, shoots, you go that right too.

Good call.

What on earth is the deal with guys testing their drags during the fight!? Holy smokes, this makes me yell at the computer when I see guys doing that.

There's a clip of Ike doing it at Onieda on a big smallmouth last year if you have the BASS Insider thing you can watch it online. And this year, the clip where Tim Horton catches two 3.5lb spots on the same rattletrap at the classic. It was great footage and he caught the fish, but I about had a heart attack when he started pulling line off his reel during the fight. I truly do not understand that deal.

Rob really enjoyed the post.

I have to agree with you about "slinging" the bass around during weigh-in. I can't believe it when I see it on TV. But, its not just during weigh-in. It's from the time the fish is caught until its released. Watch when any angler catchs a "good" fish. What's the first things they do? Hold it up by the bottom lip with all of the fish's weight being unsupported. Then they do it again for weigh-in, again on stage for crowd appeal, and probably again when the fish is released. Not to mention the stress the fish goes through from being caught, held in a live well for 2-5 hours, and other handling techniques. It is very ridiculous how these anglers and organizations treat fish.
I don't know if it has been studied before, but it would be an interesting study to evaluate tourney fish and foraging success. I am sure there are many fish that die due to the inability to forage successfully after tournaments. I know there have been studies on tournament mortality, but not sure if this was correlated to foraging.

Thats funny you bring up this topic, I have been doing a lot of research involving "sub-lethal" effects of catch and release fishing. Sub-lethal effects are those that do not cause death, but still have a negitive impact on the fish. Two biologists named Steven Cooke and Cory Suski have written several good papers on the subject.

They explain that there are 5 main parts of angling that stress fish:

1)Angling time, or the amount of time you fight a fish- this is bad because they are using a different kind of muscle (white muscle) that is used for quick burst swimming and long fight times wear the limited energy stores in that muscle. Using this muscle tissue also increases blood pH and other waste products.

2)Air exposure- the gill structures collapse when not suspended in a liquid medium, and they wont function in air. They dry up and can become damaged. This also forces them to use energy stores that are useful in burst swimming because of the metabolic pathways used when oxygen isnt available.

3)Fishing during extreme high or extreme low water temps. Especially high temps. Just extra stressful.

4)Hook injuries- Some prevent a fish from being able to eat for long periods of time. Others can host infections.

5)fishing imidiatly prior to or during spawning - ruin reproductive success.

Other studies have shown that live well stress can reduce reproductive success and have long term effects on cardiovascular activity of bass.
Poor reproductive success means one or more of the following:

decreased quality of egg/sperm
decreased quantity of eggs/sperm
decreased parental care for eggs,larvea and fry

The last thing I will talk about is Deep caught bass. I am writing a paper on decompression effects on spotted bass, and if theres one thing I could get accross its that you should get your fish back in the water ASAP. there is about 3-5min before the swimbladder become hyperinflated, at which point the fish will have to be manually sunken down to deep water using the technique Rob has written about in this website, or "fizzed" using a 16-20 gauge hypodermic needle.

Mortality rates and reproductive success are high in deep caught fish, so keep that in mind when your pluckin spots out of 60ft. (unless you hate spots - Lake :P )

Just some helpful info that made me feel bad for being a fisherman when I read it haha. But really, just by knowing these things you will pay closer attention to details when you catch a fish, and will likely reduce the stress you cause the fish.

Ryan Thoni


If people concentrated on the important things in life there would be a shortage of fishing poles.
~Doug Larson

I watched the Amistad weigh in today on the Internet. Gotta say, the way the pros handled the fish was totally different than the classic. No one was cocking back the jaws, no one was waving the fish around and shaking them. The only shaking I saw was the guy who caught the 12 pounder, he was shakin a little :) I don't know what the difference was but I thought every guy that weighed in today did it right and treated the fish right. Glad to see it.