Recent changes in the formats of many bass tournaments across the country have sparked a typhoon of debate from anglers. Those anglers are the ones that fish from the back of the boat. Although they are not the big-name pros that are hamming it up for the camera, they are still essential to the growth of the fishing industry.
B.A.S.S. is one of the most prominent fishing organizations globally, and their recent changes have brought forth some of the loudest discussions. They recently changed the format of the non-boater division on the Bassmaster Tour and the newly formed ESPN Outdoors Weekend Series. Rather than weighing in a limit of fish and competing solely against other non-boaters, these anglers now face more restrictions. From now on, they will only be allowed to weigh three fish, and their weight is then added to the weight of their "pro" partner.
These seem like minor issues on the surface, but after scraping away a few of the top layers and exposing the real meat of the issue, the problems are self-evident. Two "pilot" tournaments were held to see how the changes would affect the anglers. In both tournaments, the co-angler with the most "individual" weight in their division did not win the tournament. Instead, the prize money and the bragging rights went to anglers whose partners had bigger weights. That would really suck if I were in a tournament, had the biggest weight in my division, and still ended up in 10th place, while somebody I genuinely beat got a $25,000 paycheck. I know, rules are rules, and if we don't like them, we don't have to fish their tournaments. This is very true. But that doesn't mean it's the right way to look at this situation.
I would be willing to bet a few of my paychecks that an overwhelming majority of the "pros" fishing both major tours started on the non-boater side. Most anglers use this as a learning period, but at the same time, they still like to compete against their peers. Taking that away from these anglers isn't going to help them succeed in the world of tournament fishing. Actual competition drives many anglers, and it allows them to grow on a personal level. These future pros now have to worry about beating the other non-boaters and hope that their pro partners finish pretty high in the standings as well.
To make sure that everyone understands why this issue irritates me, I will give you an example of how the new rule can affect non-boaters during these tournaments. For the sake of conversation, let's say Angler A catches the maximum three fish limit for non-boaters and has a weight of 5 pounds. Their pro partner has a great day on the water and has a five-fish limit that weighs in at 20 pounds. The non-boaters total combined weight for the day would be 25 pounds. Angler B comes to the stage with a monster three fish limit that tips the scales at 15 pounds. On the other end of the spectrum, their pro partner had a crappy day and only weighed in 2 fish for a measly 5 pounds. This would give Angler B a combined total weight of 20 pounds. Although Angler B has a 10 pound lead over Angler A on an individual level, they would not win. To me, there is just something seriously wrong with that whole concept.
At the tour events, non-boaters might think it is worth paying the extra money because they get to fish in the same boats with superstars like Kevin VanDam, Dave Lefebre, Gerald Swindle, or Davy Hite. Now think about the people fishing the non-boater side of the weekend tournaments. Is it worth it to the people who get paired with some no-name "pro" who didn't have a chance to pre-fish because he was working all week to make the boat payment? I don't care how awesome a person is at the local or regional level. I would not spend a week's worth of wages on gambling whether or not this person will catch enough fish to win me some money. If I wanted to take such a risk, I would go fishing by myself during the day. At night, I would take my wallet to the local casino and lay a pile of money in front of the BlackJack dealer. I probably have far better odds with the cards than betting on some other angler.
If these tournament organizations keep adding restrictions on the non-boaters, it will eventually force them out of the tournaments altogether (which might be their motive anyway). Most can not afford to fish the pro side of these tournaments. Of those who can afford it, the majority of them probably aren't good enough. One significant benefit to fishing as a co-angler is learning as much as you can by watching and fishing with a person who possesses a higher skill level. The ability to gauge your progress against other anglers in your division is priceless. These anglers also deserve to be rewarded for their hard work and dedication to the sport. By taking the "real" competition out of the sport, non-boaters are being robbed of their ability to grow and succeed as individuals.
Our sport needs to enable non-boaters to fish with fewer restrictions because they are the industry's future. The sport will eventually die without new blood being injected into the tournament lifeline. So please, don't deprive these anglers of their education, all of you corporate big wigs that are making all of the decisions affecting the sport we love. Let them fish, learn and compete as individuals. If they wanted a combined weight format, they would fish a team trail somewhere, for crying out loud.