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Bass fishing really starting to catch on

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Bass fishing really starting to catch on
By Sean D. Hamill Special to the Tribune

Kenda and Randy Yochum don't harbor any dreams of being pro bass anglers, not when they're counting gas money at the end of a fish-off and bringing store-bought steaks to eat to save a few dollars on tournament weekends.

The husband-and-wife team from Alpena can't even match the high-priced, high-tech equipment of their amateur peers in Michigan.

Contrasting the $13,000, 14-year-old Dyna-Trak 180 STE bass boat the Yochums drove, and sponsorless jackets and caps they wore, most of the leaders in a recent team tournament wore sponsor-embossed shirts and caps and drove nearly new $50,000 bass boats, with $3,000 global positioning system mapping equipment, and carried $5,000 to $6,000 worth of rods, reels and lures.

"It'd be nice to have sponsors," said Randy Yochum, a saw operator with a wood paneling company, who along with his wife didn't catch a fish for the first four hours of the recent event but later would pull in the largest fish of the day. "But even with all those guys having all their stuff, we still gotta get out and fish. That's the way I see it.

"And I just love to fish."

It's no fish tale to say that he and his wife--and the 39 competitors they squared off against recently on Houghton Lake--are far from alone.

Long line of anglers

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates there are 44 million anglers in the United States, which is more people than play golf and tennis combined, as the industry likes to say.

While that figure has stayed relatively constant over the past decade, those anglers have been spending more than ever, buying rods, reels and boats and going on enough fishing trips to create a $116 billion-a-year industry.

Of those 44 million, 28 million consider themselves freshwater-specific, 9 million say they're saltwater regulars and the rest are uncommitted.

And now, "bass fishing is by far the most popular kind of fishing, mostly because bass are located all across the country and are readily available," said Mike Nussman, president of the American Sportsfishing Association, an industry trade group based in Alexandria, Va.

The sport's economic growth took off in recent years, fishing and marketing officials say, after ESPN bought the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, or BASS, and its Bassmaster Classic tournament in 2001. The network has used the same techniques that helped boost NASCAR from a regional sport into a national phenomenon.

"It's a long way from Bubba-ville" in bass fishing these days, Nussman said. "With ESPN's purchase of BASS you've got a lot more exposure, just like they did with NASCAR."

At the heart of the growth--and, many say, the very reason the industry even exists--is BASS, a 550,000-member organization.

BASS not only sponsors the high-profile, professional CITGO Bassmaster Tournament Trail but also sanctions 20,000 local tournaments, such as the one on Houghton Lake, through its BASS Federation.

BASS was founded in 1967 by Ray Scott, a former insurance salesman who wanted other people to love his favorite sport--and wanted to make some money in the process.

"We're all fishermen, but I don't know a darn thing about coho fishing," said Scott, 71 and still involved in BASS.

"My thing was to be a surgeon and not a general practitioner. Do you know what I mean?" the Alabaman asked.

Scott ignored other fish in favor of bass, in the belief that bass--not trout, walleye or salmon--would bind anglers together.

He turned the old, notoriously corrupt $2-per-entry fishing derbies--where many winners were accused of turning in fish they had caught previously--into rigorously honest tournaments, sometimes using polygraph tests to verify results.

Before BASS started popularizing the sport, fewer anglers were taking boats out on the water looking specifically for bass. Shore fishing for good-tasting fish such as bluegill and catfish was more popular.

Anglers will tell you that bass is a hard-fighting fish, sensitive to changing weather and water conditions, and fun to catch--though the conservation ethos of BASS tournaments, indeed for virtually all fishing tournaments, is to catch and release the fish, not fry them up.

Celebrity status

The fish are the targets, but those who catch them best--such as Kevin VanDam, who won last month's CITGO Bassmaster Classic after starting his career fishing at Michigan BASS Federation tournaments--have become luminaries. Some even have their own television shows.

In addition to television coverage, this year's classic in Pittsburgh attracted nearly 10,000 people a day to watch the weigh-ins at Mellon Arena, where the Pittsburgh Penguins play.

The allusions to NASCAR in bass fishing are seen throughout the sport, so much so that some angst-ridden anglers, who long for the simple times of BASS's earlier days, refer derisively to the organization as "BASSCAR."

For example, BASS recently decided that rather than run its Bassmaster Classic in July, in the midst of its season, it would hold it in February, at the beginning of the season. Don Rucks, BASS general manager, said the goal was to kick off the year with the biggest event, much like NASCAR starts with the Daytona 500.

But BASS also faces a powerful rival in the FLW Tour, which is sponsored by Wal-Mart and is shown on Fox Sports Network.

The FLW Tour was named after Forrest L. Wood, the founder of the Ranger Boat Co., maker of one of the most popular bass boats.

And for the past 10 years, the FLW Tour has been working to build a better competitive fishing tournament, bringing aboard sponsors outside of the fishing industry and raising the first-place prize for its top tournament to $500,000, a move BASS will match next year when its top prizes rise from $200,000 to $500,000.

"If you ask BASS, they would say they view us as competitors," said Dave Washburn, a spokesman for the FLW Tour. "But we think there's room for two tours."

And for now that seems to be the case. The two tours--and the growing prize money--have attracted more and more regular anglers.

Organizers in turn have scheduled more local amateur tournaments, with anglers buying new, better and more expensive gear.

In Michigan alone the number of bass tournaments has grown four to five times what they were before ESPN bought BASS in 2001, into the hundreds, said Mark Smith, tournament chairman for the Michigan BASS Federation.

`Hey, I can do that'

"Guys who were bass fishing and had lesser equipment and boats, they saw these tournaments on TV and they saw if they had better boats and gear, they could go out and fish these tournaments," Smith said. "They just figured, `Hey, I can do that."'

The affinity anglers have for the sport of fishing seems more real than what fans feel for NASCAR, said Larry DeGaris, owner of Madison Sports Marketing in Harrisonburg, Va.

"You could go out on a lake and catch a fish as big [as the pros], maybe not as frequently, but you could catch one occasionally," he said. "But you probably will never drive a car 200 m.p.h."

It was that sentiment that got Tony Vester, 10, up at the crack of dawn to go out on Houghton Lake with his father the same day the BASS Federation amateurs were starting their tournament on the 20,000-acre lake in north-central Michigan.

His father, Wayne, bought an 11-year-old Bass Tracker boat for $2,500 and picked up three rods for $30, just so he could teach his son how to fish, as his uncle had taught him.

But after watching fishing tournaments on television, Tony already had a desire to compete.

"I wish," he said dejectedly as the family was about to shove off the dock, "but we just got this, so my dad says we can't get in a tournament till next year."

Another bass fisherman caught--hook, line and sinker.
 
Bass fishing is big bucks. 10 years ago a top fo the line bass boat ran about 25k-30k 5 years before that they ran 5-10k. now they are at 38-50k.

fishinng poles run up to 300 each easy and reels up to 400 each, then you got baitys which sell from 1.00 per bag to 50 each for a swim bait, not to mention hard baits , the old rapalas are not the in thing anymore now its the lucky craft lures they run up to 40 each while most run about 20.

I know a guy that has a minimum of 4 baits of every single one that lucky craft makes including baits that are sold only in japan. if he looses one flat box he lost 500 bucks easy he must have 50 freaking boxs.

then you figure local tourny fishing
250 bucks entry fees( including options) and 100+ in gas (local tournys)
then prefishing 2-3 times per tourny another 100-300 bucks in gas and bs
ince there is a tourny every weekend you spending some big bucks.

Gotta love bass fishing.

Delw
 
Yep bass fishing is big bucks theese days. Almost every bit of extra cash i get goes to bass fishing. I guess I got caught hook line and sinker
 
My big brother is the fisherman in our family. We are fortunate to have some good lakes in our area. Lots of hybrid striper, black & sand bass, & plenty of catfish. When he rides me about all my rifles, gear, and hunting expenses, I just point to his two boats.
 
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