The Future of Competitive Bass Fishing

By: Dean Taylor

The past few months have been extremely hectic and exciting in the world of bass fishing with the announcement of a new professional circuit to compete with BASS and the FLW, to be known as Major League Fishing. This announcement although exciting, quickly became extremely controversial as the new 80 angler field began to be picked from the existing organizations. This field consisted of some of the biggest names in bass fishing including Kevin Van Dam, Mike Iaconelli, and Brandon Palaniuk. These moves have left BASS and FLW without some of their biggest stars, leading to many fans and anglers questioning these anglers “loyalty” and harshly criticizing their decisions to leave. The reasons for these anglers decisions to leave their current organizations for Major League Fishing vary but tended to involve exposure, tournament payouts, and being part of building the future of bass fishing. In this article I will discuss these factors as well as what they might mean for the future of Canadian bass fishing.

Exposure

One of the biggest draws of Major League Fishing is its large, already established television and streaming platform. This is perhaps one of the greatest advantages of the new circuit, as its framework and rules allow the events to be much more consumable as a television sport. This media exposure will allow anglers and their sponsors to maximize the number of eyes that are seeing the events and their products, especially with Major League Fishings’s announcement to allow anglers to fish their own boats and sponsors.

Payouts

As a result of the large television platform and opportunity for sponsorship revenue, Major League Fishing is also promising larger tournament payouts that will reach much further down the field than current tournament organizations. Tournament payouts are a subject that seems to be rarely discussed but has become a huge issue in professional fishing. Within the last few decades, despite the sports apparent growth, tournament payouts have been decreasing rapidly leaving many anglers, even in the Elite Series struggling to pay bills and earn consistent pay. This makes it especially difficult for young anglers trying to make it in the sport as the monetary costs of committing to a tournament circuit is becoming increasingly unaffordable and unattainable. This is another issue that Major League Fishing is seeking to address through large tournament payouts that will stretch to allow nearly all anglers to get paid, similar to other tournament sports such as golf, making the prospects of professional fishing a much more feasible goal for young up-and-coming anglers.

The Future of the Sport

The final and perhaps most consistent reason for many anglers leaving their current tournament organizations for the MLF is to be part of shaping the future of professional bass fishing. Many anglers have stated how excited they are to have a hands on role in shaping the future of the sport as an organization built for the anglers by the anglers, headed by the company’s founder and former Bassmaster Classic winner Boyd Duckett. Although many details of the circuit have yet to be announced, it appears as though the future of the sport is a heavy focus, hopefully enhancing the highschool and college opportunities to make the sport more accessible to the future generations of fishing.

My Opinion

Being from Canada, I have far less biases than many American anglers may have towards certain tournament organizations, as fishing multiple organizations is really the only way to consistently stay on the water as a Canadian tournament angler. Currently I fish the CBAF, a Canadian branch of the FLW, as well as in the Ontario BASS Nation which has strong connections to the American circuit through Bassmaster Open qualifiers.

In terms of the American pro circuits, I feel that the introduction of a new league such as Major League Fishing is extremely beneficial to the sport, as it challenges what has become the status quo of the sport in terms of its rules, format, and payout structure. Should Major League Fishing be successful, it will force both BASS and FLW to adapt to and adopt these measures in order to stay competitive in the tournament industry, ultimately benefitting all anglers and fans.

Major League Fishing instant weigh-in

One aspect of Major League Fishing that is particularly attractive to me is the introduction of instant catch and release into tournament fishing. This is achieved through the hiring of boat marshals that weigh the fish and record the totals when the fish is caught, allowing for it to be released by the angler immediately after it is weighed. Penalties are also given out by the marshal if the fish is dropped on the deck of the boat or mishandled in any way, ensuring the least amount of damage possible to the fish after the catch. Not only does this format protect the fish, it also makes the tournaments much more consumable for television as the weights are instantly uploaded to a live scoreboard for fans to follow from home.

Although fish fatalities are relatively low with the current weigh in formats through the use of tanks and livewells, they do still happen, possibly tainting the publics view of the sport and perhaps communities willingness to host events as the public often watches weary and injured fish hover around the public boat launches after being released. Major League Fishing’s catch and release format would solve this problem by allowing for the fish to be released close to where it was caught with little to no damage done to its health. Further information on the effectiveness of catch and release fishing can be found in a previous article found here .

In terms of Major League Fishing’s effect on Canadian bass fishing, I am hopeful that this productive competition among the American circuits will trickle down into the Canadian organizations. Although it would be ideal to imagine Canada taking a lead in this regard and adopting a catch and release format, it is likely an unrealistic dream as it would require significant funding that is hard to come by in Canadian fishing organizations as well as complicate the system for non boaters as marshals and cameramen would need to be present on all boats. Overall however, I feel as though this change will inspire growth and innovation within the sport with anglers and fans all over North America reaping the benefits of a safer, more consumable, and more productive competitive bass fishing industry.