Bassmaster and MLF opportunity and opinion:

From Rick Pierce:

Before anyone pulls a statement out of content and uses it as isolated, we oppose that. We remain in full support of MLF and Bassmaster. Also, as stated before, with full respect of FLW as a totally different organization.

Since the late 1960’s I have been around bass fishing at all levels. The oldest bass tournament series in the country is the Winter Bass-O-Thon series, on Lakes Bull Shoals and Norfork, here in the Mountain Home area. It is older than Bassmaster and the first Beaver Lake event. Paul Lingle, Bill Rose, Jerry Brown, Jimmy Nolan, Bud Erhardt and a few more started that event here. As with anything many want to take credit, though these men were a core.

Over time nationally there have been Bass Casters Assoc. (BCA), Project Sports (PSI), Western Bass, US Bass, World Bass, Lady Bass, Bass’n’gal, Match Bass Fishing and many other organizations shooting for national press or exposure. There will one day be more to come at the Pro Level!

Bass Cat was the first sponsor of Major League Fishing (MLF) since Jim Wilburn contacted me personally with a story on what they were trying to do. His comment was we need someone to come in and sponsor it so that others will join. To quote Jim to the letter “I’m having trouble getting people to come in and Boyd and Gary said to call you”. From the first conversation I told Jim we want to be a part of it, we weren’t sure at that time what it would look like, though we were in for some portion of whatever it did. We helped bring what Roger Werner wanted to fruition and he was in full support since a midnight phone call. At that time he was CEO of the Outdoor Channel, and we had no other sponsors. Eventually we helped bring in Mercury Marine and others would soon follow.

From that first moment on Jim Wilburn and I have been friends. He has continued to respect Bass Cat at every junction of Major League Fishing. His statement is we are in as long as we want to be a part of it and “you were my first sale”. Never have we questioned his consideration of Bass Cat, and we knew then it would eventually change our sponsorship as it grew. We also still have years remaining on our contract agreement. For those wondering where we fit on the new BPT (Bass Pro Tour) we remain in MLF for some time to come. The MLF logo will remain on the consoles of our product for now and into the future.

In time the BPT details and structure of MLF will become public. While we know many details, we are not able to share that unreleased information. Just like to sites for a Cup event are private, so are those details. The Cup events, Championship and more will all be discussed in time.

Bassmaster is making rational decisions, and while the “Western Swing” got trashed, it was trashing the anglers. Bass Cat has made a serious commitment to those Western anglers with our sponsorship of the US Open, California Open and Arizona Open, through WON Bass. The western anglers are quite unique and the market not expansive like that of the core bass fishing market. Reality is hard here, though while we are definitely focused on growing the Dakota’s, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, and down through Colorado to New Mexico, we know the opportunity is sprawled across that region in hot spots. West  of San Antonio and Wichita the bass fishing market drastically shrinks. Had Bassmaster continued that western swing, we had a plan to help grow a segment. In another time we hope to do just that. For now we are sponsoring the US Open, the #3 premier angling event in the country, likely to soon be the #4 with MLF having an event. Bass Cat has made a serious commitment to the west coast and we are remaining with that.

The selected 80 anglers are a key to MLF succeeding and the hype this week was to bump the tempo, as it did. This was a big industry week with the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. It was a big week for commitments from anglers to select a tour to align themselves with. No doubt some did surprise us on both counts. Many of our anglers seemed to be viewing MLF, some of those made a decision to stay with Bassmaster. We were surprised by their decisions, though it is what is best for their families that matters. Now Bassmaster is closer to their list of committed anglers and much of the older guard is moving to MLF. For now Zack Birge and Adrian Avena are our MLF Anglers and we have been solidly in support of Zack being a part of MLF. This goes back to his selection as a competitor in the MLF Select events. Adrian was originally a used boat Bass Cat owner and he first visited us in MH when he was too young to rent a car at the airport. Now he’s a part of our Tour staff.

MLF will bring new popularity to our sport and young anglers will desire to compete there. They will be left with those events of FLW and Bassmaster as MLF has no feeder series. MLF left room in our sport to grow, as most can not enter a Bassmaster Open or an FLW Costa event. They are filled up and the masses are left to waddle in local events and series, as they have nothing mid level on that tier with an opening. The expanding of the market will definitely help that growth and we will grow.

The vacating of Bassmaster by some key anglers will leave a great opportunity for those remaining. The older anglers eventually were going to exit Bassmaster and age out, now they have moved mostly to MLF and they will gracefully end their careers there. Shaw, Boyd, Gary, Mark, Tommy, Mike, John, Kevin and others will have to compete well, and if they don’t they will drift out of MLF. Those staying in Bassmaster will be focused on remaining active and there will be a void for those new young anglers to jump into Bassmaster. There will be many join a John Crews, Brandon Card or Brandon Palaniuk and strive to compete in the Bassmaster Classic.

FLW  is the same as it was with little impact. They have their BFL feeder, the Mid level and the Tour events. They have roughly 40,000 to 50,000 members. They have the stand alone of the College and TBF (Federation) which will keep them a core angler organization and one that will be unaffected by the on-goings of professional angling. FLW is almost a total stand alone.

Bassmaster will continue to have a wonderful Bassmaster Classic in Knoxville. Sadly it will be the last Classic for many of these men as they have qualified for what will likely be their last Bassmaster Classic. Gary KIein has been a staple since we were young and has competed in I believe 25 Classic events. Kevin, Gary and others will logistically be unable to complete both tours and their selections are being made. After the Classic, they still will have 510,000 plus members and a television following that aligns itself with an online presence over a million viewers and strong social media. Bassmaster isn’t going anywhere and this is just change. We look for the BASS membership to grow. They plan to focus and improve Life Members and the Federation Nation they should see more support from Bassmaster. They are trying hard to morph and this change was in place before the MLF statements were public. They were making changes months ago and were waiting on the 2018 season to end, only to begin and work on 2019.

So where do we sit, we sit in favor of all. With our sponsorship in MLF we are involved, with Bassmaster we continue a strong relationship going back to when Helen Sevier ran the operation and Ray Scott was the first ownership. Ray gave us all a dream! The sport is growing with college and high school anglers being a big part of it. We have Collegiate anglers employed at Bass Cat now who have their degrees and went Pro at “something other than sports”. And we are glad to have them all!

Recently an industry respected person made a statement that the sport isn’t growing, and he is wrong!  The sport is growing and the market in general is growing and there is now more opportunity for all. Sure boat sales are not ramping up large, though the market is creeping back from the low point of 2009-2010. Youth are entering our sport and we hope it continues.

How do I view this? I view this as opportunity… Opportunity for young anglers, older seasoned veterans and those presently desiring to enter the sport. No doubt some see it as end of an era, I see it as a new horizon with a window opened and sunshine for all.

Thanks,

Rick

Rick Pierce
Bass Cat & Yar-Craft Boats l