Anglers Lament Loss Of On-Water Opportunities

It's becoming tougher and tougher to make a living as a professional bass fisherman in this difficult economic climate. A lot of individual sponsorship deals started drying up last year and haven't come back, and opportunities to win money via performance on the water are becoming fewer all the time.

The announcement earlier this week that the Eastern FLW Series will be discontinued for next year was a major blow to a lot of tour pros who were counting on those four events as chances to supplement their incomes. Many are now looking to the Professional Anglers Association (PAA) Tournament Series to fill some of that void and checking the lower-paying Triple-A (Stren and Bassmaster Open) schedules to see which tournaments provide a viable risk-reward scenario.

Right now, just about everything seems to be heavily weighted toward the risk side.

"Our perception of pro fishing is changing as we speak," said 20-year veteran Randy Blaukat. "(This economy is) basically forcing things to change and it's headed toward becoming an elitist sport, which I don't like to see at all.

"The anglers who survive, a big majority of them are going to have a safety net underneath them – either family money or some kind of independent wealth. The days of making a living by combining tournament winnings and some sponsor money are closing rapidly. We thought it was tough last year, but this is going to be much worse."

Industry-Wide Woes

The anglers understand that FLW Outdoors had to make cutbacks, just as BASS did earlier this year when it reduced the Bassmaster Elite Series schedule from 11 events to eight. With many of FLW's biggest sponsors – including Walmart, BP and Pure Fishing – having pulled out or at least dramatically scaled back their involvement, there was no way for FLW to maintain the status quo.

The pros had been on edge for weeks, waiting for FLW to announce its plans for the following year. And when the long-delayed news finally arrived, it wasn't good.

"I'm disappointed, as I imagine everybody is," said Anthony Gagliardi. "I somewhat understand why it happened, but as a pro, when you have your chances to make a living cut down, it's disheartening.

"The drop in payout on the Tour (three of the six events were formerly designated as Opens and featured higher payouts, but that won't be the case in 2010) isn't as much of a concern, even though I'd like to fish for more money. But I'm real disappointed at the Series being cut – I used to be able to fish 10 tournaments and now I'm looking at six, so that's cutting my earning potential almost in half. But it is what it is, and hopefully we can come out on the other side stronger than ever."

Tom Mann Jr., the 2009 Eastern Series Angler of the Year (AOY), said he suspected that the circuit might be dropped.

"Everybody's in survival mode right now," he said. "(FLW has) lost sponsorship, and hopefully the changes they've made going forward will help the whole thing to survive. I know FLW never tries to go backward – they try to move forward, and this was a way they saw that they could do that.

"One thing I am disappointed in is that the sponsor contingency programs (for the FLW Tour) haven't been announced. Those were a good deal and they got the payouts up where they should be."

BASS Guys Affected, Too

The impact of the cancellation of the Eastern Series will be felt not only by FLW pros, but Bassmaster Elite Series competitors as well. More than a dozen from the BASS side competed on the circuit this year and participation would undoubtedly have been higher had there not been a direct schedule conflict between two events.

Greg Hackney gained his 2009 Forrest Wood Cup berth via the 2008 Series, and then won that event in Pittsburgh less than 2 months ago.

"It really surprises me that they kept the Western Series over the Eastern because of the higher participation in the Eastern, but that's where the National Guard (the title sponsor of the Western Series) needs the recruitment, so I understand that part," he said. "I think the Eastern Series would've had a bigger following this coming year, though – I'd talked to probably 20 or 25 BASS guys who'd planned to fish it.

"I can still fish for a living – if I really get after it, I could fish 20 or 25 events (including PAA and Triple-A tournaments). Things could be better, but they could be a lot worse, too."

It will be possible to fish both major tours next year if an Elite Series angler can wrangle a spot on the FLW Tour, as there are no directly conflicting events. There is one scheduling issue for many of the Elite stalwarts, though: The FLW opener at the Red River in Louisiana clashes with the official practice period for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic at Alabama's Lay Lake.

"I'm going to sign up for the (FLW) Tour, but I don't expect to get in even though I own three Ranger boats," said Steve Kennedy. "As of right now, I plan to fish BASS and the PAA, and maybe a few of the Opens and Strens in the fall.

"It's looking like it could be a light year, but I guess that's to be expected."

Did West Come out Best?

Western pros may have been the least-hindered by FLW's restructuring. The Western Strens are gone, but the Western Series remains, albeit with payouts (but also entry fees) that've been roughly halved.

The four Western Series events this year averaged only 94 boats (less than half the maximum), but that number should go up in 2010. Regulars this year included FLW Tour pros Jay Yelas, Brent Ehrler, Clifford Pirch, Brett Hite, Gabe Bolivar and Ken Wick, while Elite Series anglers Ish Monroe, Mark Tyler, Fred Roumbanis and Jared Lintner fished a partial schedule.

"It's a good thing to have that circuit, no question," said Ehrler, the 2006 Forrest Wood Cup champion from California who's become an annual contender for the FLW Tour AOY. "It's great that the National Guard is supporting us again even though we didn't show them much support this season.

"There've been a few scheduling conflicts in the past, like a Stren up north followed by a Series event down south, and guys couldn't take 2 1/2 weeks off in the same month to fish both. Without the Stren cloud, I think the numbers will be better. I'd like to encourage all the Western guys to come out and fish. If we don't, we're not going to have anything else out here to fish."

Opportunity for the PAA?

Can the PAA Tournament Series, with a resumé consisting of just a single season, step up and fill a big portion of the hole left by the absence of the Eastern Series? Many pros hope so.

The PAA hasn't released its 2010 schedule, but president John Crews told BassFan last week that it would be summer- and fall-oriented to give tour pros a longer season. And this week, VP Sean Hoernke divulged that a meeting will take place in December to try to hash out other possibilities in the wake of the Eastern Series' demise.

"We might have to increase the entry fees to that $3,000 mid-range to get some better payouts and give guys more opportunities to make a living," he said. "Over the past 12 months both BASS and FLW have lost events, and the feedback from some of our guys has been that they want a higher-stakes game with some bigger payouts."

Said Dave Lefebre, winner of this year's Toyota Texas Bass Classic (the PAA championship event): "I'm losing almost half my tournaments, so what I'm hoping is the PAA can look at this and say, 'Since our plan hasn't been introduced yet, we'll make adjustments to have this be a viable alternative.' It needs to be that now. There are enough tournaments like the Opens, Strens and BFLs for everyone to fish. But there are a lot of guys who want to fish more big-dollar tournaments. So more than ever, we need the PAA to recognize that."

What Does the Future Hold?

Blaukat has experienced all of the changes pro fishing has undergone over the past two decades. He said that while anglers are being forced to think in the short term in order to weather this downturn, the sport's long-term issues must be addressed – and soon.

"In my opinion, the whole paradigm has got to shift," he said. "If we don't address the sustainability factor, the way things are right now, it's unsustainable in both the short and long term. We've got to focus in a different direction and the most creative people in these organizations, from the manufacturing level to the tournament level, have to pull their heads out of the sand and start making changes that will lead to sustainability.

"The main thing is affordability – we have to make this sport more affordable to more people and self-sustaining at the same time, and right now it's neither. We have to keep it open to 18- to 20-year-olds who are just starting out with no money. Right now the only young guns in the sport are the ones who have wealthy parents.

"For the others, not only is it impossible for them to participate, but there's no way they can gain the experience they're going to need."