Quest Pro Challenge Ready For Takeoff

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Tim Harmon was a big fan of the Megabucks tournaments B.A.S.S. used to put on. He’s also an avid viewer of Major League Fishing on the Outdoor Channel and he enjoyed the festival atmosphere of the Toyota Texas Bass Classic. All of them had or have features and formats that made them stand out from the typical weigh-your-best-five-fish tournaments.

In an effort to give bass tournament anglers another competitive outlet, Harmon’s hoping to blend the best features of the three aforementioned events into a new endeavor he’s spearheading called the Quest Pro Challenge.

The Quest Pro Challenge is the brainchild of Harmon, a Lexington, S.C., resident who owns Tree Shaker Tackle, and Brad Burdette, who serves as the U.S. distributor for Cinnetic Reels. The initial Quest Pro Challenge is a two-part tournament that gets under way this Sunday with a Solo Qualifier at Lake Murray in South Carolina.

The event will culminate next weekend with a two-day shootout pitting the top two finishers from the Solo Qualifier against competitors from the Elite Series, FLW Tour, Bassmaster Opens and FLW Series. A family-focused festival and country music concert in Lexington will compliment the tournament.

The Solo Qualifier will be a traditional format with a $100 entry fee involving amateur anglers – event rules prohibit any participants who’ve competed in a tournament with an entry fee of $2,000 or more since January – in a single-day event at Lake Murray. The top two finishers will earn a free entry into the Pro Challenge portion the following weekend when they’ll compete against a field of 28 pros, including former Forrest Wood Cup winner Anthony Gagliardi and former FLW Tour Angler of the Year Bryan Thrift.

The fishing portion of the Pro Challenge will feature pre-determined hole courses on certain sections of the lake – it’ll be different each day – much like the old Megabucks events. Each day also will feature timed periods and in-boat marshals will assist in weighing fish and recording catches, a practice made popular by MLF. The 30-boat field will be reduced to the top 10 after day 1.

Harmon’s dad was a tournament angler and Tim began fishing with him when he was 9 years old and continued through high school. After his father passed away, he competed in BFLs and Weekend Series tournaments.

“My life went in a different direction (after that),” he said. “I started a career and had a family. I love it and have been a fan since I could walk. I started tinkering with baits and people started buying them. That’s when I started Tree Shaker.”

Eventually, he crossed paths with Burdette and the two hit it off as small business owners in the fishing industry.

“We have the same mindset for the industry,” Harmon said. “To be able to do anything in this business, you have to work together. It’s no different what anglers and organizations need to do. We have to help each other out from start to finish.”

They’re optimistic about how the Quest Pro Challenge will be received, as it’s vastly different from other tournament options.

“There’s a lot of sweat equity in it for me and Tree Shaker and Brad with Cinnetic,” Harmon said. “The whole tournament fishing scene has meant a lot to me since I was a kid. Life took me in another direction, but I want to be able to do something that can help it and make it go in the right direction. Before long, there won’t be any money out there for anybody and soon, it’ll be a 50-man field.”

BassFan recently conducted an interview with Harmon to learn more about the genesis of the idea behind the Quest Pro Challenge and where he and Burdette hope it can go.

BassFan: What is the origin of the idea behind the Quest Pro Challenge event?
Tim Harmon: We were trying to put together a format that was unique, but one people could understand and would be drawn to. I remember watching a video with George Cochran and Larry Nixon and they were talking about the Megabucks events. They were asked if they liked those tournaments. They said they loved them, but they thought they moved between spots too quickly. Hearing that, it clicked in my head. They had 10 holes to move between in eight hours. I thought about instead of 10 holes, what about five holes and let them fish each one for longer and put two guys in the same hole together to create that match fishing or hand-to-hand combat feel? Then, I was watching MLF one night and thought it’d be kind of cool to have a smaller version for the Costa or Open guy who doesn’t have $24,000 or $30,000 to buy their way in. I texted Brad and told him I had an idea and I asked how can we make this work? Brad thought it was a cool idea. The next week, we sat down and started hashing it out.

BF: How is business model for this venture different from other trails?
TH:It’s not like I’m making anglers bring sponsors on board. To me, that’s where the industry has gone. Basically have to finish in the top 5 to get any kind of coverage for your sponsors. Sponsors have skewed numbers of what they’re going to get. They can spend $60,000 for two years and not have a true feel for what they got as far as exposure. I think FLW had a great idea to start, but they were so strict and rigid and the outside sponsors were left out. That’s what you’re getting now with B.A.S.S. It’s why ours is built completely different. We’re not telling anybody they can’t show this patch or that patch because of who they’re sponsored by.

BF: What sort of media exposure will the event receive?
TH: Having the hole course will make it easier. It keeps me from having to have camera boats to cover the lake end to end. We’re planning to get 100 to 200 pictures of each angler each day. If we have five camera boats, we can get as much content as we can. We’ll have videos and photos and they all will be handed over to the anglers when we’re done. They can do whatever they want with them. I know it’s hard sometimes for them to get pictures to use on their own. We’ll build montages of each guy’s catches for the day.

BF: How do you envision the Quest Pro model growing in the future?
TH: I want to be able to do one around ICAST next year, but the problem is you have four major trails between the Elite Series, FLW Tour, Opens and Costas. My goal is to have 30 (pros) in each region and build off of that. I want to do three or four next year, but it’s going to take time. It’s hard to explain to an angler why I’m doing it through a PDF through e-mail. Once I get them on the phone it takes about 10 minutes to explain what the issue is with the current situation. I want it to be regional where a guy doesn’t have to commit a whole week. He maybe stays for 2 or 3 days with two days for fishing and the final day to fish with first responders and then the concert to cap it off. There’s nothing else out there that’s able to do that right now. The TTBC was it, but now that’s not there next year.

BF: What has response from anglers been like so far?
TH: It’s been great. Where I was just thinking about this last November and presenting it to iHeart Radio until now, it’s amazing. I thought I could get 25 (pro) anglers. I don’t want 40 or 50. The goal was 25 to 28. After the first month, guys heard about it and wanted to fish it, but they had conflicts in their schedule. The potential to have 30 in each region is there. We just have to get the dates right.

BF: This isn’t a stand-alone fishing tournament. There’s a family-oriented festival and a country music concert, too. It appears the local community has gotten behind this event?
TH: It wasn’t a hard sell. The baseball stadium is about 18 month old and the guy who runs the team has been telling iHeart Radio that he wanted to have concerted. When iHeart told him this was coming, he was on board immediately. The first responders event has turned a lot of heads for Sunday. About 20 (pros) will stay around for that portion. I’ve also had guys say they couldn’t make it Friday or Saturday, but wanted to come help out Sunday.

To learn more about the event, visit http://www.questprochallenge.com/.