Edwin Evers is really a powerhouse. Like many other fishing fans around the world, I watched last weekend as Evers became the first two-time champion in the history of Major League Fishing. He did so in his typical athletic style, and we again were granted a few quick peeks into Evers’ incredibly ferocious competitive nature. This is not a guy I would want to play racquetball against.

Each week throughout the MLF television schedule, competitors offered loads of praise for the league itself. These days, it’s almost a guarantee that each pro interviewed will express a viewpoint noting MLF as the highpoint of their competitive season. Denny Brauer was the first to do so in season 1, and Evers was no different, noting that no other tournament is so intense.

Another detail he mentioned caught my attention. Sure, the ticking clock makes any competition fierce, but it was the impact of the Scoretracker that Evers specifically pointed out.

This brought to mind another competitive tidbit I read here on BassFan recently that likely slipped under the radar of many fans. After winning the Elite event on Guntersville, Skeet Reese revealed that, during the final hours of the final day, he “pulled up BASSTrakk on his phone to try to determine where he stood.”

I was surprised to learn this tactic was legal. I reviewed the rules of both the FLW and B.A.S.S. pro tours, and found that, while FLW still holds on to strict rules against cell phone usage during competition, B.A.S.S. has been allowing anglers to track their progress on the BASSTrakk system for a couple years now.

While it’s certainly no big news to competitors and those on the inside of the Elite Series, I think it’s relatively unknown to many of the circuit’s fans.

Immediately, this posed a couple of questions in my mind: Was this ruling due to MLF influence? And, regardless, how will it affect competition?

For starters, I’m not sure of the original idea behind the decision. I remember hearing some grumblings of resistance not long ago; fear that real-time information of any kind could influence competition if competitors were allowed to even glance at their phones.

In any case, such allowance will undoubtedly influence events. Imagine – a competitor in the lead feels his victory slipping by. Seconds before making a huge run through harrowing seas to unknown waters, he checks BASSTrakk and finds out his lead is surprisingly safe. Staying close to home, he scratches out a few keepers to win, as disastrous winds pummel other competitors in the hunt.

The examples are endless.

Is this a trend we’ll see expand in the future? Perhaps.

As we often do here in the pages of Bass War, let’s look to other one-man professional sports for examples.

Want to know how many chips the leader holds in a poker tournament? Ask him; rules state chip counts are legal at any time.

Pit crews inform pro race-car drivers of their distance behind the leader down to the millisecond. Athletes playing tennis or bowling know when they’re behind, and trap shooters know how many clays they need to break for a win. Yet, in pro fishing, everything remains a mystery.

Obviously, the reasoning behind such a ruling is to increase suspense and excitement at the weigh-in. But we’re seeing a growing trend against that facet of pro fishing as well.

Tournament organizations are finding that fans like to track their favorite's progress throughout the day, and there’s really no feasible way to keep those pros completely in the dark through the entire tournament process. Inevitably, even if while waiting in the bump tubs prior to climbing the stage, information is going to leak to the competitors.

So let it.

What we’re presented with, then, is a sport that’s easier to follow as it progresses. This has been the No. 1, major hurdle since the beginning of pro bass tournaments: fans can’t follow the action like they can in other sports. While I don’t feel BASSTrakk, Scoretracker or any other process is the complete answer, when combined with real-time video footage, tweets, posts or a combination of everything else, it may be a start.

I know we’re getting off course here, but imagine this: You log on to a website to check the progress of an ongoing event. A lake map shows each and every pro’s location in real time. You locate a favorite and click on him, which takes you to his on-board camera. There, you watch him work his magic, as a scoreboard keeps track of estimated weights.

Far off? Not likely. When I take my dog to the local kennel, I can watch him play with the other dogs live online. (He, too, has no way of knowing the score, but it sure looks like he’s winning …)

I have one final example that epitomizes suspense created by the real-time scoring process: In the 1950 U.S. Open golf tournament, Ben Hogan hit arguably the most famous shot of all time, impossibly reaching the 18th green in two with a 1-iron. It was do-or-die for Hogan in order to force a playoff.

Hogan knew this, because he checked the leaderboard. Sixty-five years later, maybe bass fishing is taking note.

(Joe Balog is the often outspoken owner of Millennium Promotions, Inc., an agency operating in the fishing and hunting industries. A former Bassmaster Open and EverStart Championship winner, he's best known for his big-water innovations and hardcore fishing style. He's a popular seminar speaker, product designer and author, and is considered one of the most influential smallmouth fishermen of modern times.)