Over the last few decades, the tournament bass fishing industry has grown from the occasional small weekly night tournament that only a few people knew of, to nationally televised events with hundreds of competitors and millions of
interested patrons. Some of the biggest and most numerous competitive fishing organizations in the world target largemouth and smallmouth bass speices.
Organizations like FLW and Bassmasters dominate the industry with thousands of anglers that compete on many different levels and lakes throughout the country. Similar to other forms of “outdoor sports”, the sport of bass fishing has combined the anglers desire to catch fish with the natural craving to compete at the same
time. Large, privately owned organizations like FLW and Bassmasters have developed this sport to allow anglers on many different talent levels to compete throughout the year and in many cases, even make a career out of the sport. The bass fishing industry is similar to other sports in that there are countless
rules and regulations that contribute to the making of a fair competition, but different in that anglers can compete at a high level regardless of their age or gender.
Throughout the development of the sport, it has become evident that not everyone can fish competitively on any given lake. Therefore different “tournament tails” and“tournament seasons” have been created
to allow anglers to either fish on lakes, throughout the country, within their respective states, or just on individual lakes within their community.This has given anglers, that aren’t able to dedicate as much time or money to the sport, the ability to choose which tournaments they compete in based on which lake is
hosting the event, which allows them to be more successful by only fishing on familiar waters. On the other hand, successful anglers who consider fishing bass tournaments as a career usually have important corporate sponsors that provide them with the expensive tackle, boats, rods/reels, and many other necessities. This allows them to dedicate their time to focus on fishing and gives the angler the platform to showcase their fishing abilities as well as their sponsor’s products on a national stage.
Opportunities to compete in bass fishing tournaments have increased over the last few years with the addition of high school and college level tournaments. These competitions were designed by
organizations to propagate and insure the longevity of the sport by allowing students to compete and represent their schools on a national stage. To make these tournaments a success, the costly entry fees are waived, a boat tocompete from is sometimes provided, and a “travel allowance” is given to the anglers to help cover additional expenses. These opportunities are made possible by enormous corporate sponsors who also understand the importance of continuing this sport. There have been several student anglers from TAMUK and TAMUCC, such as myself, that have taken advantage of these opportunities by participating in
FLW College Fishing events over the four year history of the tournament series. From my own experience, I can say that these tournaments have been a huge success not only in refining the competitors angling skills, but in educating the public of fishing opportunites and important conservation issues.
Even though we are located in deep South Texas, there are opportunities to observe and participate on each of the aforementioned types of tournaments. FLW and Bassmasters tournament trails come
to area lakes such as Amistad (Del Rio, TX), Falcon (Zapata, TX), and Choke Canyon (Three Rivers, TX).
If you are interested in participating in an event or find to out more about bass fishing tournaments in your area, you can visit www.flwoutdoors.com or www.bassmaster.com.