USA Bass Tournaments and Fantasy Fishing

[chris williams]

There is an interesting article on p. 33 of the current 'Time' mag, 16 Feb.

It talks about the bass tournaments and there are some interesting stats, some of which I mention below:

The winner of the actual championship fishing tournie - takes home USD1 million

There are 155 professional bass pros on the circuit.

So far, so good. The Fantasy fishers have to predict the top 10 out of the 155 guys in each of the six tournaments. The winner of each of these gets USD100,000. The overall winner gets USD1 million. There are in total USD10 million of prizes purely for the Fantasy fishers, 50% of whom have never even been fishing.

For an additional USD10, a Fantasy player can get a report of the lake fishing conditions.

Apparently a woman who didn't even know there was a bass tournament guessed some numbers for her hubbie and won USD 100,000.

What about we do this on the Vaal with units of 50 cents?

[Herman Jooste]

What about we do this on the Vaal with units of 50 cents?

I have yet to see anyone use 80lb braid as leader and tippet on the Vaal, except the Bass Boys.
Maybe I should try it, would definately have no more break off's. Don't know if I would be able to lure any fish to my fly with that "rope" hanging off it though.
Maybe if the braid was rocksnot green it might work in early summer.

The biggest problem would be that there would need to be a marshall with every competitor to verify the catch, as in that type of a comp there is not enough time for the player to wade to a marshall after hooking a fish. It is after all moola that we are talking about and not Protea brownie points.

[jock0]

Chris there's huge money in Bass Fishing in the states, and nearly as much in walleye and offshore fishing.

Nothing wrong with using 80lb leader either... The diameter of 80lb berkley whiplash is 0.42mm and the diameter of maxima ultra green 5.5kg is 0.32mm. Not too much difference

[GrahamS]

Chris there's huge money in Bass Fishing in the states, and nearly as much in walleye and offshore fishing.

True that. I met a chap who was invited to fish a tournament in the US, with his fishing partner. They finished in third place, and won $200K cash, and a $120k boat, trailer, and SUV setup. Not bad for a weeks work!

They now fly back each year for the same tournament.

[chris williams]

I was just interested and wasn't making any value judgment, I think it's far healthier for people to take an interest in real, not 'fantasy', fishing. It is incredible the money and enthusiasm that gets put into this. As you say Jocko, not just for the bass but also the redfish and other fresh/salt species

I was only joking when I suggested we try this on the Vaal. How many Arks could the winner buy for USD 1,000,000? I see the local bass boys are pretty adept at our comps and I quite enjoy watching them on TV. They seem to often be a bit less showman-like than some of the USA dudes.