It is what it is. The economic downturn that has brought company after company to it's knees and reeks havoc on the wallets of families across the nation, does not differentiate among 'good cause' efforts from organizations like the conservation initiative driven by B.A.S.S. for years and years. Any of the national conservation directors can tell you that the gears have all but stopped at the B.A.S.S. headquarters in Celebration, FL. Recently sold into new ownership, but no new direction. Where there used to be a national conservation director, is now an empty office chair after the leading mind of conservation efforts from B.A.S.S., Chris Horton, left the job for an opportunity in Federal Government. The position has yet to be refilled and B.A.S.S. does not seem to have any intention of refilling that office anytime soon. A once a year meeting held by B.A.S.S. at the Bassmaster Classic, bringing all the states together to discuss current issues is going into it's second year of non-existence. With all this, conservation minded anglers are beginning to wonder. What is becoming of this sport? What is the future, if in fact there even is one? The last shimmer of hope lies scattered across the nation in the hearts of the individual state's conservation leaders like Scott Sewell, conservation director of Maryland's B.A.S.S. affiliate, Federation Nation. He says it's a big difference now from the way things used to be, "and I don't mean that in a good way", before B.A.S.S. and TBF split apart. It left some bad blood laced with a little negativity mixed in on anglers' minds and on the water. Anglers parted ways and clubs dissolved. Is this what is happening to the conservation program? I'll leave names out of this statement but I have heard some say that it all boils down to selfish members that only want to fish. They just assume let a select few do all the 'extra' stuff and save their time for fishing. My personal take on it is this; if a person joins for the soul intent to fish tournaments then so be it. Let them. If everybody takes that stance however, there will be no big money purses, none of the sponsorship packages you dream of, good fisheries will head south and everything will go back to square one like Ray Scott never came up with the idea. It takes extra effort to make all this happen. The grandeur of it all depends on how many give that extra effort. You get out, what you put in. There isn't a more simple equation. For too long, too many have operated on the backs of other's good givings. Time, money, ideas. People have stopped stepping up to take their turn at the grind stone. It's going to take that in opposite to bring things back to glory.
My case is what some (if they really read me correctly) might call self serving. I became the conservation director for both my club and the DBFN for the same reason T.R. created the national parks; he liked to hunt the animals that lived there. He understood that these were the heirlooms of America. Places where people could see with their own eyes the majesty of this planet. In similar comparison, I enjoy the challenge bass fishing offers so I naturally want them to always be there in the waters I like to fish. In all honesty, if B.A.S.S. left the face of the earth tomorrow, I wouldn't quit fishing or spending time with other members of my club. Sure, my goal of being a competitor in the Classic would obviously change gears but it would not make the act of fishing any less fun.
The take-home here is that people are going to have to decide what they want the future to contain for the sport of bass fishing. If they want the glitz and glamor and spotlight time that big tournaments provide, they are going to have to do more than just pay the entry fee. They are going to have to say enough is enough and move forward with the things that make it all happen and ensure the road is paved for tomorrow. B.A.S.S. has long said that ensuring the future of the sport lies through conservation and youth. In my opinion that makes all the sense in the world. The two major components of the sport are the fish and people interested in catching them. But in recent years, it seems like those folks at B.A.S.S. have taken back that train of thought. Or maybe they still do take that stance but just can't quite get the wheels rolling enough to move ahead. Is it that the turmoil that ensued in so many different ways, brought everything to a screeching halt? Crippling the sport and driving the morale of the members into the ground? I'm no business genius by any measure, but I do know that being stagnant means death. This leadership must drudge on and stop letting these hurdles incapacitate the true value that makes bass fishing what it is... the people.
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