Fifty years after the birth of professional fishing and we’re still talking about practice.
The fans, the pundits and many of the anglers themselves have debated what constitutes the “purest” form of fishing. Is it an off-limits period, followed by three days of practice, followed immediately by competition? Or is it showing up blind and building from scratch on tournament day?
B.A.S.S., through no advance planning of their own, may have stumbled onto the ultimate compromise, two great tastes that taste great together, like chocolate and peanut butter. They had three (or depending on how tornado-adverse you are, possibly two) days of practice, followed by two off days, followed by four days of competition on the same venue, albeit one that looked altogether different. Find the fish, then relocate them.
It’s a premise they test drove at Escanaba a few years back when the AOY field got to Netflix and chill in Northern Michigan for more time than they anticipated. In that event, however, at least the lake remained more or less the same. This week at Pickwick, many of the competitors are fishing areas that were dry when they launched their boats earlier in the week.
While one tournament is not truly determinative of much, this shapes up as a meaningful test of the best. We’ll know more on the odd-sounding Championship Tuesday about how those who prevailed managed to adjust. Of course, even if we’re all in agreement that this is a useful template, it’s not one we can easily replicate. They set the schedule months in advance, which makes predicting weather patterns pretty difficult.
