Tournaments will be televised and aimed at a wide audience.
By”: KELLY BOSTIAN World Outdoors Writer (www.tulsaworld.com)
Published: 8/5/2011
If it worked for professional poker, it could work for professional bass fishing.
The Outdoor Channel and a group of 24 top anglers announced Thursday they have formed Major League Fishing, an organization owned jointly by the cable television company and the anglers. The organization will be Tulsa-based with Winnercom producing the shows.
Winnercom founder and chairman Jim Wilburn is Major League Fishing general manager and Don Rucks, a former BASS general manager, is league commissioner.
The idea is to spice up bass fishing with new rules and a new format to give greater insight into what anglers go through and capture the drama to draw in more viewers, Rucks said.
“The goal is to expand the sport of bass fishing by presenting a different product that will attract a broader base of viewers for the sport,” he said.
Rucks worked for years with BASS and its former owner, ESPN, and said changes of format and drawing more viewers were subjects often discussed.
“There were many attempts,” he said. “But the product was the same. Here we have adjusted the product so it’s more appealing to a broader base of viewers.”
The idea originated with a coalition of professional anglers in 2009. Outdoor Channel, looking for fishing content to add to its lineup that now includes Bassmaster tournaments, seized upon the idea this year.
“Boyd Duckett and Gary Klein developed most of the unique parts of this game,” Rucks said. “They’ve been able to match it up with desires of Outdoor Channel.”
Fishermen involved are some of the best from the BASS and FLW tours, including several Bassmaster Classic and Angler of the Year champions like Kevin VanDam, Skeet Reese, Alton Jones and Denny Brauer. Three Oklahoma pros are involved; Edwin Evers of Talala, Tommy Biffle of Wagoner and Jeff Kriet of Ardmore.
“I think it’s something we’ve been needing,” Biffle said. “Hopefully it will make fishing a lot more exciting.” A part of the format he finds most appealing is that fishing locations – aside from the first tournament set at Lake Amistad in Texas later this year – will be secret. There will be no practice days and anglers will not be allowed to use GPS with pre-marked fishing locations. “I really like that part of it,” he said.
Evers said all anglers will have a judge on their boat. They will weigh each of their fish as they are caught and enforce any rules infractions. Anglers also will have a live leaderboard on their boats to show where everyone stands. “It will give you the knowledge to make adjustments,” he said. “I think it’s great to know the score … some guys it won’t, it will make them melt.”
Evers said he’s excited by the show. “It’s just got huge potential,” he said. “It has that wow factor. It sounds neat and it could be a really big deal. People will see more of what we go through in competition.”
Rucks emphasized the league is not out to compete with BASS and FLW tournaments. “People will ask that,” he said. “I don’t see it as a conflict with BASS or FLW. Those organizations provide things for the everyday angler on up to being a pro that we have no intention of providing. Hopefully it will benefit everyone.” Anglers in Major League Fishing will continue to compete in BASS, FLW and other tournaments.
League tournaments also will not have public weigh-ins. Everything will be done for television. The Amistad tournament will be a weeklong event that will be broken down into seven episodes to air in the second quarter of 2012 on the Outdoor Channel, Rucks said.
Anglers wanting to watch the tournaments earlier will be offered a pay-per-view option through the league’s web site. Look for it at www.tulsaworld.com/majorleaguefishing
Calling all anglers
Major League Fishing Commissioner Don Rucks is looking for Tulsa-area anglers interested in serving as competition judges. They will need to be knowledgeable about fishing and able to travel for the tournaments, which will have them gone for a week at a time. “We want to keep it as Tulsa-based as possible,” he said.
Contact Rucks at 918-281-4546.