Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990 TAG: 9007010160
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The pros say they want a bigger piece of what they see as a lucrative B.A.S.S. pie.
Unhappiness over the size of the Classic purse is deep and widespread, said Tommy Martin, one of five pros who met approximately a week ago with Helen Sevier, chief executive officer of the Montgomery, Ala.-based organization.
The other pros were Hank Parker, winner of the 1989 Classic; Larry Nixon, the all-time B.A.S.S. money winner; Jimmy Houston, a TV-show fisherman, and Gary Klein, runner-up for the 1990 B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year award.
Among other pros who openly have expressed discontent is Woo Daves of Chester, Virginia's best-known tournament fisherman.
"Any time you start talking about boycotts, you take it seriously," Sevier said during an interview at the Wrangler/B.A.S.S. National Championship. "There are a number of fishermen who are more upset than others. In our polling, we are finding that most are going to be at the Classic - fishermen like Roland Martin, Ricky Clunn, Guy Eakers, Woo Daves, Hank Parker.
"We will have a 1990 Classic, and it will be the best ever. That is the thing I want to emphasize more than anything else."
The 20th annual Classic is set for Aug. 23-25 on the James River at Richmond.
The bass bucks brouhaha wasn't the only problem Sevier and other B.A.S.S. officers were responding to during their stay in the Roanoke Valley this past week. Also grabbing attention from the Smith Mountain event was the organization's decision to back away from an earlier rule change that would have allowed women to compete on the all-male B.A.S.S. tournament trail.
Women will not be welcome, after all.
The male pros, and their wives, had much to do with that, B.A.S.S. officials said.
When asked: "Do you believe females should be able to participate in B.A.S.S. tournaments," 77.8 percent of the 441 pros who responded to a B.A.S.S. survey said "no," Sevier said.
This response was fortified with a petition from approximately 100 top pros and a number of wives of pros who said women shouldn't compete with men.
Not everyone agreed. Rick Clunn, three-time Classic winner, told USA Today that he was "disappointed in the men."
Clunn said the argument that there are no bathroom facilities on a bass boat is trivial and the implication that there is potential for sexual encounters is absurd.
Two top-name women fishermen, Fredda Lee and Linda England, had signed to join the B.A.S.S. tour beginning in September. Lee and England were among 132 women from 24 states fishing the Abu Garcia-Bass'n'Gal tournament Friday and Saturday on the James River in Richmond. Joy Scott of Van Buren, Ark., won with a 10-bass, 17.02-pound catch worth $20,500.
Sugar Ferris, founder of Bass'n'Gal, called for the continuation of equal but separate competition for men and women anglers.
"Sometimes we [women] wear badges at our own peril," she said. "We get so hung up on the term `discrimination' that we never consider what the real issue is. Who cares whether or not we can compete with the men?"
As for the Classic payoff - a total of $150,000 this year - the pros aren't beefing about the $50,000 first-place prize. The thing that has them rebellious is what they see as a modest purse for those well in the pack.
"We need more money," said Guy Eaker, a pro from Cherryville, N.C. "This is the Super Bowl of bass fishing and we fish for less money in this tournament than we do any of the rest of them. That is my complaint."
Eaker, one of the less militant of the pros, was a host in a children's casting contest at the LancerLot before Saturday's weigh-in of the Wrangler/B.A.S.S. National Championship.
"I am going to support B.A.S.S. every way possible," he said. "If it weren't for B.A.S.S., I would be back home working for Carolina Freight Trucking Co."
Eaker said the Classic is vitally important to his sponsors, and the only way he would join a boycott is if all the other pros decide to stay out.
"I am not going to be one of the only ones who come through the Classic if the rest of them don't," he said. "If I did that, I might as well quit fishing, because I would be looked down on the rest of my life."
If anyone drops out of the Classic, he will be replaced with the next angler in the qualifying line, Sevier said.
"It is not the most lucrative of the tournaments, but it certainly is the most prestigious," she said. "Those pros who fish it can walk away with sponsorship fees that are meaningful to them the entire year."
Sevier said B.A.S.S. is committed to raising purses - an extra $20,000 has gone into this year's Classic winnings - but she added that some pros have delusions of grandeur.
"Bass fishing, we have to face the facts, is not golf, is not tennis," she said. It has no gate proceeds or TV rights, only loyal sponsors such as Ranger, OMC (Outboard Marine Corp.) and Chevrolet trucks, she said.
Some sport fishermen, cool toward tournaments in the first place, say they have been turned off by the pros' demands for more money.
"They are changing the pursuit of happiness, which is the pursuit of fish, into the pursuit of money, which is not happiness," said James McInteer of Richmond, a past executive director of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
McInteer was so disturbed that he called newspapers in Roanoke and Richmond to voice his concerns.
"You are bringing young kids up to think that sport fishing is a competitive thing," he said. "You go out and catch a nice bunch of fish, but your day is shot because somebody else beats you.
"I have never had any wish to prevent people from tournament fishing, but that whole enterprise really turned me off when they started going on strike, with the biggest names and best fishermen not showing up because they got their nose out of joint over the amount of money they will get. That debases and perverts one of the cleanest, freshest outdoor recreations known to man."
by CNB