Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408080022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They were the boat-bound spectators of the BASS Masters Classic, armed with cameras, binoculars and spotting scopes to watch the 40 professionals duel for angling's top prize.
``We're trying to figure out why they're pros and we're not,'' said Gary Bush, who hauled his bass boat from Easley, S.C.
The pros were flattered and frustrated by the attention.
Charlie Reed estimated 1,000 spectator boats were on the lake. Maybe it just seemed that way, but Claude ``Fish'' Fishburne said he counted 64 boats following David Fritts the first day of the tournament.
While the Fritts flotilla, for the most part, was as courteous and doting as Arnie's Army is on the golf course, the crowd was disconcerting. When Fritts fired up his boat, so did the spectators. When he shoved the throttle forward and sped up the lake, the spectators gave chase. When he stopped to fish a boat dock, so did the spectators.
No other sport gives fans this kind of freedom. You never will see a bunch of good old boys revving up their Fords and Chevys and following Dale Earnhardt around the track, for example.
``You have every right to watch,'' Ray Scott, founder of B.A.S.S., told the spectators. ``But give the fishermen room. Get yourself a pair of binoculars from Wal-Mart, or somewhere, and watch from 150 yards.''
Herein lies the dilemma as B.A.S.S. begins another tournament season Aug. 25 and heads back for a second Classic at High Rock and Greensboro, N.C., early next August. The organization really has no way to control crowds on the lakes. The tournaments are conducted on public water.
Bass fishing isn't exactly a sport fashioned for spectators. But as interest in it has swelled, its fans have tried to make it that. They want more than a seat at the weigh-in. They want to watch the fishing up close and personal.
So the quarter-century old sport is faced with growing pains from people who want to follow their favorite fishing stars on the water. That kind of attention can impact the performance of a pro whose fish might be put down by a boat wake, or who must idle through an armada of boats before heading full-throttle to the next hole, or who may return to a productive spot and find somebody fishing it. In addition, it can be just plain dangerous to have bevies of boats buzzing around a lake.
B.A.S.S. has chosen the ``kill them with kindness'' approach in an effort to defuse the negative impact.
``I want to thank all of you for letting us borrow your lake,'' said Larry Nixon, one of a couple of dozen pros who praised the spectators for staying out of the way. Some pros used the weigh-in microphone to relate how boats bearing non-tournament fishermen would back off the shoreline and yield to tournament fishermen.
Privately, though, the pros were less flattering. Several, including Virginia's Woo Daves, felt that the crowds impacted their performance. Daves said spectators would watch him fish, and when he moved off of a spot they would move in with their lures and would be there when he returned to fish the structure a second time.
``I think the guys just don't understand,'' he said.
Some may understand all too well. Four-time Classic winner Rick Clunn believes there is a disturbing trend by a handful of spectators who are on the water to plunder the chances of one pro and favor another.
That doesn't speak well for the future of the Classic.
by CNB