One Reason I Love the New B.A.S.S.

I love B.A.S.S. Always have, ever since I stumbled across an issue of Bassmaster and found a whole group of people who liked to catch bass as much as I did – I being a kid in New Jersey.

Bear in mind there was no Internet or even cable TV back then, so discovering that first issue of Bassmaster was a mid-blowing experience.

Gotta admit, though, during the ESPN years it was a bit tougher to love Ray Scott’s baby. Still good folks there at BASS (no periods), no doubt. But the stick-and-ball folks in charge just…weren’t…getting it.

You know what I mean.

Anyhow, when I heard B.A.S.S. was being bought in part by Jerry McKinnis’ group, I was stoked. Could reel off half a dozen reasons why, but I’ll just hit this one: They fish.

They fish!

If your reaction is “duh” – like, “of course people who run a fishing organization fish” – well, that’s good. You expect it because that should be true. But that wasn’t always the case…and in some organizations still isn’t, but that’s a topic for another day.

Anyhow, here’s my point – I’ll let the pics do the talking.

The first is a shot of Steve Bowman of Bassmaster.com and James Overstreet, B.A.S.S.’s freakin’ AWESOME photographer, weighing fish they caught in a recent B.A.S.S. charity tournament.

Got that? They caught ’em fishing a bassin’ derby.

This pic is of B.A.S.S. emcee Dave Mercer helping remove a hook from Byron Velvick’s hand during this week’s Douglas Lake Elite Series derby (more pics here on Bassmaster.com). I’m sure Dave didn’t hesitate for even a second. Because he’s a fisherman.

I’m not saying all fishermen would immediately know what to do in that situation. And there may be a few of us that pass out at the sight of blood. But whatever. Point is that the B.A.S.S. folks fish, and all kinds of good stuff – like Dave’s concern for a fellow fisherman – stems from that.

You know what I mean. Because you fish.