The Bait Monkey is going to hate me, and I hope I don't get kicked off the forum, but I am a selfish person, who will argue we don't need to grow the sport.
If bass fishing becomes less popular, there will be more bass for me to catch. Tackle companies will not grow, and develop new lures that catch bass, they may even go under because they can't sell the lure's they already produce. Of course this is bad for the economy, but I already told you I was a selfish bass angler. If there are fewer people fishing for bass, but there are more less pressured bass, my old lures will continue to work just fine.
Fishing license revenue will go down, limiting the money available for sound fisheries management. This of course should be a concern but if there are fewer people fishing, there is less need for management, offsetting the effects of depleted funds for fisheries departments.
I live in Mexico where there is zero management, and few anglers. There are two reasons fishing is great here. One is the climate is perfect for largemouth bass. The other reason is there are very few anglers. Commercial fisherman catch most of the bass in gill nets, and the ones that live may learn to ovoid nets, but are dump as rocks when it comes to lures. I am certain in a couple lakes I fish, that many bass die of old age without ever encountering a lure. That is why an old school inexpensive Pop-R can catch as many big bass an expensive Magabass bait.
If many Mexican bass lakes had 1/100th. the sport angler pressure that most big bass lakes in the US have, the average anger wouldn't be able to catch a single bass, let alone a quality five pound bag. I would need FF sonar, and $25 lures just to catch a dink. If Mexico promoted sport fishing for bass more and increased the numbers of fisherman, they would be forced to manage the bass fishing lakes for sport fishing over the commercial fishing interests. If they didn't, the bass population would switch from very few but big and stupid to very few big and smart bass. It wouldn't be long before an average angler such as my selfish self would be forced to look for bass in other places. The more bass anglers, the more need to manage the resource, the smarter the bass, and the more money it will take to catch the bass and the more dollars required to manage the resource. This is why even though I know it is a national past time to complain about fisheries management in the US, and many mistakes are made, all and all most departments should be commended for the work they do considering the challenge of not only managing the populations of sport fish, but to be able to do so with unbelievable pressure from many competing interests and balance all that with a limited budget, I even comp.ain about the lack of management on my favorite bass lake here, then I have to remind myself that it really can't get much better, and the best thing I can do is the hardest thing for me to do, which is keep my mouth shut.
I understand why people want to grow the sport. I love bass fishing. I want to share that passion for bass fishing with my family, friends, and community. I want more bass in more lakes, and more of an opportunity to enjoy the bass with a large fishing community. It is only natural for someone to want to grow any sport they are part of. People like to do what is popular and be part of a growing community. That is why every town, state, country, and family considers growth a good thing.
Being the selfish person that I am, I couldn't care less about growth. I have lived in remote locations much of my life, and was fine with zero growth, I even secretly wished people would leave. When wishing for the growth of bass fishing, remember you may get what you wished for, but it may not be what you want.
Please don't take this reply in a bad way. I don't want the bass police nocking at my door at 3:00 AM. I do support the bass fishing industry, and have given the Bait Monkey a home well past the limit of my wife's patience. I release my bass, I dream of having a large boat with top of the line electronics, enough tackle to stock a Bass Pro shops store, and win a major bass tournament. I give old rods and tackle to kids, teach people how to fish, and encourage every one I know to give bass fishing a try.
Deep down I do have to wonder if my selfish side isn't right. If bass fishing declined, the popularity went to almost zero, and fishing license sales went so low they quit even selling them. I could probably catch as many or more bass on poor tackle, have complete solitude while fishing, become rich investing the money I save, all while enjoying the sport as much as I do now.
Just a thought. Happy New Year.