Here comes that (fading?) man again...spoiler, KVD.

[MFBAB]

KVD is leading by 2 lbs. and culling midway through the final day (today) at BASS Cayuga lake:

http://www.bassmaster.com/basstrakk/tournaments/bassmaster-elite-cayuga-lake

 

[Gundog]

I was rooting for Hackney till I found out they disqualified his first days bag. He's a real grinder. Last year on the same lake he threw jigs on rocky humps to bring in some big bags. If Hackney ain't in it I'd like to see Gerald Swindle win this one just to hear him go nuts. That man ain't right in the head.

That tracker has Drew Benton all the way down by Ithaca. I don't know if its right but if it is that is one heck of a boat ride. He must be catching big smallies to take a chance with a run like that. 

[Master Bait'r]

G Man!

G Man!

G Man!

G Man!

[jtharris3]

Since KVD has won one this year I'm rooting for the G-Man!

[A-Jay]

Congrats to KVD ~

Major props to Jordan Lee great Tournament.

A-Jay

[MFBAB]

Done deal, KVD Held on!! 

I wish BASS and FLW would get their TV coverage together, or actually I wish they would just merge into one league.  It stinks to wait so long to watch these things on TV  

The guy who figures out a fishing format that works for Live TV should make a fortune. MLF is about the closest thing that would work, I think they film their whole season in about a week and then stretch it out for TV over several weeks, but I'd much rather watch it live, like a 4 day golf tourney or something. 

 

[jtharris3]

Congrats to KVD! Wow!

BTW, MFBAB you can watch the Elites on Bassmaster live online.

[thirtysixit]

15 minutes ago, MFBAB said:

Done deal, KVD Held on!! 

I wish BASS and FLW would get their TV coverage together, or actually I wish they would just merge into one league.  It stinks to wait so long to watch these things on TV  

The guy who figures out a fishing format that works for Live TV should make a fortune. MLF is about the closest thing that would work, I think they film their whole season in about a week and then stretch it out for TV over several weeks, but I'd much rather watch it live, like a 4 day golf tourney or something. 

 

I started watching BASS Live on bassmaster.com.  Real time fishing action with the top 12!  You should check it out.  I love it.

[A-Jay]

1 minute ago, thirtysixit said:

I started watching BASS Live on bassmaster.com.  Real time fishing action with the top 12!  You should check it out.  I love it.

Me Too & Me Too ~

A-Jay

[MFBAB]

Thx guys.  I know about the online coverage, but I'd prefer an actual "produced" TV show.  I think it's marketable, I just think it's logistically difficult to present fishing that way. I mean, there have to be more fishermen in this country than golfers, right?  And we all know that the fishing gear is already being marketed hard in every fishing TV show we've got, I just think it's got to be reformatted into something more "made for TV". 

Golf is played on an 18 hole course w cameras on every hole and the scoring is easy to follow; standard "5 Bass Limit" tourney fishing just isn't that way, unless you start tweaking the format into something along the lines of the MLF format, which as I understand was largely designed by the pros, and largely designed w TV in mind.  There was a good discussion about that on another board not long ago where actual MLF personnel were involved in the discussion, so that is not made up.  I believe that long-term, they may be working towards pretty much what  I described in the last post, something like a live 4-day event that would play out along the lines of how a PGA event is televised. 

 

50 years ago there wasn't any money in golf, but TV changed that. Bass fishing could be the same way if someone can figure out the logistics. 

[Master Bait'r]

2 hours ago, MFBAB said:

Done deal, KVD Held on!! 

I wish BASS and FLW would get their TV coverage together, or actually I wish they would just merge into one league.  It stinks to wait so long to watch these things on TV  

The guy who figures out a fishing format that works for Live TV should make a fortune. MLF is about the closest thing that would work, I think they film their whole season in about a week and then stretch it out for TV over several weeks, but I'd much rather watch it live, like a 4 day golf tourney or something. 

 

 

Why they don't use the golf format I have no idea.  There should be cameras and drones on the top ten at the very least, and any highlights should be run as part of the ongoing coverage.  

 

Pro/Elite/big events should have top level production and coverage.  

[curtis9]

Bass lI've is available now, but live bass fishing can be pretty boring.  These guys may catch 5 fish in 8 hours.  That's a lot of time to kill with nothing happening.  I don't see how live fishing will work.  Mlf they package a full day into 2 hours.  

[MFBAB]

1 hour ago, curtis9 said:

Bass lI've is available now, but live bass fishing can be pretty boring.  These guys may catch 5 fish in 8 hours.  That's a lot of time to kill with nothing happening.  I don't see how live fishing will work.  Mlf they package a full day into 2 hours.  

Right, that's what I'm saying. 

I think there needs to be some consolidation of the time no matter what. Even in golf, they only show about 2 hours on Th-Fr and then maybe a longer block of time on the w/end.  The players are playing all day, but they consolidate the coverage to a much smaller period and show highlights and live coverage of the day. 

And then the format may need a little tweaking to work for TV, smaller fields for sure. 

[Master Bait'r]

3 hours ago, curtis9 said:

Bass lI've is available now, but live bass fishing can be pretty boring.  These guys may catch 5 fish in 8 hours.  That's a lot of time to kill with nothing happening.  I don't see how live fishing will work.  Mlf they package a full day into 2 hours.  

 

Oh man, that's why you have sportscasters and a production team who know how to work an event.  Also you have about a week's worth of backstory mini-movies lined up for filler on the top 20 or so pros.  The minute somebody catches a fish- wham - cut to the most recent footage of the actual catch, then queue one of the technique vids or feelgood backstory for that guy and keep it rolling.  Even in the worst situations when nobody is catching, maybe you could key up a pro and do live interviews, explanation of the technique or baits they're using (plugs of course) etc.  There are a bajillion ways to fill with snappy content, immersive information (personal stuff makes pros more relatable) and sponsor product highlighting.  I'm actually blown away that it hasn't already been done since it's being so well executed in other sports.  

[blckshirt98]

While it would be nice there's not enough money in bass fishing to produce those filler pieces.  First place in a BASS tourney gets $100k; in other sports almost every athlete on the team makes that much each game.  They do a decent job on Bassmaster Live keeping the viewers engaged, and the live chat really helps a lot, but even then there isn't a huge audience logged into Bassmaster Live.

Also grats to KVD for winning his second event of the year.  I was one of the ones who doubted if he would win one again, and now he's done it twice this season.  Pie in my face, KVD is still the king!

[A-Jay]

2 minutes ago, Master Bait'r said:

 

Oh man, that's why you have sportscasters and a production team who know how to work an event.  Also you have about a week's worth of backstory mini-movies lined up for filler on the top 20 or so pros.  The minute somebody catches a fish- wham - cut to the most recent footage of the actual catch, then queue one of the technique vids or feelgood backstory for that guy and keep it rolling.  Even in the worst situations when nobody is catching, maybe you could key up a pro and do live interviews, explanation of the technique or baits they're using (plugs of course) etc.  There are a bajillion ways to fill with snappy content, immersive information (personal stuff makes pros more relatable) and sponsor product highlighting.  I'm actually blown away that it hasn't already been done since it's being so well executed in other sports.  

I agree ~  and something that could make what is currently being offered a bit better, may be to transition from the current "talent" who are being used to present the live format but seem more suited to the edited product, to humans who can think on their feet, offer relevant material which is presented in complete sentences & not repeat themselves constantly.  Sort of like an actual broadcast professional.    Todays lengthy Star Wars discussion & matching Bass Fishing Pros to character names seemed to be a little off target.

A-Jay

[MFBAB]

1 hour ago, blckshirt98 said:

While it would be nice there's not enough money in bass fishing to produce those filler pieces.  First place in a BASS tourney gets $100k; in other sports almost every athlete on the team makes that much each game. 

That is sort of the point of what I was saying earlier.  It was the same way in golf about 50 years ago.  The golf money got big when TV coverage evolved to the point that they could cover a tourney in an interesting way.  Prior to the Jack and Arnie era, most of the best players didn't even play pro golf, they went into business so they could make a better living and have a normal family life, and they played amateur golf.  

- TV opens the door to all of the non-endemic sponsorship contracts, then the prize money follows. 

Right now, tourney bass fishing is unmarketable to the non-endemics for a few reasons:

1 - The tourneys are all but impossible to cover in real time on a 50-100,000 acre lake with 100-200 competitors in the field.  As stated before, golf is an 18 hole course that everyone plays in the same order, keeping score and covering it is simple. 

- The format for fishing has got to be revised to make it more TV friendly, then the advertising and big $ will follow. 

2 - There are 2 major tournament trails for pros in a sport that has watered down prize money already. 

- FLW and BASS have got to merge for pro bass fishing to truly be viable.  You have got to have truly the best in the world duking it out, and they have got to have a longer season and real-time coverage. 

People on this forum are WAY above-average in terms of interest.  The average guy doesn't even know there was a BASS tourney this w/end, and by the time they happen to see it replayed on ESPN 2 in a few weeks, if they are even tuned in to ESPN2 at like 7 in the morning on a Sunday, the tourney is old news already. 

Think about this:  If the super bowl or the world series was aired a month after the game, who would really even care about watching it??

 

I said it before and I'll stand by it, there are a ton more fishermen than golfers in this country, and I'm willing to bet that more is spent on fishing every year than golf by a wide margin.  You don't need a boat or a truck to go play golf, and tackle costs as much or more than golf clubs. 

- What is the equivalent of Bass Pro Shops (Let alone Cabelas) in golf marketing?  There isn't a golf retailer on even a remotely comparable scale. 

The interest is there, it's just sort of an untapped market at this point because I honestly think they just haven't figured out the logistics of presenting a tourney in real-time yet. 

 

[Senko lover]

It's really cool to me personally watching KVD rebound and up his game. My interest in fishing started at just about the time when Mr. Vandam was hitting his slump and not making the classic, so it's awesome to watch the legend himself win two elite events this year. Simply phenomenal.

[Logan S]

Personally, I would hate to see the sport changed drastically in order to suit a TV audience.  I think BASS Live is awesome exactly how it is, the slow times are often just as interesting to me as any other....If you're a tournament angler you've been in those tough spots, it's awesome to see how some deal with it and either figure it out or get spun out.  

I also don't believe that TV audience exists.  When ESPN bought BASS they tried to do almost exactly what some are saying.  I believe they even aired 2 hours of live coverage on ESPN2 a few years back.  ESPN also sent the Mike and Mike radio show to broadcast live from the Classic once or twice.  I even remember ESPN making a BassCenter show that had the SportsCenter theme music and everything, it failed miserably and was cancelled.  ESPN really tried to make it mainstream and it didn't work.  

There were also the MegaBucks tournaments where it was a set 'course' and each angler had a certain amount of time on each 'hole'.  Heck, there was even a time when they incorporated a boat race time trial type of thing to some tournaments (not sure if that was under ESPN or not).  

Tons of stuff has been tried, none has worked.  The simple fact is that the audience is just too small and probably always will be...There are avid tournament anglers that don't even follow or care about the top level tours (I know several).  Changing the format isn't going to make them care, in fact it will probably drive some away since many are like me and don't want to see the sport altered significantly to suit the masses.  

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On to KVD, just another example of why he's the GOAT.  Should also help put to rest the 'one trick pony' thing too since he was sight fishing, using spinning tackle, and flipping for most of his fish .