[Note: All views expressed below are my own personal opinions and may not reflect the position of other Bass Fishing Hall of Fame Board Members or the Hall itself]
A new term has entered the bass fishing lexicon. I’ve even used it myself in a few articles.
“Traditional fishing.”
To those who use it most frequently, it generally means anything but forward-facing sonar. Flipping a jig, cranking a ledge, winding a ChatterBait (which, for the record, has only been on the scene about a decade longer than FFS), that’s all good, traditional, chicken-fried bassing. But oftentimes, those who are anti-FFS go beyond just techniques and talk passionately about how the technology sullies the tradition of bass fishing.
They invoke names like Denny Brauer and Ray Scott and Roland Martin. Allowing FFS on the sport’s biggest stage is an insult to their legacies, the traditionalists claim.
I’ll abstain from expending even one more word on the pros and cons of FFS in this space. I’m still pretty much agnostic on it and nothing that I write here is going to change a single person’s mind. I don’t blame anyone who embraces and utilizes it, because as long as it’s legal, you’d be a fool not to do so. But I am going to call BS on those who throw around the word “traditional” so frequently without fully walking the walk.
I’m going to use as my example the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, a cause near and dear to my heart. I’ve been a volunteer member of the Board of Directors for nearly a decade. We’re all volunteers – in fact, during the Hall’s early lean years, some of the Directors, more senior than me, wrote checks to keep it afloat and operational. You can’t discount the contributions of Johnny Morris to the Hall, either. Not only does his facility host the annual induction banquet, but he’s made space in the Wonders of Wildlife Museum for the growing collection of artifacts and educational materials about the history of bass fishing, too. As far as I know, it’s the largest public-facing collection of such educational materials in the world.
Despite that launching pad, few of the pros who speak of the need to keep the traditions of the sport alive participate in the Hall’s operations or events. We have two professional anglers on the Board – Kevin VanDam and Brandon Palaniuk – both of whom are willing to do grunt work and give of their limited time to keep the Hall successful. Other pros donate jerseys and trips and other items to our auctions, and those donations are greatly appreciated, but when it comes time to show up? They’re suddenly busy. Or not interested. If they don’t want to come to our parties, that’s fine, but if you’re going to post on social media or create YouTube videos about the need to preserve the tradition, supporting the Hall just as loudly seems like a no-brainer – especially for those who live within 100 miles of Springfield.
Can’t afford a ticket? Reach out to a Board member and we’ll see what we can do.
Or maybe they have some beef against the Hall or the Board. We’re not perfect, just trying to be better every day. If that’s the case, what have you done, at any level of personal sacrifice, to keep the tradition alive? What have you done to explain to the next generation of anglers – those who wholeheartedly embrace FFS, or perhaps have never heard names like Rayo Breckinridge or Basil Bacon or Don Butler – why the history and the tradition matter?
The Hall’s efforts are deeply personal to me, but it’s not the only example I can think of that demonstrates this myopia. I’m told that when Ray Scott passed away in 2022, you could have counted the number of pro anglers in attendance at the funeral on one hand. The man in the fringed jacket literally created a way for them to make a great living and a great impact, and they couldn’t be bothered to show up. I heard that you could have counted the number of current pro anglers on one finger – which to me amounts to a giant middle finger to the sport. How many of our sport’s greatest influencers (including, but not exclusively, pro anglers) never go anywhere unless there’s a paycheck or a sponsor demand involved?
I get that life is busy. I get that anglers and other members of the sport’s influencing class are on the road a lot and may prefer to spend time at home when they have the rare chance to do so. I understand that for all but a select few individuals, this is a difficult playing field upon which to make a reasonable living. All of that mitigates against spending one more day or one more dollar on something that doesn’t pay you back. And yet if you really care about the tradition, and believe (as I do) that celebrating, preserving and promoting it is key to keeping it meaningful, then the word itself has to mean something more – and it needs to be supported by concrete action.