Daily Limit: Growing the sport on ESPN2

Even though he’s on the other side of the camera, former Bassmaster Classic champion and two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year Davy Hite still gets amped up for a bass fishing tournament.

Hite’s excitement is further heightened because Bassmaster LIVE will air on ESPN2 for the next two events, starting Thursday with this week’s SiteOne Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River.

“I’m excited to get back going. I’m excited for the sport,” Hite said. “It’s unbelievable because there’s a lot going on in this country. I pray every day for people to be healthy and get along. The bright thing that I see is the news about ESPN2.”

Hite, of Ninety Six, S.C., was on TV plenty as a Bassmaster pro, winning eight events, including the 1999 Bassmaster Classic and Angler of the Year titles in 1997 and 2002. His second career as bass fishing analyst began in 2017, and he sees live bass fishing on a major cable network as a great opportunity to grow the sport.

“Live television is huge. Our regular Bassmaster show has been on ESPN2, on delay, but that’s a whole tournament combined in an hour,” Hite said. “The big thing about this, it gives the anglers a chance to really showcase who they are.

“We’ve got a lot of great personalities in our sport. We always have and always will. For our sport to grow, it needs live TV so people can truly see the personalities of our anglers and appreciate their skill level. There’s a lot that goes on that we really can’t cover when we aren’t live.”

ESPN2 will air 25.5 hours of Bassmaster LIVE from the St. Lawrence. It airsThursday from 8:30 a.m. ET to noon and 1-3 p.m. On Days 2 and 3, ESPN2 will broadcast from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Championship Sunday, coverage will be from 7-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m.

“It’s what our sport has been needing for a very long time,” Hite said. “I’m glad to be a part of it, still in a different way, but it should give anglers a chance to showcase sponsors and their personalities. I just know Jerry McKinnis would be super, super proud, because this is what he dreamt of.”

McKinnis was an icon for his long running Fishin’ Hole show and producing the block of outdoors programming on ESPN2, as well as developing television broadcast standards for bass fishing tournaments. McKinnis’ life mission was to raise pro anglers up to the level of other sports.

Hite, who will provide on-the-water reports, said there was a great boost from June’s Lake Eufaula event that aired 19.5 hours on ESPN2. Hite and most in the bass fishing world reveled in the viewership numbers — 2.8 million watched 85 million minutes, surpassing all of last season’s broadcasts on Bassmaster.com and WatchESPN.

“Any sport is better live,” Hite said. “We have loyal watchers, but you can become a fan of the sport by watching it for one day. Then the next thing you want to do as a fan is educate yourself more on the sport. Whether watching football or bass fishing, the more you learn, the more you appreciate the athletes.”

Hite and emcee Dave Mercer pose with Eufaula winner Buddy Gross.

Viewers could certainly appreciate the feat of 47-year-old Elite rookie Buddy Gross as his final day rally on Eufaula unfolded on air. Gross landed big bass after big bass in culling to the event’s largest limit of 27 pounds, 11 ounces, propelling him from 10th place nearly 8 pounds back of the lead. Gross was blown away by the attention, receiving 285 texts before he got in the truck to head home with the trophy and the $100,000 first-place prize.

“For the most part, the bass is the star of our sport,” Hite said. “We try to show a lot of bass catches, because that’s what people want to see. But when you can see the anglers live for an extended period of time, you learn more about them, and it’s going to make the anglers more of the stars of our sport.”

Some anglers have made names for themselves with forthcoming appearances on LIVE, explaining what they were using, how they were throwing it and exactly why that was their plan. There have been other times when anglers tried to hide their lure or spot, and there have even been some who have asked if they could forego a camera in their boat.

Since LIVE first put viewers in anglers’ boats in 2015, fans have heralded it as a great learning tool and the pros as great teachers, although some anglers have wanted to keep the deep tips for themselves.  

“I came from that generation,” Hite said, “and it was the generation before me and the one before that. You wanted to keep your fishing secrets. It’s always been a part of our sport. Now I think our anglers are more educated about the big picture. For them to achieve what they want, we have to grow our sport. When they got the stage at Eufaula, they did a fantastic job.”

Some have been naturals, like Chris Zaldain and Paul Mueller, detailing every nuance of their approach. It’s not as easy as some make it look. Hite said getting comfortable with a camera in the boat takes some time and a conscious effort. He recalls his first appearance long ago, and things didn’t go perfectly for him.

“I didn’t do a very good job fishing that day. I was concerned about that camera and, to be honest, instead of thinking about the fish and the next move I needed to make, I was thinking, ‘I hope I don’t get a backlash and everybody on national television sees Davy Hite get a backlash,’” he said. “I’m sure most of the guys were like me, whether they admit it or not, nervous to different levels the first time a camera was on them.”

But that’s what it takes to perform on the Big Stage of the Bassmaster Elite Series, which is in its 15th year.

“A big, big part of being a professional athlete, whether it’s being an angler, a golfer, a baseball pitcher, a tennis player, it’s up to you to make that cast and not backlash, to present that lure, and when you hook a fish, stay calm and cool to land that fish,” he said. “I think that separates a good angler from a great angler, when you’re able to understand that camera’s there for a purpose.

“But you have to tune it out in a way and do your job. If you do your job, then everything is going to work out. And don’t worry about letting somebody see, ‘I’ve got this secret color of Senko.’ That’s for generations in the past, and I was part of that. If we grow the sport and you do your job while you’re on TV as an angler, then your day is going to come.”

Hite brings his insight from his fishing career to Bassmaster TV avenues.

The Bassmaster Elites Series was shut down in March after one event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. B.A.S.S. has worked diligently to complete a full schedule of nine events, even after last week’s event on Cayuga Lake was canceled because coronavirus testing could not be facilitated in time. The 86 anglers have all been tested in Clayton, N.Y., where they are practicing and set to resume the season Thursday.

Hite will be there on the river, and Lake Ontario if needed, to follow the newsmakers and report on happenings from the water. He admitted he was a touch nervous for his first LIVE take at Eufaula, knowing he was being broadcast to a much wider audience. He said he really only spoke about it to his wife, telling her it was a big deal.

“I feel a pressure, believe it or not, similar to what I did fishing, for different reasons,” the Bass Fishing Hall of Famer said. “I feel a duty to give back to the sport and try to do my best job because I want to see more growth. I want to see more people make a good living at the sport like I have been able to.”

In a Bassmaster career that spanned 27 years, Hite competed in 253 events, earning a check 140 times and finishing one paystub shy of $2 million in career winnings. His insight of being there and doing that is appreciated by fans, and not just for his successes. He said fans tell him they like that he talks about times he fared poorly and explains what went wrong.

“I talk about the bad tournaments I’ve had at those fisheries,” he said. “I talk about when I made a mistake, ‘I hope this guy isn’t going to do the same thing.’”

At the season opener at the St. Johns, Hite’s first take included the prediction that an angler heading north of the takeoff at Palatka might be able to have fish to himself and win.

“I had been there, and I saw how things were setting up. I had failed going that way, but I knew why I failed. But it was set up for a guy to win there this year,” he said. “You learn by your mistakes, and I made a lot of mistakes through my years fishing, and that’s why I try to include them.

“It’s easy to talk about, ‘Wow, Buddy Gross is great because he caught 27 pounds.’ What the fan of the sport really wants to hear is how did he catch 27 on the last day? What adjustments did he make? How did he land them all when he lost them the first days?”

At Eufaula, Hite had the insight of winning an event there in 1994 then capping off his 2002 AOY title with a third-place finish. But he didn’t rest on those laurels, instead studying up on the fishery and the anglers.

“I certainly did refresh myself with what’s been going on recently there,” he said. “It’s so cool to be able to talk about the fisheries having been on the other side of the microphone.”

Hite said there’s no better place to restart the season than the St. Lawrence, the “Smallmouth Capital of the World” that last year was top-ranked in Bassmaster Magazine’s Best Bass Lakes. He’s had mixed results there, including a runner-up finish, but he said he’s grateful things have worked out and are looking up for B.A.S.S.

“The good Lord is looking down on our sport under tough times,” he said. “This country is going through some difficult times, and I couldn’t be more excited about the future of B.A.S.S. It makes me smile even though there’s a lot not to smile about.”