Records vs. Derbies
Posted by Pete Robbins on Jun 1st 2021
I’m just about done with Monte Burke’s excellent “Lords of the Fly,” a book about a group of anglers’ efforts to catch world record tarpon, and while I’ll write more extensively about it soon, I feel the need to start off with a prequel of sorts. So here it is: Are record-seekers and tournament anglers two different breeds?
I mean, I get that different anglers get their triggers tripped by different things. Some of it is based on geography. It’s tough to be a tarpon guru without leaving Nebraska, just as it’s difficult to be a pro hawger in Anchorage, or a cutthroat guide based in Miami (that’s cutthroat, as in the trout, not as in “Say hello to my little friend.). But even within species-specific groups of anglers, it’s rare that there’s crossover between the true trophy hunters and the cast-for-cash glitterboat set. Doug Hannon earned the respect of some tournament anglers, but it wasn’t his bag. Oliver Ngy is just starting to cross over. And Mike Long – well, let’s not go there.
While tournaments exist in the tarpon world, there’s not quite the derby-industrial-complex that bass anglers know. Historically, more of our buying habits are determined by who won an Elite or BPT event than they are by what’s happened at Dixon or Casitas or Castaic. While Patrick Walters moved the needle on Panoptix with his 2020 win at Lake Fork, I’d posit that a group of trophy hunters’ exploits this spring at OH Ivie did even more for forward-facing sonar’s sales. Social media plays a role, too – most of us, especially casual fans, are more likely to stop on a picture of someone holding a 15-pounder than someone holding a pair of 2-pounders and a Happy Gilmore check.
But that doesn’t really answer why some of us go down one path and some of us go down another, especially when you can’t really be good at either one unless you devote yourself to it religiously. Some of it, I suppose, is peer pressure, or rather peer influence, but I think there’s a biological or behavioral component, too. Both groups are in search of the same rush, and their prizes (be it a teen-class bass or an Elite Series win) are equally difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, it feels less like two sides of the same coin and more like getting paid two different currencies altogether.
