Unstoppable Force Meets an Immovable Object

While I’ve been to FLW championships in the distant and very-distant past, and enough Bassmaster Classics that I have to take off my shoes to count ‘em all, I have yet to attend a Redcrest. For those of you who are unaware, that’s the creatively-named Bass Pro Tour championship. It was held at bass factory Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees in Oklahoma this past week and Bobby Lane won. That in and of itself is a story – because while several competitors have won both the Classic and the Forrest Wood Cup, and the father-and-son Hibdons both won a Classic, I cannot think of a pair of brothers who have won multiple major bass championships.

In this case, the doubled-up family trophy case is meaningful, too, unlike the Tommy Aaron and Hank Aaron combined home run count of 768, which does not tell the whole story. Chris Lane, of course, won the 2012 Bassmaster Classic on the Red River, a full decade before his brother notched a similar achievement – no one can argue that either field was less than stacked.

Online, of course, people are still arguing about the meaning of the BPT in general and Redcrest in particular. Their opinions are generally driven by personal preferences and vendettas rather than facts. In the interest of full disclosure, I currently write for BASS and formerly wrote occasionally for FLW. I have plenty of friends and anglers I admire over at BPT. Nevertheless, I cannot opine about the success of Redcrest because I wasn’t there. Furthermore, because it was a busy week in the Robbins household, I did not follow it closely. Nevertheless, from industry contacts who attended, I’ve gotten mostly favorable feedback – about the Expo, about how the media was treated, and about the tournament more generally. The news about the Expo in particular surprised me. The FLW expos I’d attended (albeit over a decade ago) were terrible, and I expected that BPT’s made-for-TV format put less emphasis on the consumer-facing side of the event. I guess I was wrong, at least from what I’ve heard. The list of vendors was long and impressive, and I’m told that they were generally happy. Naysayers have pointed to the lack of fans in the pictures, and they may be right about that, but at the same time those pics could have been taken at off hours, or even before the show was fully open.

Nevertheless, it seems likely that we are heading for a showdown of sorts. I don’t know who, if anyone, wants that, but at some point there will be a genre-defining conflict. This year BPT scheduled a tournament on top of the Classic. My sense is that the bass world’s attention was focused on South Carolina that week, not Alabama. But what were to happen if, as rumored, BPT were to put their Redcrest on top of the Classic? Is there a clear victor in that case, one entity likely to gain the lion’s share of the attention. I know which one I’ll be at, the same one I’d attend even if I wasn’t being paid to be there, but I don’t speak for the entirety of the angling world. Maybe some people have different preferences. Perhaps it would depend on the two fisheries being highlighted? I kind of doubt it, but there may be room for both on the same weekend – just as there are multiple NCAA basketball tournament host cities, multiple bowl games, and other competing attractions across America on any given week. While it’s possible, I suppose, I kind of doubt it. I mean, if the goal of a championship tournament is not only to crown a winner, but also to let the companies who support the sport show off their products, is that possible? Does Yamamoto have enough staff and enough trade show accessories to cover two massive events? Does Shimano? Or Lew’s? Or any of the boat companies?

I kind of doubt it. It would force people within the industry to openly express their allegiances and preferences. Maybe that would be the point, as in, “You’re either with us or you’re against us.” I hope it doesn’t come to that. We’re too small of a school of fish in too big of a pond to spread our industry that thin and that far apart.