Image rivals fishing for bass tournament pros

Last week’s column about some of the downsides of high school tournament bass fishing caused unease in some quarters, but the biggest question finally has been answered.

Some high school bass tournaments pay cash prizes to anglers while representing their schools. If a football or basketball player that has an opportunity to earn a college athletic scholarship wins money or merchandise while representing his or her school in a bass tournament, it seemed like it might jeopardize his or her college eligibility.

I also wondered if it might jeopardize an athlete’s college eligibility to wear a school jersey bearing a corporate sponsor’s logo.

We asked the only people whose opinion matters, the good folks at the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There is no risk, said Michelle Hosick, associate director of public and media relations for the NCAA.

“Accepting high school bass-fishing tournament winnings will not jeopardize or otherwise impact a student-athlete’s eligibility for any NCAA sport,” Hosick said in an email. “Additionally, student-athletes can wear school jerseys with corporate sponsor logos in bass fishing tournaments, so long as the corporate sponsor is not paying the student-athlete a salary for wearing those logos.

“The sponsor can pay the student-athlete’s expenses without impacting eligibility.”

High school tournaments are great places for young anglers to hone their competitive fishing skills, but many student anglers overlook the importance of developing a professional image.

A fishing tackle representative responding to last week’s column said anglers at all levels bombard his company with sponsorship requests. He said most of the sponsorship requests he gets from college anglers are incoherent.

“You can’t read most of them. They make no sense,” he said. “There are no paragraphs or punctuation. They just ramble and say nothing. They all get trashed without any consideration.”

Asking a company for a sponsorship is like applying for a job because you are actually asking for a public position on that company’s team.

Conversely, a potential sponsor evaluates a prospective representative in terms of how well that person can advance the company’s brand. A potential representative must be presentable, dynamic, and project optimism and goodwill as a portal to a sponsor’s products and services.

The challenge is catching a potential sponsor’s eye through a very narrow and crowded window. Your pitch and presentation must simply be better than anybody else’s.

Unorganized, themeless and rough presentations are ignored or dismissed, and you might not get a second chance.

Fishing for sponsorships is much like fishing for bass. To catch a bass, you must know how to approach it, how to get its attention in a positive manner and how to present a lure to it at a time and fashion as to make it irresistible. You must then know precisely when to set the hook and how to play the fish to the net — to seal the deal.

The same details are key to courting sponsors.

Arkansas is full of excellent anglers, and there are doubtless some weekenders who can outfish an FLW or Bassmaster pro on any given day. Fishing is only half of the game, though. Only a few see far enough away from the water to develop the intangible qualities necessary to live professionally.

There are some Bassmaster Elite Series anglers that never win tournaments, but they are good enough to be relevant, which means good enough to consistently qualify for final rounds. They are always in the running, which gives them platforms to demonstrate their master of sales, marketing and public relations.

Mike Iaconelli explained it better than anybody in his book Fishing on the Edge,a must-read for any aspiring angler. I also recommend Bass Boss and Prospecting and Selling, both by BASS founder Ray Scott, as well as Bass Wars: A Story of Fishing, Fame and Fortune by Nick Taylor. Those four books offer the clearest look at the inside business of professional bass fishing, and how to create opportunities and capitalize on them.