By Robert DeWitt

Would B.A.S.S. by any other name still smell like fish?

Since January of 2006, bass clubs have had the option to affiliate with either The Bass Federation, backed by FLW Outdoors or The Federation Nation, a part of B.A.S.S. Some make conscious choices based on genuine likes and dislikes while others seem dragged along by the currents and tides created by shifts at the state level. And some see no reason to make a choice.

“I’m a fisherman,” said John Hendry, president of the Lakeland TBF Bassmasters. “I think that it only makes sense that anybody who is a member of a club should be able to fish both federations. I’ll leave the politics to the politicians and I’ll catch bass.”

Resentment against corporate America, sentimental loyalty and sheer opportunism shape the decisions bass clubs and their members make. And at the bottom of it, some wonder if it really matters at all.

“There are many members out there who have no idea what happened and it doesn’t matter to them,” said Don Corkran, director of B.A.S.S. Federation Nation. To some of those members, it doesn’t really matter one way or another.”

Whether it really matters is a good question. Both organizations boast thousands of members. But a big part of the way they distinguish themselves from their competitor is the opportunities they provide for national tournaments.

TBF sends both anglers and co-anglers to their national championships.
“We’ve doubled the number of slots in the national championship,” said Dave Simmons, FLW/TBF programs manager. “Last year’s co-angler won the BFL All-American and won $70,000. Kevin Wells wouldn’t have ever had the opportunity to advance without the co-angler format.”

And the Federation Nation counters with club competition. Club teams compete at the state, regional and national level. And then there are the six federation slots in the Bassmaster classic.

“Certainly the biggest carrot that’s out there is the six berths in the Bassmaster Classic,” Corkran said. “That has been there since the early 1970s.”

But whether the focus is on six people in the world’s most prestigious bass tournament or on putting twice as many federation members in a national championship, the impact is still on a relatively small number of people. Thousands upon thousands of bass club members never make it to national championships or professional classics. Does club affiliation mean anything to them?

“I don’t see that there’s any more benefits from the Tennessee Bass Federation over the Federation Nation,” said Darrell Hille, president of Robertson County Bass Club, which is affiliated with both organizations. “The weigh-in was a little different. But the meeting was the same and everything else was the same.”

Autonomy is what TBF offers clubs, Simmons said. That’s what state presidents were looking for when they splintered away from B.A.S.S. in January of 2006, he said.

“One of the primary things was that they wanted to be independent and fully autonomous in their operation,” Simmons said. “They governed themselves but they were tied directly to B.A.S.S. the parent organization.”

He characterizes the relationship between FLW and TBF federations as a partnership as opposed to the relationship of a parent company to an affiliate.

“With our partnership, TBF remains independent,” Simmons said. “This is a quote from Forest L. Wood. ‘You can’t force someone to do their best. You provide good soil and fertilizer and watch it grow.’

“We’re an adamant supporter of them being an independent organization where their membership dues as well as their budgeting and allocation of funds is controlled by membership. FLW outdoors does not have a federation. FLW outdoors does not have bass clubs. What we have is a partnership with TBF which has bass clubs.”

FLW touts itself as nothing more than a promotions firm that helps TBF to grow.

“We’re a service organization,” Simmons said. “We don’t produce a tangible product. We’re a service and promotion agency. And that service is providing tournament opportunities for our weekend anglers and marketing and promotion services for our sponsors and anglers.”

Simmons said there is a fundamental difference between FLW and B.A.S.S. And that difference affects how it views fishing and weekend anglers.
“We are a tournament organization that also participates in media activities,” Simmons said. “We’re not a media organization that also participates in tournaments. The weekend angler is the group of people who gave our company the start and remain the core focus of our business.”

It’s an idea that strikes a cord with some anglers.

“B.A.S.S. went to Hollywood,” said George Hartwig, president of the Antelope Valley Bass Club a TBF affiliate in California. “As long as it was in Montgomery (Ala.), it was a pretty good organization. When it moved to Disneyworld, it got too big. Now it’s big business.”

It’s nothing Corkran hasn’t heard before.

“I think most of the bad comments stemmed from the nation’s fear of large companies buying smaller companies,” Corkran said. “When ESPN first purchased us, the areas that they believed needed immediate attention were our pro events and the Federation felt left out.”

He believes problems stemmed, more than anything, from a communications breakdown. And B.A.S.S. paid the price.

“I had somebody email me the other day and say ‘When is B.A.S.S. going to admit they made some mistakes?’” Corkran said. “I said, ‘my god, we stood on top of the Empire State Building and said that.’”

That realization has led to introspection, Corkran said. And that led the company to change the way it operates.

“I said, ‘let’s look at the federation as if it were new today,’” Corkran said.

“’Let’s provide what our members want.’ We literally are looking at everything we do and examining it. There’s nothing that I’m not willing to look at, that B.A.S.S. is not willing to look at and that ESPN is not willing to look at to support our members.”

The schism helped wake up the company to the fact that weekend anglers have an alternative to B.A.S.S. To avoid creating that situation again, the company stays in closer contact with members. Corkran communicates with state presidents daily.

“If we’ve made any specific change, it’s in the way we talk and more importantly, the way we listen,” Corkran said.

Part of that communication is to relate to members what an organization like ESPN can offer. Since it bought B.A.S.S. it has expanded the youth program and started the Junior World Championship. It doubled the organization’s conservation staff and started scholarship programs.

Television coverage of the Federation National Championship went from a 30-minute show aired months after the event to an hour show broadcast soon after the event. And it dedicated more space in B.A.S.S. Times to the Federation Nation.

“ESPN had some deeper pockets,” Corkran said. “They were able to bring some things to the table that were never financially possible under a small, family-owned company.”

Losing 30,000 members is never a good thing in any organization. But some good things did come out of it, Corkran said.

“I think the dust has settled and as I tell the federations, certainly the split was horrible,” Corkran said. “Nobody wanted it to happened. However, as in many organizations, we have come back stronger than we were in pre-split. Not stronger in numbers but we’re growing steadily.”

One thing that certainly arose from the split is opportunity. Dana Beavers is president of both the Fayette Bass Club, and Alabama TBF affiliate and the Frog Level Bassmasters And Alabama Federation Nation affiliate. Both clubs sponsor the Dixie Junior Bassmasters, a juniors club.

“In the two years I’ve had the junior club in February we’ll send the fourth child to a national championship on either the FLW side or the B.A.S.S. side,” Beavers said. “It’s a great opportunity for them.”

B.A.S.S. has been in the business for years and has an advantage over FLW when it comes to youth events, she said. But she likes the increased opportunity.

Club affiliation is important for insurance and Beavers feels like the organizations’ offerings are comparable. Her two clubs share many of the same members. Some are members of one and not the other. But to many, it simply doesn’t matter, she said.

“It only matters to you if you are interested in living the dream, in going to qualifiers and going on to the state level and on to the national level,” Beavers said.

And two federations mean twice the opportunity to live the dream Hendry said.

“It’s more opportunity,” Hendry said. “I have twice the chances of making a state team and twice the chances of moving to a national tournament.”

But two federations also mean twice the headaches for officers. Beavers sometimes finds it difficult to keep the two separated.

“I get so mixed up sometimes about who I’m talking to and which person I’m talking to about which organization,” Beavers said.

There’s also just a general kind of discontentment that makes her uneasy.

“Whenever you have a split in a church, it hurts everybody,” Beavers said.

“Now there’s division. You need unity.”

It’s particularly noticeable with Fayette Bass Club. It’s the largest bass club in a state with a rich tradition rooted in the founding of B.A.S.S. There’s a tug-o-war pulling the club back and forth between the two organizations.

“It makes it tough because you can’t please everybody,” Beavers said.

“Being president you get to hear all that. If you had just one, it seems like it would be easier.”

Some anglers feel a stronger attraction to one organization than the other. That was among the reasons Jason Lytton of the Triton Trio Bass Club in Virginia decided to stay with B.A.S.S.

“It’s a dream,” Lytton said. “I won’t say it’s something that’s in my reach. But it’s a dream. I’d love to have the chance to do it.

“I grew up with bass. And to be in the Bassmaster Classic is always the big picture and the biggest show.”

Hille is shooting for the Classic, too. But he also feels a strong emotional attachment to B.A.S.S.

“I’m a life member of B.AS.S.,” Hille said. “I don’t plan on leaving bass. I’ll stay with B.A.S.S. if I have to start my own club.”

Lytton also had more confidence in B.A.S.S.’s ability to run tournaments.

“The background and the grass roots of B.A.S.S. was why we decided to stay with it. We felt like it would be the smoother running organization,” Lytton said.

That’s why the Bass Club of Fort Worth, a Texas Federation Nation affiliate, stayed with B.A.S.S., said James Bayless, one of the club’s founding members. He wasn’t impressed when he attended an organizational meeting for TBF.

“They wanted to be like the Federation Nation without the knowledge of what they were doing,” Bayless said. “We like what B.A.S.S. stands for, the conservation. It’s a good organization. It’s been around a long time and it has a track record.”

Some seem to wonder if state officers made decisions too hastily. Bill Kane, president of the State Line Bass Club, a Tennessee TBF affiliate, said the decision seemed to be made on emotional issues. The idea that ESPN was taking advantage of the little guy played well with some bass club members.

Now that he’s in the TBF, Kane isn’t real sure he sees much of a difference.

“I think ambivalent might be the answer,” Kane said. “I don’t see anything about being one or the other.”

Having two organizations does give anglers more leverage, Hendry said. Anglers need the federation to organize and market tournaments. But the federations need anglers.

“Without us they don’t have anything to organize,” Hendry said. “I worked long and hard to get them to understand that.”

It’s something Hendry feels both TBF and B.A.S.S. had better get used to.

“Both of them have to realize that since the schism has happened it’s going to stay that way,” Hendry said. “I don’t see one getting an upper hand on the other.”

 

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