With the increased exposure of professional bass fishing on television, more and more anglers are considering trying to fish for a living. On the fishing boards I frequent, some of the frequently asked questions are “How do I get sponsored?” and “How do I turn pro?” In this article, I will cover the answers to those questions and offer some additional insight into the world of professional bass fishing.
The question that may be asked most often is “how do I turn pro?”. First let’s define professional as somebody who makes a living fishing. That offers up two primary avenues. First is becoming a fishing guide. This is not the glamorous guy who gets seen on television all of the time, but it is a guy who makes his living in a boat on the water with rod in hand. The typical, successful guide in the south will fish in excess of 250 days a year. Many of the best guides are on the water over 300 days a year, which means working six days a week, most weeks. Even on the days that you do not have a paying client, you need to be on the water locating fish.
For most of the people asking how to turn pro, they mean they want to be a professional tournament angler. There is, like most organized sports, a ladder to climb to make it into the professional ranks. It can be done other ways (if you are independently wealthy or have a sponsor who is willing to take a risk on an unproven competitor), but this is the most common way. Start by locating a local fishing club. You will learn a lot from the anglers there, and you will have an idea of how your skills stack up against the other anglers in the club.
Once you have started to establish yourself as one of the better anglers in your club, it is time for you to step up in class. There are many larger tournaments that will draw anglers from throughout your area or region. The BFL, or Bass Fishing League, has regional tournaments that might be a good choice. American Bass Anglers also offers several options for this level of angler. You will learn more from these anglers as you fish with them, as you did from the club anglers. The higher up you go on the ladder, the tougher the competition is. As the competition gets tougher, the competitors will begin to guard their secrets and knowledge better.
Continue finding better and tougher competition, and one day you may find yourself at the Bassmaster Classic.
The problem with moving up from club tournaments to regional tournaments to the big tournament trails is that it gets expensive to pay entry fees, hotel and travel costs. At some point you will want to consider finding sponsors. Do not expect them to come running to you and trying to hand you money, unless you name is Clunn or Van Damm. The companies that offer sponsorships are just like everybody else: they worked hard for their money and they expect something in return.
Occasionally I will find a message on a fishing forum the reads “I am about to fish my first tournament. I need a sponsor. Please contact me at…” It should seem obvious that message will go unanswered. If you are looking for sponsorship, you have to sell yourself. What can you offer the potential sponsor in exchange for their money? These companies are not charities, they are in business to make money. If you can’t show that you can provide them with something that they want, why should they give you money? Not only do you have to provide them with something, you have to convince them that you can do it better than the other 300,000 people who are asking for their cash.
Now that we have looked briefly at how to become a pro, and what sponsors are looking for, let’s take a quick look at the downside of being a professional fisherman. Most people who want to fish professionally love to fish. If you have to fish everyday, it is now a JOB. It is no longer fun to fish. A guy I fished with when I was younger won’t fish any more unless there is money to be won. It is work for him now, and no longer fun.
As a recreational fisherman, I get to look at the weather and see if it falls in the range that I feel like fishing in. If it doesn’t, I can crawl back into bed. If I am a pro, and it is 35 degrees and raining, I have to go fishing anyway. My family is depending on my check to eat and keep the lights on.
As a recreational angler, if I fish all day and don’t catch a fish, at least I had a good day away from the office. As a pro, I start to doubt if I have chosen the right profession. I wonder if I can feed my family. Too many days like that as a pro can start to tear down your self-esteem. All fisherman have days where they don’t catch fish, but as a pro, it eats into your livelihood.
One final note on professional tournament anglers. During the tournament season, they are rarely home. They drive from one tournament to the next, not seeing family or eating a home-cooked meal or sleeping in their own beds. Their nights are spent in cramped hotel rooms, studying maps, reading current fishing reports, and getting gear prepared for the next tournament. All but a very few barely make enough to make ends meet. I get the feeling that is not the kind of life the posters in the forums envision when they ask how to turn pro.
As for me, I will keep being a recreational angler, fishing club tournaments now and again, and enjoying every chance that I get to fish. See you on the water.
