Bassmaster Classic: The Dream That Never Was

During this past Bassmaster Classic week I heard several different fishermen from Federation anglers to Elite Series pro's express the notion that fishing in the Bassmaster Classic was a lifetime "dream come true." A couple of times I heard it said that fishing in the Bassmaster Classic is the dream of all tournament bass fisherman. I must be an odd case then, because I can't say that fishing in the Bassmaster Classic has ever been one of my aspirations.

Growing up my family had a cabin on Lake Sylvia/Twin (now East & West Sylvia) near Annandale in Wright County Minnesota, which is about an hour and a half NW of Minneapolis; The two lakes are prolific largemouth bass fisheries. I was taught to fish at a very early age by my Dad, Grandmother Maas, and my Mom. Dad was my main fishing tutor and while he liked to fish, he was not overly serious about the sport, more of a casual weekend warrior type. Dad was much more serious about cars and Ham radio. Our fishing boat was late 1960's 14 ft Alumacraft with bench seats and a 5.5 horse Johnson motor. We also had a pontoon boat we would use for fishing. However, most of my early fishing was done off of our or our neighbors docks.

Of my 3 brothers and me, I was basically the only one to be badly afflicted with the fishing bug. I have just always loved to fish and we were up at the cabin frequently in the summer, so I got to go fishing often and as I grew older my love for fishing just grew and grew. My first exposure to fishing outside my family came from TV shows by Virgil Ward, Roland Martin, and Bill Dance. My first exposure to the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society probably came from commercials while watching fishing shows, but I also distinctly remember looking at Bassmaster Magazine at the Barber Shop in Annandale when I was probably around 8 years old. I remember thinking B.A.S.S. was the coolest thing and I wanted to join, but my parents didn't pursue it for me. I don't know when I was first made aware of tournament bass fishing, but I don't think it was until I was a teenager that I ever heard about the Bassmaster Classic and the information I heard about it was pretty scant. When it came to fishing I was much more interested in learning how to catch fish than I was interested in hearing about tournaments.

It wasn't until I was out of college and in my early twenties that I gave much thought to tournament bass fishing. In the 90's Lake Minnetonka used to be the site of a prestigious bass tournament called the Don Shelby US Invitational that drew in some of the big names of B.A.S.S.. The "Shelby" had a $50,000 top prize, which was big for those days. I was just astonished by how big a sack of bass it took to do well in that tournament. Sylvia/Twin is a peanut factory where 3lb and up fish are rare, and these guys were bringing in sacks with close to or over a 4lb average per fish. Also for the first time in my life I had cable TV and so I could watch the Bassmasters TV Show and I think I joined B.A.S.S. in 1993. In 1995 I went to see my first weigh-in ever at the Bassmaster Top 100 that was held on Lake Minnetonka.

I did not fish in my first bass tournament until 2 years later in 1997 when I was 27 years old; That summer I fished as a non-boater in 2 Military Bass Angler (now ABA) tournaments at Clearwater Lake in Wright County. I got skunked in my first tournament but did manage to catch a couple of fish on my second try. Looking back at it now, I had very little clue as to what I was getting myself into when I fished those tournaments. But despite the poor results I did enjoy myself and wasn't all that discouraged. In 1998 I joined The Fishers of Men Fishing Club (Twin Cities) which is just a fishing club, not a bass fishing club. It was not until I was 31 when I started fishing bass tournaments with any seriousness.

I think because I wasn't brought up with it and didn't start tournament fishing until well into adulthood is probably why the Bassmasters Classic for me is the dream that never was.

How the B.P. became the "Banned" Pastor.

At the Fishers of Men fall outing in 98 or 99 I was given the nickname "the Bass Pastor" by a jovial blind guy named John Boler. The nickname was due to the fact that I had been a youth pastor, was the club chaplain at the time, combined with my love of bass fishing. The nickname stuck and I have used it ever since in an email account, basspastor@hotmail.com, and when I participate in online fishing forums.

The big kahuna of online Minnesota Fishing forums is Fishingminnesota.com (blogrolled). I became a fixture on that board because I posted on it quite often, my famous rivalry with Cyberfish, and my outspoken position on a particular fishing regulation that I deem absurd for largemouth bass.

This is how the regulation reads:

You may not intentionally fish for any species during it's closed season.

I have a multitude of reasons why this regulation is unrealistic, unneeded and unenforceable as it pertains to spring pre-spawn largemouth. However, my POV is controversial and some people are better at being self-righteous snobs than rationale thinkers and level headed advocates for conservation. My online debating persona is a bit flamboyant and eccentric which tends to get under peoples skin as well.

Anyway, those who disagreed with me on the issue would whine and complain to the Fishingminnesota.com site administrator about how I was breaking forum policy regarding encouraging illegal or unethical behavior or some falderal like that. The administrator got tired of dealing with the complaints and told me to tone it down or else. I don't think I ever agreed to that, but the bass season opened and the annual argument had already come to a close; I participated in the same discussion on the matter for three consecutive Springs at FM.com.

More than a half a year after I had been warned, a topic came up on FM.com asking a question about whether or not a guy who witnessed a Muskie iced on Mille Lacs out of season and kept should have done more than tell the guy the fish was out of season and also have gone out of his way to call Turn In Poachers. This particular post was particularly humorous because the guy who witnessed the Muskie get caught said he was fishing for walleye's at the time; walleye's were also out of season and so the guy asking the question was fishing illegally himself. My opinion was that telling the guy that the muskie was out of season was the extent of his moral obligation and if the guy who caught the fish wanted to risk getting the fine for keeping the fish that was his business; I wouldn't go out of my way to see that the guy got caught because as far as I'm concerned the catch was a fluke and no harm done; there are lots of Ski's in the Dead Sea. Rendering this opinion was the last straw and I was banned for encouraging illegal or unethical behavior.

IMHO it was bogus to ban me for giving my opinion on question someone asked, but the site administrator of a board gets to be a dictator and what they say goes, and so I was done. While FishingMinnesota.com is good message board for information thanks to it's size and participants, it also has gained a reputation as being a "Nazi" board that arbitrarily punishes and sanctions people because that is what they do.

MN fishing forums that I am currently involved with are Lake State Fishing.com and In-Depth Angling.com (see blogroll).