A Review of the 2005 Redfish Tours and Beyond

or

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

February 5, 2006

In previous blogs, posts, and articles I have written a great deal about the "professional" in professional redfishing. Over the past several months I have spent a great deal of time contemplating the events of 2005 as well as the future in 2006 and beyond.

With a hurricane around every corner and a multitude of possibilities playing out both on the "field" and off, 2005 was a tilt-a-whirl of a year. It was also a year of expansion and growth. And, perhaps most importantly, it was a year for reorganization on every tour.

There are strengths and weaknesses inherent in the structure of the Redfish Cup, the FLW, and the IFA respectively. And, I have tried to enumerate those strengths and weaknesses so that we can get a clearer picture of where it is that we are all headed in the future. Interestingly, there seems to be a process of natural selection at work within every tour with each one evolving a little more into what seems to work best for their longevity.

These are my observations. There is no quarrel or dispute and there is nothing personal here. It is simply the truth; or at least my honest perception of the truth. There is also nothing here that is not being spoken of daily and consistently throughout the participating angler ranks.

I am not an advocate of one tour over the other.

I am, however, an advocate for the anglers that make it all happen.

Yep, risky business indeed! Pin your ears back boys and girls 'cause here we go.

The FLW is the new kid on the block. Certainly no stranger to "professional" fishing tours (or tour wars), the FLW put their vast experience and financial capabilities to the test in 2005 when they entered the inshore fishing world with a Redfishing Tour.

Their first move was to put a top notch, no-nonsense guy at the helm and they gave him complete control over the tour. (An excellent move by the way)

Dan Grimes has proven to be a superior manager in this helter-skelter world of big dollar tournament fishing. By all accounts, he has been direct, honest, available, forthcoming, and true to every angler, every rule, and every situation throughout the 2005 inaugural season for the FLW Redfish Tour. His tournaments are run with a precision that is a joy to behold. The successes of the FLW's first redfish season is entirely due to his meticulous hard work, his diligence, and his perseverance.

However, the FLW Redfish tour has significant shortcomings.

They continue to short-circuit the "professional" aspect of the tour by allowing anybody with $$$ to compete. In the end, it is nothing more than a high priced Club tournament with meager television coverage and mediocre production.

Even worse is the concept that forces most anglers to forego support for their independent sponsors while supporting a small, inbred group of "selects". Irwin Jacobs has created an entity that feeds on itself. It is merely an enormous semi-private fishing club. And in a few more years, without change, that beast may complete its cannibalistic feast and consume itself. His concept is unfair and archaic and it has held professional anglers hostage for far too long already.

In the near future many more anglers above the "club" level will participate in big money tournaments because they can represent the folks that put them there. The whispers have long been in the shadows and are growing stronger by the day.

Another brilliant but now outdated design was Mr. Jacobs' incentive program for Ranger Boats and Yamaha outboards. It has worked nicely for many years now and has made him an extraordinarily wealthy man.

But, although they were incredibly slow to recognize the value in that type of "hostage" environment, other boat and outboard manufacturers are now finally eliminating the exclusivity of the Ranger/Yamaha incentive plan by matching the incentive dollars on every tour; not just the FLW.

Oops, goodbye exclusivity = goodbye sales and participation - the resale value of Ranger boats could reach an all-time low in the next two years.

Nice run - but it's almost over.

Now, on to the Cup; errr I mean Q Series, or Nation, or... whatever they are this year.

The Cup has created, without a doubt, the finest production of a fishing show in television today. They offer the angler a fairly well run tournament (albeit usually understaffed) that is an exciting and competitive experience and they bring the television viewer a stimulating format with exceptional production that is fun to watch.

It is the Cup tour with the production and marketing of their ESPN2 broadcast that brings to the participating angler their best chance at making a high-profile television splash on a national level.

Oddly, this is a tour that seems to be ruled by committee. And that committee, as committees do, seems to change its mind a lot. Unlike the unbending rules, precision, and absolutism that Dan Grimes brought to the FLW tour, the Cup talks a lot about rules and then sets about making exception after exception after exception.

The 2005 tour will be remembered as a year that was a fiasco for rule contravention. The rules page wound up looking like used kennel paper at the end of the year. Kind of like a single sheet of toilet paper....

The 2005 Cup tour was also perceived as a bit of a travesty by the Cup anglers that did not benefit from the myriad of changes and exceptions that seemed to favor some and neglect others. Out of this shroud of mysterious decisions a select few anglers and teams received an incredible margin of freedom and advantage.

Oh yes, their production of a made-for-television fishing show is absolutely the best there is but it also seems to be occasionally subject to the same vacillating whims of some nebulous committee. Witness their last two efforts that appeared to make a mockery of flats and seagrass conservation efforts in Florida as well as FWC laws and the Cup's own "no exception" rules.

And, the price of a chance to be in such an otherwise fine production is now fraught with peril for the anglers that choose to fish every Cup event.

The Cup was the only tour that had a real chance to make a go of it with a genuine professional circuit. Unfortunately, they have folded their hand. The stress cracks that became visible in 2004 matured into full-blown crevasses in 2005.

The only hope we had for professional status is gone as the Cup will now "fill the field" with local recreational anglers at each venue. It is an understandable decision in light of the decreased participation in 2005. But, make no mistake about it, the Cup playing field has now become tilted to significantly favor the local recreational fisherman at each venue.

These local participants have no added expense, no commitment, no travel woes, no time off work, no time away from family, no duress, no hardship, no steep learning curve for the local waters, and no sponsors! In short, they have nothing to lose (except an entry fee) - and they have everything to gain.

At the current registration levels, the full time anglers of the Cup have about a 4% chance of appearing one time on ESPN in the entire year of 2006 and there is a better than 35% chance that a local will be in the top five at each venue.

No different than the FLW you say? Exactly!

Now let's visit the much-beleagured and fragmented IFA.

Talk about shooting holes in feet, indecisive behavior, and rules mismanagement!! This is the epitome of all the above!

This once shining pot of gold, the very inception of redfishing for big bucks, has now come in third out of three. The organizers of this tour chose not to listen to the anglers. They chose to ignore rules and make exceptions. They chose dishonesty and smoke screens over truth and straight talk. No one was really sure how any given tournament would be run. Favoritism ran amuck.

Divisiveness upon divisiveness.

Doomed to fail as a professional tour early on, the knell was not long in coming. Then began the transformation. Fragmentation and "Wal-Martization" of the IFA with divisions, leagues, and competition for everyone! Now, everybody can fish in an IFA redfish tournament from granny on down to great-grandchild. Not a bad thing - just not a professional tour by any stretch of the imagination.

The shining pot that was the IFA has boiled down and the leftovers look very different from their bright beginnings.

The IFA is now the Super Store of redfishing tournaments and is a great format for learning how to fish competitively. With all the leagues, divisions, and levels of participation, the IFA has something for everyone and, because of that diversity, is certain to be around for a long time to come. It will become the training ground for more intense competition at the next two levels.

Did I say "the next TWO levels"?!

Indeed I did because that is exactly where we are heading.

Here is how I see the future shaping up:

Level One: The IFA and local club tournaments - everyone can play no matter their experience, equipment, or expertise. A training ground for future Level Two and Elite pros.

Level Two: The Cup and FLW - the next level with more intense competition, more expense, and more sacrifice to "make it". Locals can play but I think their entry should reflect their increased odds and their willingness to support the cause - i.e. $1500 for one event, $1400 for two, $1300 for three, $1200 for four and $1000 for all five. All events less than the entire tour should require pre-registration and prepaid entry.

Level Three: Yet to be organized is the Elite 50 (or 40 or 25 or whatever you like) Redfishing Tour - a truly professional "league" with professional anglers offering intense competition at the absolute highest level of play. This league consists of a limited number of teams that pay an entry fee that is then matched by the tour organizers/sponsors to create the prize pool.

For example, let's just say that the entry fee is $2500 per event (This is just as a beginning. I see this entry going up soon after inception). In the 50-team scenario this creates a $250,000 pool that might work out like this:

1st - $50,000
2nd - $25,000
3rd - $20,000
4th - $15,000
5th - $10,000
6th - 10th - $7,000
11th - 20th - $5,000
21st - 30th - $2,500
31st - 50th - $1,000

Want more you say? Ok, just double the entry, double the matching funds, and double the payout. Worse case scenario is you get nearly half your entry back. Everybody is guaranteed to be on TV at one time or another throughout the year. Real sponsor relationships can now occur driven by this Elite field of competition that literally assures clashes of personalities and intense rivalries that is great stuff for Television. And, how about a year-end Championship consisting of the top 20 teams.

It is invitation only after the first year but NEVER more than fifty. The top 40 get automatic invitation next year and with the next ten invites going to the Top Five at the Cup and FLW Championships. Teams that finish 41-50 each year go on a waiting list to fill any vacancies that occur due to redundancy or unaccepted invitations.

Lots more to work out but I see this as the natural progression and as a very viable choice for those that would like to pursue this sport at the highest level and for those that would create an exceptional made-for-television fishing show.

And it will happen in the very near future.

So hang on to your hats ladies and gents, we're off!

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