Riding the Bass Boom

The line waiting to enter the Hot Springs (Ark.) Convention Center was already down the block at 9:30 a.m., even though the doors wouldn't open for another half hour. The folks who turned out on this swampy summer morning were a consumer marketer's dream: young couples with two or three children squirming like fish out of water. They were there for the bass. Largemouth bass, that is, and all things bass related, from $50,000 bass boats to $2 lures, bass rods, bass reels, bass videos, bass T shirts. Also Castrol Motor Oil, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, Snickers bars, Land O Lakes butter, Chevy trucks and Fujifilm.

Tony the Tiger and other advertising characters worked the floor while free product samples were distributed from exhibits. Kids played on huge inflatable slides or tried to hook a fish from a small pool while adults ogled 250-h.p. Yamaha engines and Ranger boats. A massive tank displayed fish from the region, including the guests of honor. Pro fishermen, swathed in a patchwork of their sponsors, signed autographs, gave demonstrations and chatted with fans. "The fishing pros are so nice. The other pros just sign and go," said Kim Davis, who had three kids in tow, one of whom longs to be a pro fisherman. More than 40,000 people visited over the tournament's four days, one reason the Hot Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau made a huge effort to host the event.

Later that day, a crowd of 10,000 filled the basketball arena connected to the convention center to watch the weigh-in of the day's fishing action. Amid a snazzy production of music, lights, video highlights and patriotism, the big moment came down to the contestants pulling fish out of a sack. Local pro George Cochran had the biggest haul, at 10 lbs. 3 oz., which he displayed to thunderous applause. Game over. By winning the Forrest L. Wood [FLW] Championship, Cochran collected $500,000, which isn't bad for a couple of days' fishing. Two weeks later, at the competing Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh, Pa., of all places, the winner's haul of 4 lbs. 3 oz. was worth $200,000. Both events were televised in lavish productions.

Half a million for a fishing contest? Sounds crazy. Absolutely, says Irwin Jacobs, the genial chairman of Genmar Holdings Inc., which owns the FLW Tour: that's hardly enough money. So Jacobs is raising the big prize to $1 million next year and promising a celebrity pro-am, the Pebble Beach of angling. "Nobody ever believed we could do this," says Jacobs, a man not unacquainted with hyperbole. "But we're not anywhere near where we're going to be in 10 years."

Jacobs is one of the big fish in the Bassplex, a subset of the gross domestic product propelled by some 50 million people who fish, spending more than $75 billion annually, and in particular those who pursue Micropterus salmoides. That overgrown sunfish with the large yap is found in 49 states and is one of freshwater fishing's most voracious consumers. (Do you sense a metaphor rising?) It was Jacobs who made the connection between Mr. Bigmouth and Mr. and Mrs. Shopper in launching the FLW Tour 10 years ago. Those insights hooked Wal-Mart, which became the tour's lead sponsor in 1997 at the behest of an executive and bass angler named Lee Scott, who is now the company's CEO.

This year the FLW turned 10, and the Bassplex shows no signs of maturing: