Riding the Bass Boom

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So when Jackson, Miss., offers $8 million, Garland, Texas, ups it to $23.7 million. Council Bluffs, Iowa, is in for $20 million. Bass Pro is a destination store, one that attracts enough traffic to benefit other stores--and restaurants and hotels--in any city or mall, where it is the anchor tenant. After all, notes Hagale, there are just too many cookie-cutter mall stores. "We don't build gray boxes," he says. He's not bragging. The 130,000-sq.-ft. Bass Pro Outdoor World in Hanover, Md., has a massive fish tank, offers how-to lessons in fishing and hunting and teaches conservation in addition to having every lure, rod, reel, gun and gadget under the sun. A full-size float plane hangs from the ceiling, and you can hang from a rock-climbing wall or test your new bow on the archery range. And you want a bass outfit? There are 37,000 fishing items, including $800 reels. Need a $2,500 Beretta shotgun? There are several to choose from.

Along with the gear, Bass Pro also tries to keep local knowledge in stock, which allows it to compete with hometown shops. It hires local guides and gear experts to staff the stores. "See that guy over there? He's the best gunsmith in the area," says employee Dan Kardash, pointing to a man hunched over a firearm. Kardash himself is a fishing guide who runs the store's fishing department.

This kind of growth attracts company, and Bass Pro's closest rival is Cabela's, which went public last year. Stock-market analysts are already nervous that the two companies are growing so fast that they will begin to clash directly, although, as Hagale says, it's a big country. The boat business doesn't have clear sailing either. Industry leader Brunswick is on a vertical-integration tear, a strategy that brought another firm, Outboard Marine, into bankruptcy. Genmar stepped in to feed on the remains, but Jacobs warns that a further shakeout looms in a market that is stagnant at about 300,000 units annually and getting hurt by gas prices.

Bass-fishing enthusiasts, however, aren't cyclical. Next year ESPN's Bassmaster is adding a women's league and an open élite series worth $11 million in prize money. ESPN is also increasing its coverage. And next December, probably in a California reservoir where the bigmouths grow to 20 lbs., some angler will reel in a lunker that will be worth a million FLW bucks, televised coast to coast. "I didn't create this need. I recognized it," says Jacobs, who has far bigger businesses in his portfolio that could occupy his time. But he's standing on a dock in Hot Springs at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, watching professional fishing. "I have a passion for it," he says. "This is my story." A fish story, as it were.