Keith Combs Mille Lacs Lake Bass fishing

Bassmaster Elite Series pro Brandon Palaniuk is at work off the water as much as he is bass fishing on the water

Spring 2018

®

Keith Combs Mille Lacs Lake

Credit B.A.S.S./Seigo Saito

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Today, if pros in that same position

want to remain in the league and reap

its many benefits, they might have a strength trainer, a nutritionist and a sports

psychologist on a full-time retainer.

hope to be a consistent threat. Nor can you refuse to sight fish or refuse to go offshore.

Sure, a few pros like Andy Morgan experience success while keeping it simple, but you have to be a super-human talent to do it that way.

Even Tommy Biffle, known for three decades as a dedicated and superlative flipper, has probably won more money with his namesake Biffle Bug over the past five years than he has with the long rod and a flipping jig.

In this respect – whether or not you want to characterize it as a Capital-S-Sport – bass fishing is no different than any other professional competitive endeavor. During the 1960s, pro basketball players could stay in shape with a little bit of pickup ball as they sold insurance or peddled Chevrolets during the offseason. Some might’ve never lifted a weight.

Today, if pros in that same position want to remain in the league and reap its many benefits, they might have a strength trainer, a nutritionist and a sports psychologist on a full-time retainer. There might be a few preternaturally gifted athletes who can eat McDonald’s and remain in playing shape with a bit of playground hooping, but for the other 99%, it’s a full-time deal, with no offseason.

To the extent that same model increasingly applies to bass fishing, and creates barriers to entry for newcomers, we should welcome that as a sign of our beloved sport reaching maturity. •

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