Fishing Superstars Reel In the Dough, TV, Acclaim

In sports-obsessed America, the latest heroes don’t run with the pigskin, swing for the fences or play above the rim. In fact, the most athletic move most ever make is unhitching the boat from the pickup.

But the stars are millionaires. They have their own trading cards, cable television shows and lucrative endorsement contracts. One phenom--a former punch-press operator from Cannon, Ky.--is pictured on a Wheaties box.

And, holy mackerel, can they catch fish.

“Oh, son!” Roland Martin exclaimed recently as his casting rod arced toward a 4-pound largemouth bass roiling the surface of Lake Okeechobee as it tried to spit out the hook. The struggling fish dived for the weedy bottom, but Martin reared back and, after an exhilarating five minutes, hauled his quarry up to the side of the boat.

“Nice fish! Good bass!” Martin exulted, grabbing the fish by the lower lip and lifting it dripping from the water. “I love it!”

For bass-fishing superstars like Martin, there is a lot to love these days. “The money in this deal now is just unreal,” says Martin, a nine-time Angler of the Year and a household name among aficionados who have watched his cable TV show over the last 25 years.

Consider:

* For winning two recent tournaments, an Oklahoma rancher named Darrell Robertson reeled in $850,000 in prize money.

* In November, Fox Sports carried the finals of one of those tournaments live.

* In the year ahead, B.A.S.S. (the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society) and its upstart rival, Operation Bass Inc., will stage about 20 national competitions with combined purses of more than $10 million.

Bass fishing has exploded with the fury of a 10-pound lunker hitting a top-water plug. Half of the 60 million sports fishermen in the country angle mainly for largemouth bass, found in the lakes, rivers and ponds of every state except Alaska. And, according to Bassmaster Magazine, many of those anglers spend more than $1,500 a year on fishing.

Retailers Fish for Dollars

Retailers have noticed.

Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, for example, operates nine mega-stores in the South and Midwest--including a 300,000-square-foot complex in Springfield, Mo., that company officials say is that state’s single biggest tourist attraction, drawing 4 million visitors a year.

Computer software maker Sega of America even has a bass-fishing game--complete with a hand-held control in the shape of a rod and reel--that has proved popular with virtual anglers.

But the biggest boost for the sport has come from corporate cash. Giants such as Wal-Mart, Kmart, Chevrolet and Wrangler, among others, have jumped in as sponsors. Through an Operation Bass tie-in with General Mills, tour leader David Walker made the Wheaties box in 1999, a year after Missouri bass-catcher Denny Brauer became the first angler to join the “Breakfast of Champions” pantheon that includes athletes such as Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth. Brauer, a former bricklayer, now has his own fishing show on ESPN and has been immortalized with a plastic action figure toy that comes in a bass boat.

And all across the United States, smaller firms and civic groups sponsor local fishing derbies that serve as the minor leagues for anglers hopeful of a pro career.

“Tournament fishing was a sleeping giant that’s been awakened,” said Irwin L. Jacobs, a onetime Wall Street raider who began promoting fishing contests through Operation Bass after selling his majority ownership of the Minnesota Vikings four years ago. “This is more than a sport; it’s an American way of life.”

Fishing once was just recreation, a weekend pastime in which a couple of buddies with a can of worms and a few cans of beer rowed out to the middle of the lake to wet a line and swap tall tales about the ones that got away.

Now it’s a $50-billion-a-year industry. More Americans fish for bass than play golf and tennis combined, according to the America Sportfishing Assn.

“The wonderful part of fishing is there is not a man, woman or child who can’t do it,” said Jacobs, 58. “You can look at a Wheaties box and see Michael Jordan, and you know you’ll never be Michael Jordan. But you could be David Walker.”

Image Going Upscale

Although there still are plenty of down-home accents among anglers on the professional tour, those taking up the sport now “are not Bubbas from the South, which has been fishing’s image,” said Dave Precht, editor of the 600,000-circulation Bassmaster Magazine. “Many coming into fishing now are young people who have been educated in fisheries and science and who knew from an early age they wanted to be bass pros.”

Martin has been a professional angler for 30 years. Thanks to his weekly Saturday morning fishing show on The Nashville Network and a host of product endorsements, he also is a celebrity--an affable man with a mane of blond hair who often is stopped by autograph seekers on the dusty streets of his hometown of Clewiston or at tournament weigh-ins at Lake Oroville or Clear Lake in California.

In prize money alone, Martin has earned more than $1.5 million over his career. But Robertson--a 49-year-old cattleman who still doesn’t consider himself a full-time angler--pocketed more than half that total for hooking 10 bass in just eight days.

That explains in part why, at age 59, Martin was up well before dawn on a recent Tuesday, racing through the fog in his bass boat at speeds up to 70 mph, heading for a grassy cove he wants to scout out before two major tournaments coming up here this month.

Lake Okeechobee is Martin’s backyard, and he has pulled more trophy-sized fish from its shallow waters than anyone. But Okeechobee is vast--at 730 square miles, it’s the second-largest freshwater lake entirely within the United States--and the fish move. Their appetites also change; They hit different artificial baits at different times of the day.

So with prize money on the line, the top competitors arrive early at tournament sites to “pre-fish”--that is, to find out where the fish are and figure out how to catch them.

The Catch Must Survive

Most tournaments are two- or three-day derbies in which each angler keeps the day’s biggest five fish in a “live well” built into the boat. Anglers are penalized if the fish are dead at the weigh-in.

For Martin, even the pace of a practice day is relentless.

For 10 hours, he stood in the bow of the flat-decked Triton bass boat, maneuvering through weeds by controlling the electric trolling motor with his foot while tirelessly casting an assortment of spinners, plugs and plastic night crawlers.

Hearing the smacking sound of a bass breaking water behind him, Martin reacted instantly, pivoting to drop his lure lightly into the center of the rippling bull’s-eye left by the fish.

“I am always optimistic. I think I’m going to catch a fish with every cast,” said Martin, who has written how-to books, made several instructional videos and designed lures and trolling motors.

Television promises to chum the bass-fishing waters with more cash. Nearly 2 million households tuned in to watch the Nov. 7 live broadcast of the Ranger Millennium M1 Bass Tournament, an audience equal to those that watched the Breeders’ Cup horse race or the New York Marathon. Those are modest numbers, but Jacobs predicts angling for finicky fish can make for compelling viewing--especially with an audience hungry for everyday heroes.

“The ratings are down in all sports, and we are chump money compared to what it costs to produce other sports,” Jacobs said. “And with better fisheries, it’s blowing me away to think of the huge action we can create. Fishing will be a regular on TV.”

Until recently, the thought of spending 200 days a year on the road, hauling his boat from tournament to tournament, had Martin thinking of retirement. Now, with monster purses looming, he’s not so sure.

“I want to get my son started on his professional career,” said Martin, casting a glance toward Scott, 24, who was fishing from another boat a few dozen yards away. “It’s a good life.”

On this day Martin hooked about 45 fish, from pan-sized to 4-pounders, and he hauled in each with a first-timer’s enthusiasm. “Nice fish!” he exclaimed over and over.

“People think that fishing is all luck, but it’s not,” said Martin, unhooking another shimmering bass and dropping it back into the lake’s warm water. “There are so many variables--the weather, the lake conditions, the light. And you have to find the fish.

“But I know I am going to have luck sometime. And I’m an opportunist. So I always have the right equipment, I’m in the right position, and I’m ready.”

After a momentary pause while he traded one casting rod for another rigged with a flashy crank bait, Martin flicked the lure toward a lily pad and added, “The opportunities are there now, big time.

“When I won my first tournament back in 1970, I got $2,000. This next year I’m fishing 10 tournaments, each with a top prize of $100,000 or more,” he said. “I’m tickled to death about that.”