I participated in tournaments where we fished against the
clock and other anglers. Back then an “unboxing” was dump-
ing your whole tackle box out on the floor of the boat in a
desperate attempt to find something that would catch a cou-
ple of more upgrades before weigh-in. When fishing time was
officially up, we brought our bass to the scales to be weighed
and recorded.
After everyone weighed in, a sheet was printed that listed
the anglers’ names, by catch, in order from the highest
weight to the lowest. There were no algorithms applied to
this order. The guy in 50th place couldn’t pay a few extra
bucks to “boost” his weight by a couple pounds. Those who
didn’t catch much were at the bottom of the sheet, and the
angler with the highest weight was deemed the best – all
right there in black and white.
Anglers that consistently scored top finishes in the local
scene moved up to regional events. If they experienced suc-
cess there, they advanced on up to national circuits such as
the FLW Tour. In doing so, they accrued a degree of earned
credibility as talented anglers who were considered media
sources on fishing patterns, techniques, lures and equip-
ment. Because of their influence in the marketplace, they
were then hired by companies as professional spokespeople
to represent their products. Meanwhile, they had to maintain
their status in the sport by continuing to perform at excep-
tionally high levels in tournaments. It takes an incredible
amount of dedication, skill, sacrifice and natural fishing talent
to post the right kind of numbers consistently in the top fish-
ing tours of the nation.
As tournament bass fishing and social media continue to
mix on the swirling winds of the fishing industry, I’m a little
concerned that social media metrics, built on the shifting
sands of algorithms and paid boosts, are becoming a con-
venient replacement for true tournament performance met-
rics rooted in the solid standards of pounds and ounces.
After all, it’s far easier to look up an angler’s social media
numbers than it is to drill down and examine tournament
stats across different circuits and tours.
I understand that social media numerics have their place
in fishing and that instructional videos provide value for begin-
ners; I get it, but personally I hope the primary standard of
determining the best bass anglers will always be solid num-
bers that can’t be manipulated, ones that have created a sport
with a 50-year history of performance-driven statistics.
FLW Tour pro Scott Martin’s resume
reflects a rare combination of skills:
the ability to win tournaments, and
to draw a social media following.
May-juNe 2018 I FLWFISHING.COM
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