What bothers me most concerning the likes of Ike, Charlie Moore, et all, is that it seems that they have played a huge role in what I call the "Wrestle-ization" of bass tournaments. I, like a huge number of the rest of you, have been watching bass fishing on television since the early eighties. I got some of my first exposure to the sport while watching Bill Dance and Jimmy Houston saturday mornings with my great-grandfather. Those guys and their contemporaries came to personify what a bass fisherman should be. They were all gentlemen who displayed gentlemently conduct as well as being able to deliver a great deal of information and produce fish consistantly. They presented themselves as someone, who if your child turnd out to imulate, you could be proud of their conduct.
Ike, Skeet Reese, and the others don't exhibit the kind of traits that many of us still hold dear. There is no humility or good sportsmanship, it's all about them and their unrelenting drive for self gratification at the end of a 7' pole. To some extent I think that a digreee of their porularity is due to the attention to their antics produced by the ESPNs of the world in an effort to generate raitings by presenting someting foreign and unfamiliar to those of us who have been enjoying the sport for years. They are in essence attempting to capitalize on shock value coupled with some digree of success on the water. Ike and Co. are more than happy to perpetuate the immage crafted and distributed by the producers of the shows/events because the face time generated results in more exposure for their sponsors, which results in larger checks with more lucrative sponsor ships to follow. Do I think Ike is genuinely excited by the fact that he lands a 3lb'er on the second day of a tournament, no. I think that he feels obligated to preform his antics because he feels that that is what expected of him by his fans and sponsors, their expectations fufilled by their floating jester, in turn their acceptance fufilling his need for gratification.
Ike personally aside, this whole "act", wether genuine or not, is the result of the effect of producers who have no insight into the culture or mentality of the fishing community. This effect seems to have become more pronbounced now that ESPN has taken holds of the reigns of telivised BASS events. More than likely the producers of the programming wish to broaden the viewership of their product by presenting programming they are more comfortable with, all the while ailenating the core of their constiuentancy. The producers of ESPN's outdoor programming appear to be more concerned with their own version of Political Correctness, than they are in continuing the traditions founded through three decades of successful programming. They are obviously concerned with the traditional demographics of the fanbase of the sport and have enacted measures that have begun to focus on anglers from less traditional geographic origins, such as New England and the west coast, and doggedly promote this "new school" of fishermen.
The producers are to blane because of the way in which they have sought to manipulate the traditional face of the sport by focusing on the more spectacular or outrageous actions of this new generation. What they have in then end produced is a product that has lost some of it's credibility to those who for years have been devoted fans and viewers. Nothing illustrates this better than the simple fact that they sandwiched coverage of the BAssmaster Clasic this past year with reruns of the world eating championships (no pun intended). Nuff said......

Keep On Chuckin'