I can remember just like it was yesterday, sitting in a seat in my high school biology class daydreaming and thinking of only one thing, can my hero Hank Parker win the BASS Masters Classic this weekend. The Classic had already been hashed out a few weeks ago but it didn't air on tv until the middle of the August.(you know when they held the classic during the dog-days of summer in order to see just who was the best of that year, not during February during the spawn in Florida!)
With eyes glued to the tv set and my mother sternly instructed not to bother us for the next hour, my father and I waited for our man Hank to bring his bag of lunkers to the scale.
Hank was the last angler to present his final days catch. Jim Bitter brought a great sack to the scales just prior to Hanks' weigh-in. "Dad, will Hank have enough to beat Bitter," I said to my father.(you know the man that gave me life and taught me about fishing and what being a true gentleman was). "I think he can son, he has been strong all week and he has been catching them his way." With that assuring quote from my dad I put my eyes back on Hank as he approached the scales. When Hank had enough of Ray Scott trying to stall for time in an attempt to highten the drama, Hank forcefully requested "put'em on the scales Duey and lets see what I got!"(Duey was the weigh in guy)
When the poundage of Hanks catch was given, Hank realized that he had won by only one ounce over Jim Bitter. Hank raised his right arm high and screamed to the top of his lungs, shouting as loud as he could in a warrior-like scream. That scream was drummed out by the fans in attendence at that Classic, not to mention the screams coming from my father and myself. After I stopped jumping around the living room, I turned my focus back on the tv. Hank was not on the stage anymore. "Where is Hank?", I asked my father. Then the camera caught him down on the floor looking Jim Bitter straight in the eyes and thru Hanks' microphone I heard him say, "I sure do hate it for you bud, you fished a heck of a tournament!"

That sportsmanlike manner is what I miss seeing in todays tounament fishing world. Since ESPN took over those kind of honorable and gentlemanlike actions are not shown. For the sake of our fishing youngsters to come, they need to straighten up and realize what got this sport here in the first place.

Just my opinion..
remember...eatsleepfish