Lets see if I can put this answer in prospective.

About half or 50% of my business each season is tournament preparation trips. This includes tournaments from the club level thru the professional level.

My phone rings hundreds of times during the season and my email is loaded every season with folks wanting information on how, where etc to catch fish here.

A bass fishing guide's job is to not only take people out bass fishing, but provide instruction and information on where and how to catch bass. This is how I make my living. I am happy to take folks out to assist them in preparing for tournaments, assist them in learning more about how to find and catch the fish using all the aspects such as techniques, maps, sonar etc....this is what I do. This is how I pay my bills and put food on our table.

A professional tournament angler's job is to catch fish and promote their sponsors by doing so. This is how they pay their bills and put food on their table. They use whatever tools they need to use to do this and they work very hard at it just like any successful business person. A guide or local lake expert is a great source of information (tool) and as such will be used at times to assist them in putting together a hopefully winning pattern.

Bottom line, just like me, the professional tournament anglers uses a lot of resources to better enable him to accomplish his job. But remember, just like me, the professional angler still has to go out there on the water, find and catch those fish on his own when he goes out on the water on tournament day or like me, when I take clients out (which is every day).