I dont necessarily like watching fishing shows to see them catch fish, i watch to see what they're throwing and how they're doing if it's working. Bull riding is more of a thrill sport which people enjoy watching. TV deals and sold out arenas = bigger jackpots and payouts.

Bass fishing is ran on a shoe string budget, From BASS and down

Hot dog eating gets more TV attention than Pro Bass Fishing

I thought for most circuits as long as you can pay your entry fees than you can compete.

Not so much for other professional sports

This brings up another good point i think, risk. Bull riding is a lot riskier than bass fishing, you are putting your health on the line. Its not really a case of if, but when, when bull riding. Everyone gets bucked off and eventually you will land wrong or the bull hits you (broken bones, concussions, etc...). To go along with that, the career of a fisherman has a lot more longevity than a bull rider.

While we all love it, fishing is not a very big sport! How much coverage does fishing get on regular TV or even ESPN? Almost none!

^^^
This, we think our "sport" is big.....but it just aint. The only way the classic can draw, is when a city kicks in money for the event to come to town. When I have been in shevbo, everything was free just to draw 100,000 people (which is a bunch but just doesn't move the needle). The convention center, the weigh in at the arena, the bus rides to and from.

The day you start seeing bass fishing get decent air time on ESPN or one of the big networks, is the day you will start seeing bigger payouts.

Fishing just doesn't translate into good TV viewing the way other spectator sports do. I don't even play golf
but I'd rather watch a PGA tour event than a bass tournament.

The future for bass fishing on television, if there is a future, is probably something akin to the MLF format. A closed course, somewhat staged competition. It is hard to televise a 3 day tournament with 50 competitors all fishing at the same time running back and forth on a 80 mile long lake. It just doesn't make good television. The ultimate prize money is nice, but the benefit of winning a MLF, FLW, or BASS championship is what comes after the tournament is over. Personal appearances, endorsements, etc...is really where much of the benefit lies.

this is true....the industry as a whole is slowly backing itself into a corner...soon the end won't be able to justify the means.

fishing as a tv sport as a rule is not as interesting as other sports an is very hard to generate interest for it .if it was as big a deal as the ones promoting it thinks it is there would be mainstream advertisers lining up to invest an make it larger . if you look at some of the more successful shows that have had a long run they are most always fishing in private water that the general public will not be in on. the fishing business counts on the folks that are interested in it doing most all of the support .

Maybe FLW and BASS could get together and have a "Super Bowl"....top 25 from each circuit's championship....fish 2 days....drop to top 20....3rd day...drop to top 10....4th day....finals.....both circuits could pool their sponsor's money......WINNER TAKE ALL......

Just like trying to find bass fishing shows on tv, finding bull riding shows are hard as well. However, a few differences are, the bull riding is typically on a channel that most don't have to pay extra for, when you can find it, it isn't on at 6am or some crazy time when most aren't watching tv. Bull riding is normally during the day or weekend during normal hours.

One other major reason, you can sit watch a bull riding event on tv for a while and only have the normal few commercial breaks. While watching bass fishing, you don't see much fishing or catching, and it seems like every 3-4 minutes there is a commercial break and they are shoving the same [censored] down your throats.

Think about it, if we, who love bass fishing, sit here and complain about that, do you think there is a chance in hell bass fishing is about to grab the attention of the average fisherman or someone who may want to give it a shot?

Can you say BUD-WISER

Part of the issues is the two league system. They divide the sponsor dollars and detract from competition as a whole. Clearly, they don't pull the TV ratings most sports pull. This would also be helped by a single league bringing in the best talent in to one pool of competitors. I also think it hurts them to not be able to broadcast their events live. People know the results before anything is even aired. If you knew the result of every NFL game a week before the game was broadcast, the ratings would suffer significantly.

Good point there TRoss. But you forgot MLF too. It's the single biggest issue in the sport, there's tons of money being spent in the space, it's just being divided up across 3 properties. Add to that the live issues you've mentioned and those are the Achilles heels (for now).

Live will be solved at some point. We may still be a few years away but you will watch the pros fishing from their boats in 360 degree VR Live very soon. You'll see wind, water temp, gps, number of casts and you'll know what's in the live well without having to see a weigh in or watch a Marshall weigh a fish. They'll dump them in the live well and it will do the math in real time and you'll be able to see the fish with the GoPro feed streaming live from the live well.

The sport is alive and well and there's more eyeballs watching than there's ever been. The sky isn't falling. It will continue to evolve and plenty of people will watch it.