here's my prediction.....with high school and college fishing growing by leaps and bounds,it is growing the sport at a rate we haven't seen which may or may not be good long term....my prediction is that ten years from now,BASS may not exist or will have merged with MLF......thanks to boyd ducket,gary klein and others for expanding the TV market,,far more people will be able to make a good living fishing tournaments...the top levels of tournament fishermen will resemble professional golfers in that they control the TV and venue income or they will have a strong fishermens organization like major league baseball,basketball or NFL and will receive a large share of the income generated by the sport....
am also afraid most of our lakes have reached the point where they can't support many more tournaments....it's already gotten to where the number of fishermen plus wake boats has taken a lot of the enjoyment out of weekend fishing....will that ruin tournament fishing? most of us played baseball or football when we were younger and when we got too old to play,it didn't affect our desire to watch games....will it work like that for fishing also?
hope I'm around 10 years from now to see it......

We need more lakes. They are getting very crowded.

BASS has been around for many many years, they aren't going anywhere. In 10 years, the market will be extremely saturated and companies won't need to dish out sponsor dollars but to an extremely small handful of fisherman. I also predict a ton of maxed out credit cards of people trying to "make it". Make no mistake, fishing will never be like golf, and making a living at it will continue to be for the independently wealthy.

Just by seeing how much its changed in the past 10 years where every buddy thinks they are a mini KVD I cannot imagine what its going to be like in another 10. I may be a very good golfer by then.

We'll be in exactly the same spot we are today... We're a niche sport, just like golf tennis, bowling, archery, shooting or dance... Fishing is booooooooooooooring to watch... We're probably in the heyday of the sport as we speak... Dan

Technology will dictate what it will be like for the advanced anglers. Livescope will be something that will be looked back on as we look at those LCR graphs.
I remember getting my new Humminbirds LCR graph and thought how in the world can it get better than that. I move up from a flasher unit.
The newer angler will be more in tune with the technology that will be brought in and refined.
Bass boats, they will have some changes but not anything that will set the world afire.
Lures...oh there will be something new that comes along in the next few years but that has happened since the plastic worms was the king of bass fishing.
To those that understand and can "afford" the new technology will have an advantage over the ones that either do not understand it or cannot afford it.
There will be a difference in those that are old school of knowledge on the water and those that have knowledge of the new items that come from the fishing industry. A new angler that is proficient in technology will be able to compete with an angler with fishing knowledge a lot quicker and pass them by and live by technology instead on the knowledge you have gained through years of fishing.

Hopefully the few really good trails will continue to prosper and grow to 300-400 boat fields. I’d be all about less overall tournaments and giant fields.

I think fishing will be around in 10 years , I like the live events, I don’t like to watch something that has happened awhile back after I know who or what won.

This is my thought as well. "Growing the sport" doesn't benefit existing anglers, unless paying a lot more for everything and fishing crowded water is considered a good thing by some of us. I thought I wanted a newer, bigger used boat until I saw the prices of 5-7 year old rigs. Can I afford it? Yes. Am I willing to pay that much? No, at least not right now.

Between so many people being on extended vacations disguised as "working from home" and high school fishing the crowds are crazy. I took off work and went to Pines to prefish on a Wednesday last year. The trucks and trailers in the parking lots and up the road made it look like Bass Champs and another big trail were there. On a Wednesday. It was insane. I went on a Saturday a few weeks ago and it was the same. People were everywhere and pulling in 100 feet from me to drop their trolling motors. I stayed three hours before saying to heck with it and going back home. Fishing is supposed to be fun. That wasn't.

In 10 years if it keeps going the way it is, I won't even own a fishing pole. I can't hardly stand being on a lake on a weekend as it is now. All this grow the sport [censored] has taken alot of the fun out of it for me. Constantly being cut off and cussed at by idiots that don't know jack about courtesy. Had a guy cut me off 2 weeks ago by anchoring 20 feet in front of me as I'm fishing down a bank just so he could try and catch his 10" crappie. Then proceeded to MF me for getting to close to him and thinking I own the water. Took everything I had to not end up in jail.

The truth is the ones who control the "leagues" BASS, MLF and so on make most the money. The anglers make what they allow to trickle down.

It's the same as in all professional sports, just put it to scale. Fishing is on a much smaller scale compared to Football, Baseball, Golf and other sports.

PRO Bass payout have stayed the same or even gone down in the last twenty years.I remember local events that gave boats away.Pretty much a rich kids game nowadays.

In 10 years, the largemouth bass resource will be tapped out from overfishing. The same will follow suit as we expand into Crappie and Catfishing tournaments over the next 5-7 years. In 10, we will be following MLF and BASS live floating doughballs under a cork to catch bugle mouth bass as the last ditch effort to compete on the water.

Lots of doom and gloom. Lord willing I will be healthy and enjoying the fishing in 10 years.

Yep, same for me, I’m sick of the inconsiderate idiots.



But I don’t blame “grow the sport”, that’s BS. The “sport” was way larger back in the 70’-80’s, the problem now is COVID and people being paid to sit on the lake while collecting unemployment. I pray that when Texas finally gets smart and cuts off unemployment to people who should be working, that the lakes become less crowded again. Truth be told, if 4 million people moved here in the last 10 years, it’s just natural that our lakes will be more crowded unfortunately.


The OP’s point is beyond stupid, Duckett & Klein have grown nothing. If he wants to prove that they have grown anything, tell me how many tournaments use the MLF format??? Like maybe 1 in 50?
And the only people that watch fishing on TV is old geezers, anybody that matters in 10 years is using a phone, laptop or tablet.


Jacob Wheeler, the greatest angler on the BPT/MLF has around 115k Youtube followers.

Ben Milliken who fishes NOTHING has 429k followers.

There’s your answer to what’s gonna happen in 10 years, professional tournaments are on their death beds.