BASS Fantasy Fishing!!!!

[cr]

kvd-45, ike-15, duckett-1, roumbanis--3, lowen-18, pretty good Willie

[thedude]

looks like i only got 1 horse in this race.

looks like KVD almost pulled off the comeback.....

[Cy]

For most guys, if they didn't catch them on day one they did on two and vise versa.  Only a few had good catches both days.

[bassmandan]

hats off to skeet i was pullin for him and evers for the win

[yukonjack2]

Kudos to skeet as well -

thumbs down to ESPN for what has to go down in history as the @#$$#$@#@#iest broadcast of the superbowl of fishing - I think day one broadcast was 90 minutes, and had no more than 5 minutes of actual fishing - no need to waste that much valuable time that you can't get back.  Also pretty shady to use this ESPN360 that most ISPs are not affiliated with?  Lets just say I am not pleased with the direction they are headed in terms of broadcatst TV for major fishing events.

[cr]

What he said plus 

[TCook]

The online coverage was horrible, but what a battle between Ike and Skeet that was amazing! Good to see Skeet win, he fished one heck of a tournament. If that doesnt get you pumped up your in the wrong sport my friends.

T

[McCarter]

Day 3 coverage was good i thought.  Very dramatic.  I would like to point out that kim bain got more coverage than anyone i have ever seen in a classic.  It was sad that Mark Davis and Mike McLelland didnt get one lick of tv time, no doubt becuase they had to make more room for Kim.  I get that she is the first female to fish in the Classic and it is a big deal, but how are you going to completly ignore 2 guys who made huge moves and were in contention to win at least for a little while. 

Other than that, the first 2 days of coverage sucked...as usual.  Can you imagine if they only aired highlights of the super bowl during the actual super bowl?  Or just showed old clips and player interviews.  Gimme a break.  They need to have like a 4 way split screen thing goin on so you can watch 4 guys at once or something. 

McCarter himself

[dartag]

my mom would not let me stay up and watch.  i did record it though.
  i didn't like the way they threw all 5 fish on the floor of the boat and then culled.  i saw that a couple of times.  I think having Kim there got them more press than ever.  i even saw an update on her on CNN.  it was funny hearing some of the comments from the guys.
maybe KLBA should try that.  oh wait,   they have a Kim that beats the guys there too.  Lola was happy she caught some fish. 

[t-bone]

I completely agree with the comments on the TV coverage. Day 3 coverage was very good - Days 1 and 2 weren't very good and the web coverage is horrible. Trying to find information on ESPN.com sucks.

I actually found myself pulling for Ike. For some strange reason, I'm not a Skeet fan but he proved that he can fish. Great tournament with really great back and forth action. I agree that Kim got too much attention but they have to pick their targets well in advance and they don't adjust during the day. SO when someone gets hot and makes a big push, they might not have a camera in the boat. Bummer.

[Fishmael]

Because I guess ESPN sees so much value in bass tournaments that they are willing to let two cameras and supporting resources be allocated to the coverage...Wonder if they will sell it to someone who gives any southern anatomy part of the closest north bound rodent...

[Dan]

They have 51 anglers and what may be 4-6 cameras. It's pretty tough to get a lot of great footage. Super bowls don't travel up and down a wavy 100 mile river. Finding these guys with the camera boat is very time consuming. You pretty much gamble and place your cameras in the top  boats. Having been down to the B.A.S.S. Nationals, and having rode in the top boat with a camera crew, those guys only stick around for a while. You catch a fish then you're on camera. If you don't they are on to find another angler. They hang close waiting. The camera guy gets in and out of your boat, and then they're off.
Say you get 10 bites. That's in a 480 minute, 8 hour tournament. That's a fish every 48 minutes. Not too many people are going to watch a split screen for 48 minutes to watch a fish caught that gets reeled in, in what maybe 40 seconds. It's tough to think of how to do it too much better without a camera in every boat. If that were the case, you would be looking at 24,000 minutes ( That's 400 hours of film editing and that's just for one day!!) of film that has to be viewed at least once, edited, pieced, overlayed with sound, previewed and then aired. I know when I do an iMovie it takes me at least 20 hours (and that's conservative) to complete an hour DVD. As they say, it's a production. I wish there could have been more fishing shown, but I don't really have a clue as to  how that all gets done. If anyone was going to know what to do you would think that ESPN would. I thought it was interesting that they cut way back on the weigh in drama. Most tournaments spend a lot of time building that up. Not this year. I watched it intently, and truth be told, will probably watch it again when they rerun it, which I'm sure they will do.