Classic Coverage

[djkimmel]

They'll just give him an envolope with an address to mail the trophy too...

[Hooksetter]

Pathetic. Thats all I can say about it. They spent way too much time letting Trey, Byron, John, Jay, Shaw, Kim, Mark, Denny, Jerry, Mark, Robbie and Tommy tell us what was going on out on the water instead of showing us. If I heard correctly they had a camera man with all 25 anglers on the final day, there had to be all kinds of footage they could have showed us.

I'm no expert on televising events of any kind, but shouldn't you actually SHOW someone catching fish on a show about fishing? Maybe ESPN needs to hire Bob Cobb. The shows were alot better when was doing them.

Oh yeah, I almost forget. Where was ANY coverage of Larry Nixon? Or Ron Shuffield? These two guys have been a big part of the last 20 years of professional fishing, especially Larry Nixon. Ron got a little, but Larry got none. I know that it is because they are not fishing with BASS this year but they should have treated them better. Instead they kept showing crybaby Ike throw a fit, but thats a whole other subject.

[MBell]

That whole camera in the water thing was probobly just an excuse to not show incredibly boring footage.  If that was his reaction to winning the classic, can you imagine how boring a fsihing day with an 8lb limit would be?  You have to give the guy respect for winning the classic, but you would almost want to wash this classic from the record books.  This classic was disrespectful to the previous classics and it's winners.  I hope this stuff is generating ratings/interest from the non bass fishing public, because it's just losing the fans they already have.  I really liked the old Bob Cobb Bassmaters on TNN, and even the flw when it was on ESPN.  The on the water stuff is where it's at, no one has really covered it well in the last few years, there always trying to find a gimmick.  Weigh-ins are pretty boring in my opiniion.  Did you notice when he was holding the trophy up they showed the crownd and the exist were jam packed with people leaving.  To those who were there in person, how was it?
-Matt

[Revtro]

Cheetham, you may have a point.  I hadn't considered that. 

Man, I TOTALLY agree with Hooksetter.  Where was Larry Nixon who finished very respectably in this event and had a good bag or two?  They completely disrespected him in my opinion.  I'm glad my DVR also recorded FLW this weekend.  Grr.

[dartag]

remember  Nixon, Shuffield, Cochran, and Luke the winner are all fishing FLW,   why is Bass going to give them props.  they focused more on there own guys..

Rev.  when you watch the FLW notice all the sponsors on boats and shirts they block out.. some was coverage of last year with Everstart.  but there were other shots of kelly Jordon with his shirt blocked out..

[carolina chip]

I think "It is what it is"..... For us bass fishing is a passion... we are rightly critical

For ESPN and  TV, its new territory with regard to figuring out how to bring it real time to the screen....  I feel that BASS is still trying to figure out how to evolve and their TV coverage is part of that equation. I am just glad to see fishing competition making it to the screen.

Overall, I thnk FLW is doing a much better job. Regarding BASS, I have seen enough IKE, Byron and Mcginnis and "whats his name sideburns" that replaced Fish.

I try to be optimistic and say.. I am just glad that fishing is trying to come to primetime sports TV.

[djkimmel]

Good points

[Cy]

Let me start with, I do not work for ESPN or BASS.

I agree with Chip.  I think you have to consider what ESPN is trying to do here.  They are working very hard to bring a normally highly edited for TV sport and show it live.  We are all excited about the idea of live fishing tournaments on TV but lets face it when you are not catching them or only getting a few bits a day the in between times are boring to watch.  Shoot sometimes it is even boring if you are fishing let alone watching.  I was out on Toho Friday morning and ESPN runs a lot of tape back and forth from the cameras to the docks for editing, trying to get good highlights.  They also have to guess who is going to catch them and who is not.  The only option they have is to put an $80,000 camera and an operator in every boat on the water.  That sounds expensive and there is not room for observers then.

I agree that FLW coverage is darn good but they use mostly cheaper, smaller, fixed mount cameras to keep the cost down, I would assume.  The angles are sometimes off camera or the camera is out of focus or it gets dirty.  Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think FLW tries to do live coverage on any of their tournaments.  They have a week to edit before it is aired.  I think it is a catch 22 no matter what they do.

So IMHO ESPN is trying to pioneer something here.  It may never get any better for events like the Classic unless they decide to scrap the live idea and just show the highlights and the big fish a week or two after the event.  Based on most of the opinions here I think that might be a good idea.  I don't know if fishing can ever be a live TV sport.

But I think you do have to admit that ESPN/BASS/ABC/Disney is pumping a lot of money into the sport and that is good for everyone, including guys like us.  I am in the process of hunting for sponsors right now and I am selling bass fishing as the next NASCAR because I think it will get there.  I wouldn't be surprised if the 2010 Classic was on ABC on Saturday afternoon.  Let be honest media is power over the people and these guys have a lot of it!  There is going to be growing pains any time there are major changes to anything and bass fishing is feeling those pains right now.  Lets try and be patient.

Sorry to get on my soap box.

Cfruel

[blakstr1]

as far as the coverage they know whos catching what, each boat is armed with a nextel phone equipped with basstrak software.  every fish that is caught is logged in immediately by the observer, they enter weight and whether the fish is kept or released, it automatically keeps the top 5 (culling is automatic) these phones in turn relay GPS information to the production trailers, so if an angler suddenly catches a bunch of fish, the camera is on the way.  ESPN had 8 cameras assigned to anglers, the angler and their observer would ride together to a spot while the camera man and a driver followed in a second boat and a film shuttle followed as well.  the camera man and observer would swap positions, if the angler was catching a lot of fish then the camera would stay with him otherwise they would be on to someone who was, but things don't always go as planned...check into Blake's Excellent Adventures tomorrow and read my Day 3 summary, I will explain this in greater detail.

As far as the excitement at the final day weigh in, it was pretty loud from the floor where I was (in the area called the live well in front of the stage) but yes we all took off immediately..  it did drag a bit but weigh-ins are weigh-ins, i guess. 

I know Revtro DVR'd some of it, but did anybody tape or watch any coverage early Sunday morning, basically between 7:00 and 7:30? 

[Cy]

Blakstr1,

I have all the coverage on DVR but I haven't had time to watch any of it yet.  Is there something you are looking for from Sunday morning?

[Revtro]

Yep, I DVR'd it all, but watched it and deleted it already.  Had to make room for 24, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica. 

[blakstr1]

Blakstr1,

I have all the coverage on DVR but I haven't had time to watch any of it yet.? Is there something you are looking for from Sunday morning?

yeah sunday morning i was at the blast off..i was in the crowd while the 7:00-7:30 basscenter was on.  ESPN brought a camera up there and said we were live a few different times, but nobody has seen it that i know of and i was wondering if i was on TV.  my mother-in-law taped everything that weekend except for that time slot...basically i want to know if they did show people yelling and screaming during that time.