Renaud Pellitier, one of a wave of top pros from the Northwest, accepts a trophy from Forrest Wood at a Forrest Wood Open held by West Coast Bass.
If you catch and register a trophy black bass today, Fish and Game will send you an at- tractive hat pin of any of the three sub species: Spotted, Smallmouth and Largemouth. Those pins I designed and purchased for Fish and Game to award to anglers for years to come. Dennis’ support, education, and insight have been invaluable over the years. It was at his direction that we developed the first live-re- lease boats, made from pontoon boats carry- ing oxygenated tanks, which allowed for the best possible treatment of tournament-caught fish. If it were not for his efforts, and those of other Fish and Game biologists who part- nered with West Coast Bass as a model or- ganization, tournament fishing may not have been permitted in the west. Prize money was also an issue, having pre- viously been restricted to $200 winnings per team at team events by Fish and Game, pre- sumably out of caution for environmental impact and the integrity of the sport. We challenged the legitimacy of that rule direct- ly and won, enabling the distribution of big- ger purses, which attracted even more an- glers, and further accelerated our growth. Another obstacle was horsepower limits, originally capped at 150, a carryover from B.A.S.S. tournament regulations in the south
and east. Ray Scott himself didn’t dare ex- ceed them, until we discovered that Western insurance companies would allow higher horse powered boats to compete so long as they did not exceed manufacturer’s BIA cer- tifications. With the Colorado River chain, the Delta and Lake Shasta to navigate, we felt that bigger, faster boats would be popular. This was a crucial breakthrough for the sport, because the market for more powerful boats and motors rapidly increased and man- ufacturers happily raced to meet demand. This development, combined with the media coverage we were able to achieve at our events, drew the big sponsors. My experience in television helped us understand how to at- tract extensive media coverage—print, TV, and radio alike—which gave exposure not only to our organization but to the anglers themselves, who were announced by name and hometown to the press, giving them the widespread notoriety they were due as pro- fessional sportsmen. Ranger and Mercury and/or Evinrude happily negotiated boats and motors to be won at events. These high-stake prizes quick- ly attracted eager-to-win anglers, all the while benefitting the sponsors with multimedia coverage and a growing consumer base.
By 1986 we had substantial sponsor sup- port and all the product sponsors we could handle. One day while pondering how we could turn that product into cash to help pay the bills, the Pro-Am concept was born. The style had the potential to engender more ca- maraderie than Draw tournaments and could increase the number of overall boats. Two boaters drawing each other limited participa- tion levels. The Pro-Am format encouraged all accomplished anglers to be boaters and draw an amateur as a non-boater, a teaching concept, increasing the fields of competition. In some perspectives, it also improved upon the integrity of team tournament circuits. Initially, the amateur would receive only product as prizes and essentially a free lesson in tournament competition with the shared weight concept. We had to supplement their winnings with TV’s, cameras and other elec- tronics to increase amateur prize values. Several years later when Harvey Naslund of WON Bass decided the shared weight for- mat was a great concept, he introduced some cash winnings for his “AAA” prizes, and we soon had to follow suit. The West Coast Bass Classic Fish Off was a Pro-Am event, which invited the top 30-40 Pros and Ams in the circuit to participate. It
July 2011 _ SILVER EAGLES 31