Fall 2023
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of the country or further to make it happen. Someday, someone may find the formula for a big bucks tour close to home. The money is here, the will is here, but no one has put together the right package of sponsorship and venues to make it happen. Until then, go east young man.
EPILOGUE: As you can tell from my oblique reference to the Wild West Bass Trail, above, at my editor›s deadline things seemed grim for the state of western tours. Mark Lassagne was surveying anglers about his potential trail, but nothing concrete had been added yet. I can only imagine that western anglers are tired of it at this point. After decades of big promises, they›ve often been tricked, like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown
Randy Pierson
at the last moment, and old Chuck going end over end and landing painfully on his butt. Maybe the only way to ensure stability and longevity is to go on a national trail, and there won›t be a tipping point to bring those trails west until there›s a greater geographic spread amongst the competitors. The left coast is so instrumental in major trends -- from flipping to frogging to swimbaits to finesse to JDM gear -- that it›s hard to imagine that it can›t support a major circuit, but sometimes the track record is what it is. I encourage all of you not to give up hope, but not to mortgage the farm on becoming the next KVD or Jacob Wheeler while fishing exclusively in the west. There›s a reason why nearly everyone from Aaron to John Murray to MDJ had to leave. •
Roy Hawk Mark Daniels Jr.
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