Bass Fishing Tournament Director Have a Tough Job for Little Pay

Bass Fishing Tournament Directing Extreme Edition

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E E D D I IT T I IO ON N

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Story & Photos

BY DAN O’SULLIVAN

E E T T R RE EM ME E

T

here is something I’ve long wondered.

Why would anyone in their right mind

want to be a tournament director?

When I look at the list of some of the most thankless jobs out there, that of a

tournament director would have to be fairly high

on that list. Outside of the fact that working

in the fishing industry seems to eliminate the

ability to spend much time fishing, there are

other reasons.

Tournament bass anglers seem to know

EVERY-Thing about how a tournament should be

run. There is not a day that goes by that someone

isn’t criticizing a decision, questioning a rule,

suggesting changes or just outright complaining

for the sake of complaining.

I’ve become convinced that; for a tournament

director, spending time in a room with bass anglers

must be similar to trying to convince Steve Jobs to

make a change on the iPod.

The truth is that for most tournament directors, there is no ability to please everyone, and while that may seem like the kind of job that might just make a regular person think of dropping cyanide; most tournament directors truly do love what they do, they love the sport, and even more importantly – they love people.

I’ve worked with some tournament directors who truly do have a gift for running organizations. The three that I’ve spent the most time around are Vince Harris from Future Pro Tour, Kay Donaldson from Alabama Bass Trail and her tournament director Clay Baldis, and Billy Egan from WON Bass.

All of these people spend their days working hard to promote and organize their events. They spend ample time trying to develop new partnerships to try and grow their businesses to be able to juggle the priorities of making a living give more to the anglers. Those things happen in between the tournaments.

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