What a strange world, fishing tournaments.
I’ve only been in one in my life. I didn’t win.
But for quite a few years in my life, I fished nearly every day. But rarely for bass. Almost always for catfish. They tasted better and were easier to catch, most of the time.
I was a member of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society for a few years, though. Even had the sticker.
One of the least southern things about me is my refusal to get on the catfish train. I’m not a big fish eater under the best of circumstances and catfish is so far from the best that I pretty much can’t stomach it. And I have a truly horrific tale of how hard it is to kill the damn things that I’ll spare you.
In Poland, where I live now, people’s squirm in disgust when I tell them that some folks in the US eat catfish (they used to do the same thing about shrimp). But here for Christmas Eve they eat carp, which unless it’s expertly prepared tends to taste like a big slice of fried mud.
I had a co-worker in Florida once who was a competitive fisher but I never understood the appeal of fishing in general (beyond general being outdoors and being lazy). Either nothing happens which is boring or if something happens you have to deal with a life fish on a hook which is not necessarily an improvement….