Written by Bass Champs.
Next year is shaping up to be another record-setting year for the Skeeter Bass Champs tournament trail and television show.
Bass Champs is introducing a multitude of changes in 2015, including even more guaranteed money to be awarded to weekend anglers, bigger events and a new format on television. Regular team events will boast a $20,000 guaranteed first place cash prize and five-fish limits. Also, there will be bigger and better special events including the richest guaranteed team event in history,
The TX Shootout on Sam Rayburn in June will feature a guaranteed $50,000 Cash prize to the winning team and an additional $10,000 if the winners are fishing out of a qualified Skeeter boat.
The largest one-day Big Bass event in the world, the Ford Mega Bass returns to Lake Fork on March 22, and will award seven Ford Trucks, a Skeeter Boat and tons of cash. The Largest Boat Owners tournament in the world, The Skeeter Owners Tournament, will be June 12-14, and the largest specialty bait tournament, the 10th Annual Berkley Big Bass event, will be held October 17-18.
To top off an incredible year, the Bass Champs television show will take on a whole new level of entertainment beginning in April. After 14 years of airing on national networks including the Outdoor Channel, The World Fishing Network, HD-NET and Fox Sports Southwest, The Bass Champs television show is turning the page and introducing a whole new concept to fishing shows. As always, The Bass Champs television show will highlight the competition, winning strategies and real competition.
But, this year the show will feature one of fishing’s most exciting and well known hosts, Fish Fishburne. Fish will join long time Bass Champs host and executive producer John McCalmont along with the Fishburne production company to bring a fresh new look to The Bass Champs television show. The new show will undoubtedly offer a new perspective to team tournaments.
The new Skeeter Bass Champs TV show will follow Fish Fishburne and partners while competing in Bass Champs events throughout the year. Before all of his gigs as a TV host promoting Team Grandma, Fish Fishburne became widely known as a charismatic angler on the Bassmaster tour with multiple wins and four Bassmasters Classic appearances.
After competing on the tour, he developed a reputation as the hilarious emcee of the Bassmasters Tour and the Bassmasters Classic. Now, Fish is set to return to the tournament scene. But, this time, it’s on his own unpredictable terms, and he won’t be doing it alone. Fishburne will travel to the Lone Star state to compete in the Bass Champs Trail.
When asked why he was coming back to competitive fishing, Fishburne stated, “I definitely miss the competition. I wanted to get back into tournaments but I really didn’t want to go back and try to be a full time angler. I’ve known the guys at Bass Champs for a long time, and if you ask anyone around the country what the best grass roots level tournament trail is, the overwhelming response is Bass Champs. So, it just made sense. I called Chad and Jeff, and told them I wanted to start fishing some Bass Champs tournaments. After they fell out of their chair laughing, we discussed the possibility of filming my quest to compete. Now, here we are, and I have to tell you, I’m as excited as I’ve ever been about tournaments. It’s going to be a blast.”
The Bass Champs production crew will be following Fish Fishburne and a guest teammate on the Bass Champs Team Tournament Trail. Each 30 minute episode will highlight the success or failure of Fishburne in the world of high stakes team tournament competition. Additionally, the series will focus on characters and lifestyles of the weekend warriors that compete in Bass Champs events and how the sport of competitive bass fishing thrives and grows at the grassroots level.
“Anyone that knows Bass Champs knows that we continuously strive to bring new and innovative ideas to the table,” said Chad Potts, Bass Champs president. “Although our TV show has been extremely successful the past 14 years, we were ready to take on a new approach. Everyone knows that Fish Fishburne is exciting to watch, and the show will no doubt generate a lot of hilarious footage. Although it’s been more than 15 years since Fish has competed in tournaments, he will still bring an incredible amount of knowledge and helpful tips to the show. There’s not many anglers that can say they’ve competed in multiple Bassmaster Classics, but Fishburne is one of them, and now we get to see how he reacts to the Bass Champs format.
“It’s definitely going to be fun to watch.”
The new show with Fish Fishburne will make its debut in April. In an effort to make the show available in the highest number of households, the show will air on two different networks. The Fox Sports Southwest network, as well as The World Fishing Network.
