Every weekend, thousands of people sit in the bleachers or on their sofas and watch NASCAR drivers speed around super a speedway. But how many of those fans strap themselves into a four-point harness and slip a helmet over their head so they can zoom around the track themselves? Few? None?
There is another group out there, however, that is far more hands-on with their passion. The group of fishing enthusiasts is more than 55 million strong and all of its members can participate in the sport they love. Every one of the nation’s anglers can pick up a rod and reel, pay as little as $75 plus an $18 annual membership fee, and fish the Red Man Tournament Trail with professional caliber anglers.
Fishing may be the most inclusive sport in history. It doesn’t take a lot of money, the skills while difficult to refine are not hard to learn, and fish don’t discriminate as to who is on the other end of the line. And with its new boater/co-angler format, the Red Man Tournament Trail is the most inclusive bass fishing series in the sport’s history. You don’t even need a boat. Under the new format, co-anglers are drawn to fish out of the back of another angler’s boat. Yet co-anglers still fish for up to $3,000 in regular tournaments and $6,000 in super tournaments.
All Red Man tournaments are held on Saturday so anglers don’t have to miss work to participate in the sport they love. The trail also boasts 22 divisions across the nation to put most anglers within easy reach of a tournament site. Anglers arrive on Friday evening, fish Saturday and make it home in time lunch on Sunday.
The Red Man Tournament Trial has gotten several professional fishermen their foothold as pros. David Fritts of Lexington, N.C., qualified for five All-Americans before making the leap to full-time pro. Since then, he has earned well over $1.5 million fishing. Shaw Grigsby of Gainesville, Fla., also got his start in Red Man by becoming the first angler to win $100,000 in the 1984 Red Man All-American.
If you have any doubts about how fun and easy it is to fish the Red Man Tournament Trail, just ask Wanda Rucker of Coca, Fla. The 49-year-old grandmother became the first woman to win a Red Man event in March 1998, when she earned $4,438 in the Co-Angler Division on Lake Okeechobee. Rucker can catch fish all day long, but you’ll never see her, or anyone like her, catch a pass in the NFL on Sunday afternoon.