Are You Ready for Some Fishing?

I’m a fantasy addict. Everyone that knows me, or even reads this blog, can probably tell. I’ve managed to cut down to 5 fantasy football teams this year, which is my lowest total in years. I’ve got 2 fantasy basketball teams. I even play fake fantasy sports on whatifsports.com. I also competed in 2 college football pick’ems, which is pretty close to fantasy sports as well. It’s at least in the same ball park. I had a fantasy baseball team as well, even though I never watched a baseball game from start to finish. It’s safe to say, if there’s a fantasy sport out there, I’ll try it. At least, that’s what I thought. Then I came across this.

Fantasy Bass Fishing

Are you serious?

First off, I know that fishing is popular in the sense that people like to get in a boat, go out there with a buddy and kick back a few Pabst Blue Ribbon and enjoy the peace and quiet. I get that.

Second, I understand that sport fishing is cool if you live near the ocean, because what man doesn’t want to catch a shark? The same type that doesn’t like football and spends too much time reading comic books, I guess. (Zing, Adam!)

But fantasy bass fishing? Maybe I’m showing my ignorance, but I didn’t know there was a bass pro circuit. I guess I thought that maybe there were fishing tournaments from time to time, but I didn’t know there were actual professional fishermen. And even if there were professional fisherman, I didn’t know that this sport was so popular as to elicit a fantasy game on ESPN.com. I know there’s a ton of fantasy games out there, as I’ve competed in 2 Celebrity Death pools, but is fantasy bass fishing really popular enough to find itself on the Worldwide Leader in Sports?

ESPN.com’s advertisement for fantasy fishing says, “Play for prizes -- or just bragging rights.” I love to think about the bragging rights that come with fantasy fishing. I can just see the following message board post happening:

Hey Dave, my boy LeRoy Davidson just caught a 15 pound bass in the Natural Light Arkansas Bass Fishing Classic. I’m totally killing you in pounds. Way to go with Jimmy “the Jimmster” Clankston again this weekend. The only thing he’s caught is herpes. The only pounds in his boat are in his beer belly. Maybe next weekend you’ll get a real fisherman.

It gets even better. ESPN.com offers “Free Bassmaster text alerts to your phone! All the news – as it happens.” Is someone out there using this service? Are they sitting at home in the middle of a Rocky marathon and getting text updates for bass fishing as the breaking news happens? What breaking news is there, that some dude caught a fish? Is fishing such a fast-paced sport that you need text updates? How many updates would you get during a fishing tournament? 1? 2? Are there fishing injuries? Do you get updates for that? Do you get updates if your fantasy fisherman is too hungover to compete? Am I’m out of questions? Yes I am.

Chris