ORANGE, Texas – Walk around the grounds and behind the scenes at an ongoing major bass tournament to fully appreciate the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society motto for its Bassmaster Elite Series, Opens Series, College Series and, ultimately, Bassmaster Classic: Big Stage, Big Bass and Big Dreams.

It’s apparent there are many moving parts, key people and extra features leading up to that moment the weigh-in crowd hears the most familiar voice in B.A.S.S. shout into the mic, “Let’s get ready to weighhhhh?!?!?” That signals the parade of 102 Elites who converged on the swollen Sabine River system May 15-18.

The show appeals to both casual and serious bass fishermen young and old, male and female, as record-breaking crowds continue to prove here at the Orange City Boat Ramp. Even popular cartoon stars contribute to the event.

PAW Patrol characters Marshall and Skye attracted children and their parents like magnets May 16 to the Bass Pro Shops tent within a few yards of the huge catch-and-release “fishing pond” tank where high school bass anglers helped eager youngsters fish for catfish.

Charlie Evans manned the Bass Pro Shops site with an unbridled passion. The Berea, Ky. resident and former president/CEO of FLW Outdoors, and his BPS- and PAW Patrol-wrapped Toyota Tundra and Ranger Z520L bass boat have become a fixture at pro bass fishing events across the U.S.

After all, Evans is on a mission all about “encouraging kids and their family to get outdoors.” That’s been his goal ever since 2019 when he agreed with Bass Pro Shops to share top billing with PAW Patrol on Evans’ jersey, truck and boat.

“The only thing that could improve having PAW Patrol’s Skye, Chase and Marshall along with me at tournaments and appearances is partnering with the company that provides more support to our sport than any other. One of Bass Pro Shops’ key conservation initiatives is connecting kids and families to the outdoors,” he said when the deal was announced in 2019.

Evans, who still fishes MLF’s Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, introduced Skye, actually Little Cypress-Mauriceville, Texas, Bass Team angler Paisley Telles, a middle school student/athlete, and Marshall, portrayed by Vidor, Texas, High School Fishing Team angler Julianna Jackson. Telles’ mother, Courtney Telles, helped Skye and Marshall pose with young boys and girls enjoying the midday hours in Orange.

Evans touted Bass Pro Shops’ Kid Casters Tangle Free Combo fishing rod introduced in 2023. The youth-sized spincast rod-and-reel combination feeds line through the center of the shaft rather than through traditional guides to eliminate tangles.

While visitors walked the grounds waiting for the weigh-in on Day 2, B.A.S.S. officials, workers and volunteers readied the site for the return of 102 Elites starting with Flight 1 at 2:30 p.m. Cameras, it seemed, were everywhere, either on shoulders or fixed on tripods.

The Bassmaster Elite Series tournament weekend coincided with the four-day Orange County River Festival. Food, snowball and beverage vendors’ trucks and trailers, which opened at noon Day 1 and Day 2, lined a road leading to the ferris wheel and other rides.

Long before noon and for the rest of the afternoon Friday, beaucoup bags of ice in carts and wheelbarrows traversed the entire site on a warm, humid day. Mostly cloudy skies plus a brisk southerly wind kept temps in southeast Texas in the mid-80s.

Surprisingly, the holding tanks in back of the big stage are as close as a computer tech from Niantic, Conn., ever gets to bass fishing. Matt Dowd, who has worked Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments since 2005, doesn’t fish, period.

Dowd, who drives to the Elite events closer to his home and flies to faraway venues, such as this year’s Bassmaster Classic (Lake Ray Roberts) and both Elite tournaments (Lake Fork and Sabine River) in Texas, obviously appreciates the atmosphere of a major bass tournament.

The manager of Tournament Technology at B.A.S.S. and six others work the area behind the weigh-in stage where two rows of five holding tanks awaited the onslaught of Elites with bass to weigh. They’re part of a large team pulling together to bring a polished product to thousands of bass fishing fans.

For example, Dowd said, nodding in the direction of the boat ramp’s nearest parking lot, Polly Bradshaw of Standridge, Tenn., was setting up a special plastic tub about 30 yards from the tanks. Elites carry their weigh-in bags with bass and water fresh from the livewell, empty the water, remove the outside bag and carry the mesh bag with bass inside to the tanks, where the fish have aerated water treated with PiranhO₂ Oxygen Enrichment Systems.

Bradshaw is one of the first officials who interacts with Elites following a good, fair or bad day on the water. She sees them at their best and otherwise.

“Justin Hamner is always overly friendly, and Bryan New,” she said.

Even if they experienced a so-so, or worse, day of tournament bass fishing? She nodded her head affirmatively.

However, she said with a chuckle, “Some of them you don’t want to encounter if they had a bad day.”
Bradshaw has been with B.A.S.S. four years. She said her husband, Russ Bradshaw, still works as the “timekeeper” when boats arrive for check-in at the boat ramp and he’s been with B.A.S.S. for 13 years.

After each Elite tournament this season, Russ tows the “big stage” trailer home while she tows the tournament release boat back to Standridge.
“It’s a good way to see the country,” she said.

The Bassmaster LIVE portable studio was located near the big stage with a “jumbotron” between the two most important pieces on-site. Veterans Tommy Sanders and Davy Hite, a retired Elite bass angler, began broadcasting each day at 8 a.m.

It was the first live on-site broadcast for the veteran team in many years, according to Bassmaster Elite Series tournament emcee David Mercer. Typically, their show originates from the B.A.S.S. studio back home in Little Rock, Ark.

The weigh-in, the main event, started with North Carolina bass angler Hank Cherry on Day 2. His five-bass limit weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces, to kick off the first of 102 chats between the affable Mercer and each of the Elites.

The one-liners, inside jokes and lively bass banter flowed to balance out some of the oft-poignant recaps from Elites whose day on the water might have kept them from advancing to Semifinal Saturday. People in the crowd and watching online hung on to every word. Two days later, soon after Pat Schlapper of Eleka, Wis., hoisted the blue trophy for a wire-to-wire win, Mercer thanked the crowd on Championship Sunday. “Orange, Texas, you guys have been absolutely phenomenal. Every single time we come here it seems like it gets bigger and better and you are truly what makes Bassmaster what it is today … Big Bass. Big Stage. Big Dreams. And without you amazing fans we would be nothing. On behalf of the entire Bassmaster staff and family, we want to thank each and every one of you on behalf of our event director, Eric Lopez, our tournament director, Lisa Talmadge, myself, Dave Mercer, thank you, Orange, Texas. We love you and we’ll be back again. Thank you for being in the Bassmaster family.”

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.