Put the EXCITEment into tournament fishing!

ESPN hopes that its TV fishing tournaments will one day be as popular as NASCAR and is looking for ways to make it more exciting.

Jim Chapralis, president of Angling Matters, thinks he has a formula that will not only add excitement to televised fishing tournaments, but eventually it could interest international audiences and participation from other countries.

His plan involves five events, using all fishing methods (plug casting, spinning, fly fishing and trolling) at five locations (in Canada, Costa Rica and the U.S.), for different species including tarpon, sails, bonefish, bass and pike. Of course, locations and species are provided merely to illustrate his plan, which he dubs World Series of Fishing.

The angler who scores the highest (based on an equitable point system) in all the events, is crowned World Series of Fishing All-Round Champion. In addition, to a spectacular trophy, the winner receives a "knock-me-over" cash prize.

Wouldn't you like to see Denny Brauer, Ricky Clunn or other bass experts, tied onto a big tarpon on the flats using a fly rod? Or, perhaps famous flyrodder Billy Pate fishing for bass with a plug-casting outfit in Texas? Or, an expert trout fly fisherman hooked on to a sailfish in Costa Rica? Or billfishermen Tred Barta or Mike Levitt casting surface plugs at northern pike in Canada or dry flies at Montana trout?

Women should be encouraged to compete via qualifying rounds. There are several ladies that Chapralis believes would place quite high in the standings. One of them landed a striped marlin hooked on a fly,  while she was fishing from an Avon inflatable boat. How many people have landed a marlin on a fly from any boat?

Want more excitement? Limit the fighting time for such species as sailfish and tarpon. Give bonus points if a marlin is landed in the sailfish event. Or limit the bass fishing to four-pound test line as Ray Scott, the originator of B.A.S.S., has suggested. Perhaps the pike competition should be restricted to surface lures and the trout fishing to classic dry flies. The possibilities are endless.

Who knows, maybe ESPN could coax Curt Gowdy out of retirement to do the announcing! What an incredible package that would be!

"I started thinking of what I would do if I were ESPN, and slowly this formula came to mind," Chapralis explains. "There are lots of advantages but also some disadvantages to this concept. But I'm convinced if ESPN did it could be a winner."

The above are just a few of the salient points of Chapralis' recipe. For complete information on click on www.anglingmatters.com/excite.htm