Now that it's over

[Central Bassman]

Quote:

Now for how she qualified I agree that her path may not have been as hard as the men’s but she did what was required to be there and deserves credit for it. She did not set up the criteria she just met it.

She was WBA angler of the year.. how much harder can it be.. its not like she won one tournament to get in... She was Angler of the YEAR...

Well said!!!

[fishin58]

I am all for it, you cannot hold it against her, also it worked, I was watching it on saturday and I went down in the basement for 5 minutes and I came back up and my WIFE had not changed the channel off of Kim!!! Normally if I leave the room you can consider the channel changed;)

[Deitz Dittrich]

BTW- thanks to all for keeping this a good conversation!!!!!

lets keep it going.

[polarsusd81]

My girlfriend was over on Saturday and I persuaded her to watch a little bit of classic coverage with me. She was surprised to see a woman on there, and asked what the circumstances were.

I explained it as best as I could. I told her that she qualified by being the WBT AOY, meaning she had to fish consistently through out the entire year of tournaments to make it in. She got upset when she saw some of the guys making comments about it on the coverage. Then I had to explain that for the guys to make it, they have a very grueling schedule of fishing tournaments of which the women can enter, but the guys can not enter the WBT tourneys. The criteria for getting in was somewhat sloped, and that is what the guys were upset about. She was still upset that the guys were making those comments, and I was as well. Like DD said, she was the freakin Angler of the Year, meaning she didn't do it by fishing one tourney and getting in.

I figured since this is a somewhat hot topic, I would weigh in with an outsiders view. My girlfriend would have never watched a fishing show in her life if it weren't for me.

[skeeterpro1]

I think they should keep a spot for the women...It helps promote the sport of bass fishing and especially since they didn't drop another spot for her to get in.

[Fluker]

If a woman had qualified before through the opens, wknd series, or federation... or if a woman does that in the future, then I believe that will really quite down the controversy. Until then, I believe the majority of fisherman will wonder if the qualification process is fair.

Let's say BASS doesn't feel their is enough tall men with blonde hair visible in the sport. So they create a league where the criteria is that you must be male, blonde, and 6'6" or taller. The AOY of the 5 tourney season qualifies for the classic. It turns out that NO previous classic qualifiers, or no prevoius tour pro's fit the criteria. Yeah, it's quite a made up scenario, but the outcome would be the same. Some would be unhappy because this group would have a sub set of angler to fish against to make the trip to the classic. I think "most" are past the point of this being a female thing. It's more along the lines of the qualification.

Again, taking NOTHING away from KMB or the WBT. I have a couple friends that fish it and they are good ladies and work there tails off like the rest of us. However the road is not the same. And once again I'll state that I believe the WBT should KEEP their spot. The benefits outweigh the negatives.