Bass fishing tees off

by Ryck Lydecker

Move over golf, there's a new game in the business world, a sport used to catch clients, reward employees, promote teamwork and even weight executive promotions. America's most ubiquitous fish, freshwater bass, and the NASCAR-afloat ballyhoo used to pursue them, has hooked corporate America on turf that used to belong, almost exclusively, to golf.

Ken Duke, editor of BASS Times, says businesses--from Fortune 500 companies to independent small firms--are calling on bass guides instead of golf pros to organize corporate outings for everything from schmoozing clients, to developing employee leadership skills.

In the sports world, golfers outrank bass fishermen nearly three-to-one. But Duke contends that companies are looking to bass fishing as an alternative to underwriting an executive golfing retreat.

"It's also something that's a little offbeat and since a lot of people these days have limited outdoor experience, bass fishing is proving a welcome change for corporate America," he maintains.

For one thing, if the fishing is bad, the corporate organizer can blame it on the guide. And if it's good, they get to take all the credit.

Duke also points out that freshwater black bass, the familiar largemouth and smallmouth, are found in 49 of the 50 states. Thus, no one or no business is very far from a sport. And unlike golf, it doesn't ask the player to show up with a bag full of skills.

"Golf has finite limitations but fishing is wide open," says Potomac River bass guide, Capt. Steve Chaconas. "Everyone approaches fishing with slight differences and there's really no 'right way' to fish.

"Sure, you can perfect your casting just like your golf swing but if your lure doesn't go precisely where you want it, there could still be a trophy fish lying in wait for it, rather than a penalty."

A self-described "recovering duffer," Chaconas says the game itself can sometimes get in the way of what a business executive is trying to accomplish with golf.

"Corporate getaways are all about building relationships, whether it's with valued clients, new prospects or members of your staff," Chaconas says. "In golf, you're keeping score and watching the other guy's swing. More golfers are on the course behind you, so you're in a hurry. None of that is conducive to relationship building."

In addition, says Chaconas, with corporate golf outings there also can be not-so-subtle pressures to own the right clubs, wear the right clothes and know all the finer points of the game. He should know. From his former life as a radio and TV financial talk show host in the Washington, DC, market, Chaconas is a veteran of numerous corporate golf outings but says "things are much different on the water."

"When you're out in a bass boat, people take off the corporate veil and begin to relate to each other on a whole different level," says Chaconas. One Washington, DC, firm has a standing order with him for an annual bass outing for 20 people or more.

"Once men get on my boat, they become 'guys'; blue jeans and flannel shirts are great equalizers and catching fish is a bonus," he adds.

Hole-In-One

If golf really is losing ground to bass fishing in the corporate arena, it just might be Randy Edwards' fault. A bass guide on Georgia's Lake Lanier, Edwards tired of the one-at-a-time tourist market for his services that fluctuated widely with the economy. So he began marketing to businesses in the Atlanta area a dozen years ago.

Today, his client firms are familiar blue chip names that glide across Wall Street's Big Board everyday. A Silicon Valley computer giant, a Midwest heavy equipment manufacturer, at least one multinational holding company with business units across the country and an ever-so-familiar Atlanta-based soft drink bottler. All are in Edwards' black book of steady clients. "I don't know if I was a pioneer in the corporate guiding business," Edwards says. "I was just the first one to talk about it."

Talking is how Edwards cracked the corporate retreat market. He started by going door-to-door, so to speak, refining the sales pitch as he went. Satisfied clients spread the word. Edwards pitched his service as an employee incentive system and got a large north Georgia auto dealership to award a fishing trip to its "Employee of the Week." Other companies followed suit.

"Then I began to see that, even when employees were given a choice of golf or fishing, 90% of the time, they'd pick fishing," he says.

"I knew that companies were spending a lot of money to send people down to Hilton Head and places like that for golf outings and lot of them didn't even play the game," Edwards explains. "So I said, 'Look, I can offer you a service that serves the same purpose, is close by and for less money, and it's one that everybody's going to enjoy."

Atlanta-based companies entertaining out-of-state clients on one of Edwards' fishing trips helped cast his message deeper into corporate waters. Pretty soon, companies holding business meetings at Lake Lanier resorts, even golf resorts, wanted to book trips with Edwards. A well-known angler on the bass-fishing circuit, he began arranging multi-boat trips with other guides.

Corporate trips can be a challenge, though, Edwards admits, and some guides refuse to take them.

"In most corporate outings, you haven't spoken one word with your guests beforehand," Edwards says. "The first time you lay eyes on the people you're fixin' to spend the next eight or 10 hours in the boat with, well, they're walking down the dock.

"It's like every trip is a blind date," he adds. "Some guides just can't get used to it."

Today, Edwards' black book that once had 300 names of single-trippers now has only about 20. But these are names good for a steady flow of retreat-style trips, sometimes with a dozen or more boats. One corporate regular, a large plastics manufacturer, books as many as 60 boats for a single outing.

Getting a Grip

Trading a six-iron for a 6-foot graphite rod is an easy transition for most people on the kind of corporate outings that Chaconas and Edwards cater to. For many participants it maybe their first time fishing or at least the first time in a long time.

Novices, male and female, make up about 80% of participants and women are usually better than men at picking up the basics, says Chaconas.

"Women have fewer bad habits and they willingly ask questions," Chaconas says. "If I try to correct a guy's bad habit, he'll say, 'But I've always done it that way,' which is something I never hear from a woman, even if she's fished before.

"Women will ask, 'Am I doing this right? Why do you fish the lure that way?' And if there's a subtlety to the way we're fishing that is producing results, women will pick up on it," Chaconas says. "Not only that, they're able to maintain the discipline to repeat the technique."

RELATED ARTICLE: Convention Execs Hooked on Bass Fishing

Professional meeting planners are a pretty hard lot to impress. After all, luxury hotels and five-star resorts wine and dine them regularly in the hope of attracting their business. So when the Professional Convention Management Association teamed up with the Disney Institute to take 30 senior level meeting planners bass fishing at Disney World, it raised some eyebrows in the ranks.

"We did meet with a lot of skepticism, even hesitation, when we invited people to our Executive Experience and Bass Fishing Toumament," reports Terry Brinkoetter, communications director for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. "Some of the meeting planners said, yes, they would come but they wouldn't fish. Well, that changed quickly.

"Within 90 minutes, it tumed into the most exciting professional bonding experience that I've ever seen in this industry," he explains. "No ifs-ands-or-buts, it was truly amazing."

The event last November combined on-water instruction in bass fishing by top-tier professional anglers with classroom sessions at the institute. By any measure the tools and techniques of bass fishing scored an A-plus, says Glen Ramsborg, the association's education director.