Bass Pros on the World Wide Web

Want the inside scoop? Just point and click

A day on the water with a pro offers the best opportunity for novice anglers to learn about bass fishing. Only a handful of lucky fishermen, however, get to experience this privilege. Seminars are another avenue weekend anglers can take to glean information from top tournament competitors, but any one-on-one correspondence is limited by time constraints and audience size.

More and more, the World Wide Web is emerging as one of the best ways for the fishing masses to interact with the pros and learn their keys to success.

“At the best seminars I’ve ever seen, maybe there are 500 to 1,000 people. But you can reach 50,000 people a month (with a Web site) and the top end on that is really limitless,” says Missouri pro Chad Brauer, who teams up with his dad, Wal-Mart FLW Tour champion Denny Brauer, on two Web sites, brauerbass.com and the Bass Class Online segment of eAngler.com. “We had a guest book in the past and military people who were into fishing from all over the world were signing it.”

Personal pro sites

Touring pros have designed their own Web sites for a variety of reasons. Wal-Mart FLW Tour competitor Curt Lytle established his site as a way to communicate with the general fishing public and give more visibility to his sponsors. His site, curtlytle.com, includes tournament reports, an e-mail port for receiving messages from viewers, links to all of his sponsors and a section entitled “Our Future” in which Lytle expresses his opinions on the environment and conservation issues.

The site also includes his biography, resume, guide service information and tournament schedule, but the Virginia pro believes his tournament report supplies the best information for viewers. “I feel like people hit that every week or two to find out how I did and how I did it,” Lytle says. In his report, Lytle includes basic information on the conditions he encountered during the event and the patterns he relied on to catch his fish.

Another young pro who has turned to the Internet to increase his exposure is Kansas angler Brent Chapman. “It’s just another avenue to promote my sponsors and myself,” says Chapman of his Web site BrentsBassLine.com.

Chapman’s original site provided background material about himself, his tournament results and links to sponsors and information he believes tournament anglers should have accessible to promote themselves. “It’s surprising how many of the big-name pros don’t have anything,” he says. “That’s one thing you are always trying to do: set yourself apart from all the other competitors. The more stuff like that you have, the better.” The Kansas angler recently became the charter Pro Staff member of discovertheoutdoors.com, which he believes will make his sight more informative.

The Brauers designed their original site, brauerbass.com, two years ago to promote their sponsors’ products. “It’s getting so competitive among fishermen for sponsorship dollars that anything you can do like that to get more exposure to the consumers gives you a little bit of an edge over other guys who aren’t doing it,” Chad Brauer says.

As viewership grew, the Brauers decided their Web site should be more than just an avenue for plugging products. “I think it’s great for anglers to help with sponsorship on their sites, but I also think a Web site is great for the public because it’s just another source of information,” Chad says. “If we get a pretty large viewership every month, it should be our responsibility to put some material on there that is really useful.”

The father-and-son team spiced up their Web site by including feature articles and a question-and-answer section. “After about a year we were getting around 50,000 hits a month,” says Chad, who kept getting swamped with questions. “That got to be a little bit too much so we had to end it. I would come home from a tournament sometimes and had to spend 12 hours answering questions. If you’ve got questions on there you have to answer them. You can’t let them sit there.”

The question-and-answer format was revived in the Brauers’ Bass Class Online segment in eAngler.com, where Chad fields 10 viewer queries every month. Other pros whose sites accept questions from anglers are Guido and Dion Hibdon (hibdons.com) and Ken Cook (stabor.com/kencook.htm).

Bass Class Online includes short features written by the Brauers. “We both have a new article in there each month,” says Chad, who writes the articles while Denny supplies the subjects.

“We try to give inside stuff on some of the techniques that we use or maybe how to adapt to some of the conditions we see while fishing,” Chad says. “It’s almost like a miniature seminar. We’re just trying to give them short bits and pieces out of what we talk about at a seminar.”

Chad also writes a monthly tournament diary describing the conditions he faced and the patterns he employed in each event.

Supplying material for their Web sites usually takes Chad about three to four hours a month. The Brauers have also purchased a digital camera to update photos for their sites. “We’re just trying to do some stuff to keep it a little more interesting,” Chad says.

Operation Bass pros on the Web

While individual pros are helping to bring bass fishing closer to the masses via Web communication, tournament organizations like Operation Bass have also taken a right turn onto the information superhighway.

Last year, Operation Bass relaunched its site, OperationBass.com, with a new design and a variety of new features for anglers and fishing fans on the Internet. With its beefed-up coverage of its tournament trails – from the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series and Wal-Mart BFL circuits to the new Texas Tournament Trail and Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit – OperationBass.com provides instant access to tournament news, results and images almost as it happens.

In addition to event coverage, OperationBass.com says it strives to be a valuable fishing resource for fans and anglers alike. How-to features, discussion boards and online registration for Operation Bass events and membership help anglers make their way into tournament fishing a little more easily.

“Two goals were established early on for OperationBass.com,” says Bill Petrowiak, content manager for OperationBass.com. “The first goal was to be the definitive source of tournament news, results and information. Our second goal was to provide anglers with information that would improve their fishing skills no matter what their experience level. That’s why we’ve added regular columns like `Bass Class,’ `The Bottom Line’ and `Ask the Pro,’ which cover topics like teaching kids how to fish and the business side of pro angling. The number of visits to these educational features has shot through the roof.”

One of the major strengths of OperationBass.com is the access it provides to the nation’s top pro anglers. Fishing-tips columns written by the pros themselves tackle everything from dealing with the weather to how to work your favorite lures. In the weekly “Ask the Pro” feature column, a collection of top Wal-Mart FLW Tour pros answer questions submitted online by site users, in effect offering fans and anglers a weekly online fishing seminar. Also, the site boasts an extensive “Angler Profiles” section where career data and, in many cases, photo albums exist for the thousands of anglers who have competed in Operation Bass events.

“OperationBass.com is not going to rest on its laurels,” Petrowiak says. “We continue to research and develop applications, columns and story ideas for the Web site that not only will help improve an angler’s skill level but increase their enjoyment in the sport as well.”

While spending time on the water is still the best learning experience, bass anglers in today’s computer age are quickly learning that a click on the mouse gives them instant access to tips from the top touring pros and a whole lot more.

10 steps to a better Web site

Starting your own Web site can be an overwhelming proposition, but it doesn’t have to be. The Internet gurus at OperationBass.com offer the following simple guidelines to ensure that both you and your readers will have a rewarding experience when all is said and done.

• Identify your audience – Determine who you think will be using your Web site. Once you know who your audience is, you can build a Web site and provide information of interest to them.

• K.I.S.S. – This often-used acronym, Keep It Simple & Straightforward, is the number one thought to keep in mind when designing and building your own Web site. Avoid gimmicks and ensure easy navigation for your readers by making links clear and direct. Think about highway construction. Do you like long out-of-the-way detours? Neither do Web site users. Get your readers from point A to point B the quickest and most direct route. Nothing will cause a visitor to “click off” your site faster than a difficult navigation system.

• Links that link – Broken links (links that don’t “connect” to the feature in question) and misleading links (links that “connect” to an entirely different feature) will lead to frustration and early exits from your site.

• Regular updates – Let your readers know when they can expect your Web site to be updated whether it’s daily, weekly or monthly. If your site isn’t updated on a regular and consistent basis, people will quickly lose interest. Obviously, if you’re putting the time into developing a Web site in the first place, you probably have a lot of information to provide. Share the information with your readers as often as possible.

• Two-way communication – Offer a “contact us” link so readers can communicate with you directly. Oftentimes, you will learn a lot from the readers themselves by way of comments and suggestions. This can be an invaluable tool when planning updates to your Web site.

• Begin with the end in mind – The cost of building a Web site can range from very little to astronomical. Begin with what you can afford, keeping in mind what you would like your Web site to be eventually. Web sites grow and evolve. If you wait to launch your Web site until you have everything you want in place, it will never be done. So start small.

• The return of K.I.S.S. – This time we’re referring to the content of your Web site – Keep It Short & Straightforward. Web site readers are mobile, averaging about three-and-a-half minutes on a site. Keep stories, text and headlines short and to the point. Long, rambling copy with no breaks (subheads, sidebars, photos) will almost certainly turn off and frustrate most visitors.

• The eyes have it – Studies show Web users quickly scan content looking for words, phrases, graphics or pictures that catch their attention. Use plenty of subheads – smaller headlines that break up the text – in longer pieces of content. Adequate use of subheads allows the readers to “catch their breath” as well as gain a better understanding about what the story is all about.

• A picture is worth a thousand words – Use graphics and pictures when possible. But don’t clutter your Web site by making navigation unclear. Graphics and pictures should support the content of your site, not overpower it. Remember, the more pictures on a Web page, the more memory they use and the more time it will take to download, especially on a dial-up modem.

• Have fun – Designing and building your own Web site can be one of the most rewarding and fun projects you do. Have fun expressing yourself and communicating with others.