Editors note: Yes I AI generated this photo.

There’s a lot of moving and shaking going on around the professional fishing industry right now. Or what I like to call BASS silly season when anglers are making sponsor moves and going to different companies but this year seems a little different.

I originally thought about writing a piece on best winter time bass fishing lakes in West Virginia but this topic seems a lot more interesting.

Before I dig into an opinion piece, let’s take a note of the most notable changes in sponsor during this years “BASS silly season.” Another thing to note this only Bassmaster Elite Anglers I’m referring to.

Mike Iaconelli

Leaving Rapala/VMC hard baits and terminal tackle and joining Berkley hard baits and terminal tackle. I would think a lot of this transition would have to come from Rapala getting into the soft plastic game and I’m sure Berkley put the brakes on that.

Drew Cook

Leaving Big Bite Baits. GSM who owns Bill Lewis, Yamamoto Baits, Buckeye Lures, Phenix Rods to name a few bought out Big Bite Baits just recently.

Part of me would believe that he dropped that due to his deal with Dobyns, but I’m not for sure on that. Either way, interesting.

Hank Cherry

Leaving PureFishing, joining Monsterfish Outdoors.

This one is kind of a head scratcher as Monsterfish is seemingly a start up company. They own BassMooch Baits, Level Fishing Rods, Xhing Line. I would have to think maybe he has bought into that company or help create them and was willing to drop Pure Fishing for them.

Clark Wendlandt

Joins Falcon, Bill Lewis, Buckeye and Big Bite Baits. Not sure how the deal with Falcon works but Wendlandt has put his eggs into the GSM Outdoors basket.

Hunter Shryock

Leaving Phoenix and joining Ikon boats. Wouldn’t much surprise as he has a close relationship with Jacob Wheeler who I believe owns some of Ikon boats. Don’t hold me to that. Not surprised by the swap, I think it’ll be a good look for Hunter and nice to see a new brand of a rig on the Elite Series.

Lee Livesay 

Joins Express. Livesay lands a boat deal after last year being dropped by Ballistic with just a few weeks before the season. Excited to see Livesay in the tin can.

Matt Arey

Joins Bass Pro Shops. Very cool deal for Matt along with his Toyota deal. He has set himself up very well in the sponsorship game and should be proud of that.

Jacob Foutz

Acquire Millertech Batteries. As polarizing as his videos have been recently, it’s nice to see Foutz land a deal with a company. I think his videos have gave him fire and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more companies jump on with him in the future after some of the dust settles.

I’m probably missing a bunch but that is the most notable I have seen yet. Obviously have heard rumors but nothing set in stone on some of those. If you know of more please leave comment on our social media platforms and let us know.

Finally, on to what this article is about. I recently watched a video of Ben Milliken explaining how corporate greed has kind of taken over the bass fishing industry. He does a fantastic job explaining it in a video that I’ll share below.

Basically, around 2019 and 2020 stretch when the outdoor industry was exploding due to COVID. A lot of big corporations wanted to get in on the boom. So a few small companies such as Pure Fishing or GSM outdoors were bought out by giant capital ventures or really were forced to sell out for different reason whether it be over legal matters or whatever it might be. Milliken does a great job of explaining all of that debacle.

Simply put it this way, it’s kind of frightening now that we have these giant companies and hedge fund managers who are strictly into this just for money that are now managing such large and successful brands within the fishing industry. They obviously don’t want the brands to fail but they also have their best interest in mind and not the fishing industry best interest in mind. I would have to think some of these sponsor changes would have to do with this, but I wouldn’t be 100% certain. Just an observation

And when sales aren’t going well for their fishing brands can mean big cuts within the company and that typically means marketing dollars deducted which ultimately effects professional bass fishing as a whole.

It’s been interesting to keep up with and I think we are going to see some big changes in 2024 during the election year. Some good, some not so good. Get your popcorn ready.