BUFFALO NY — To many people, the idea of fishing conjures up an image of a quiet, idyllic day on the water in search of a few fish, but for the professional angler, the opposite is true.
Competitive fishing is challenging and intense, and Buffalo will soon get a look at this fast-growing sport. The Fishing League Worldwide (FLW) is coming to town July 26th for three days, and it promises to be pretty exciting.
"We had anticipated initially that we would get between 100 and 120 boats registered for this, two fishermen per boat. We were looking at close to 200 fishermen, and at this point, we're up well over a 150 boats registered, and we're anticipating being close to 200 boats and 400 fishermen," said Tom Hersey, Erie County Commissioner of Environment & Planning.
Larry Mazur is a local pro who won the FLW Tournament when it was last here in 2011. He knows that fishing Lake Erie presents challenges much different from smaller bodies of water.
"It seems like it's pretty windy here all of the time, and three-footers are calm days on the water, so you know, a lot of people will stay close to the shore instead of running far because it's dangerous. That wind picks up, you get six, seven foot waves out there. It's like the ocean," said Mazur.
The competition is fierce, and the anglers look for any little bit of knowledge that will give them the edge. That's why most of the competitors spend the week before the tournament practicing on the host lake searching for that elusive "hot spot," and Mazur says that's not always an easy thing to do.
"Anything that's shown on the map, there's gonna be a boat on it. So everybody comes there and they're like, 'Ok, it's a shallower spot in the lake. Fish should be here.' So, that's not where you're winning. The stuff you find out there that's not on the map, that's random in the middle of nowhere, You'll be isolated there from the other 199 people," said Mazur.
The field will be searching for smallmouth bass, a hard-fighting fish that can weigh up to eight pounds in Lake Erie. The lake is arguably the best smallmouth fishery in the world.
"You set the hook on a big smallmouth and instantly that fish is going to the top and trying to jump and shake that lure, goes down and peels your drag, I mean it's jut an intense fight," said Mazur.
Those big fish can mean big bucks to the victor — the top finisher in the tournament nets $90,000, but Hersey believes the big winner will be Western New York.
"They'll be booking rooms for possibly an entire week. We're anticipating that a minimum of 1200 hotel rooms are going to get booked, and we're anticipating right now that our economic impact from this is going to be between $800,000 and $1 million of economic impact," said Hersey.
"It's just great, you know. It's intense, you know. You don't know what you're expecting. You can be hero or zero, you know, but it's fun," said Mazur.
For more information on the tournament, click here.