This is silly but its kinda bugging me.  One of the things I looked at when I first started looking into a new boat was which Pros fish with which boats.  I had Kevin VanDam fishing from a Nitro?  He is in all the Nitro commercials and the Bass Pro Shops catalogs for Nitro...right?  In my new Bassmasters Techniques 2005 Magazine on page 18, it has a section authored by KVD, but the picture has him fishing from what appears to be a Triton?  There is a Triton sticker off to his right on the boats gunwale. What's up with that?  Do these guys just put random stickers on their boats?  And if so why a sticker of a competing boat manufacturer?

Triton is a sponsor of bass. They will most likely not have a pic of an angler in he or she's but if not sponsored by BASS. In tournies they fish out of their boats until the final one or two days when it is aired because of the sponsors they have they will not have a guy fishing out of a ranger when ranger is not sponsored by BASS. But they will sure throw him in a triton or skeeter in a hurry. And the same goes for FLW too.

jayhc2 hit it right on the nose.

Thanks for the input.  I realize its a petty question but it was eating at me.  I did some of my own research along the lines of your explanation and found pretty much what you said to be true.  It's basically like Triton and Skeeter are the rides for pros fishing BASS, and Stratos and Ranger are with the guys fishing the FLW tour.  I really wish it wasn't like this but it all comes down to the "all mighty $$ in the end".  Thanks again for your input.

From what I understand, next season the pros will be able to fish out of their own boats for 1 extra day of each tourney. Instead of fishing out of BASS boats on the last 2 days of the tourney they will only do so on the last day. This will give them the opportunity to be seen in their own boats during some of the TV coverage.

They might be fishing out of their own boats, but I doubt they get any TV time. If I had to guess, I would say there will be an abundance of "Waist Up" photography going on. You will not see anyone's boat unless it is a sponsor brand.

I might be wrong, but we shall see.

JT Bagwell