After hearing so many different opinions about B.A.S.S., both negative and positive, I was wondering how much conservation they actually do.  They have ACT, but is all they do tournaments and their magazines?  I was just curious, and would appreciate the information. ;D

Topwater,

I am good friends with the Texas BASS Conservation director, and he does ALOT to

conserve the resource. The Arizona director works hard as well. The state conservation

directors, and even the alot of the BASS affliated club conservation directors spend

countless hours of their own time working to conserve the resource. Our director here

in Texas has been able to get grant money to start an native aquatic vegetation nursery

for habitat improvement on some of our lakes. Most of these guys are TOP NOTCH!

BASS used to be more pro-active from the top and used the federations as their army, so to speak, to get the job done.  Since ESPN has taken over, I see much less coming from the top as far as leadership that gets into publications and draws attention to the organization and how it's as concerned about the conservation side of fishing as it is the tournament side.  That's where I think ESPN is failing the many founding concepts of BASS.  

Every B.A.S.S. club does a conservation project. That is huge.

Garnet

You can't say enough about Ray Scott and what he has done over the years. The only negative thing he has done, was sell B.A.S.S. to ESPN.

Falcon

You can't say enough about Ray Scott and what he has done over the years. The only negative thing he has done, was sell B.A.S.S. to ESPN.

Falcon

Actually Ray Scott didn't sell BASS to ESPN he sold it back in the late 80's to a Alabama business woman and she sold it to ESPN.  BASS still does alot but it is at the local level with some work done through the Federation Nation working together to do some in the National area.