What’s $1 Million worth?
One of the biggest achievements in professional bass fishing is becoming a member of the $1 million dollar club. A club that only a select handful of the best anglers on the planet have a chance of joining. As time goes on the list will expand naturally, but the rate has definitely increased over the past couple of years. This can be attributed to more circulating information, better anglers, bigger sponsorship, and huge payouts.
The 2007 season saw the largest payout to ever be given in the sport of professional bass fishing. The FLW hosted the Forrest Wood Cup Championship and awarded a top payout of $1 million to the winner. Wow! Go big or go home. Definitely a milestone in the world of professional bass fishing. I would expect to see BASS follow suit very soon as long as they have a major title sponsor backing them. This has to beg the question though, Is the $1 million club too outdated? I guess that would depend on who you ask.
This year saw anglers like BASS anglers Skeet Reese and Kelly Jordan eclipse the $1 million in career earnings mark after many years of fishing. The year also saw the mark achieved by FLW angler Scott Suggs in a single year winning the Forrest Wood Cup Championship and nearly saw the mark hit by BASS angler Boyd Duckett after winning the Bassmasters Classic and a BASS Major event all in the same year.
Currently there are at least 16 “active” touring BASS pros in the $1 million club. Five of those anglers reached the mark in 2007 and there are at least another 4 anglers sitting above $900,000. That means that if the 4 anglers hit the mark in 2008, the club will have almost doubled in the past 2 years. Those stats alone tell you that the industry is growing.
There are others who have hit the mark and have since retired like Roland Martin and some who have hit the mark between fishing 2 organizations like the 2006 Bassmaster Classic Champ, Luke Clausen. I would have to say that as anglers like Vandam and Brauer near the $5 million mark, the status quo may change, but for now $1 million dollars is still tough to beat and remains remarkable.
The table below show BASS anglers and does not include FLW anglers.
BASS Career Earnings:
|
BASS $1 Millilon Active Angler Club: |
BASS Approaching Anglers: |
| Kevin Vandam $2,604,458.30 | Timmy Horton $988,637.30 |
| Denny Brauer $2,218,901 | Boyd Duckett $969,772.50 |
| Rick Clunn $1,856,794 | Terry Scroggins $926,115.30 |
| * Larry Nixon $1,634,858 | Greg Hackney $923,700.00 |
| Peter Thliveros $1,604,189.00 | Dean Rojas $888.862.80 |
| Shaw Grigsby Jr. $1,464.405.30 | |
| Davey Hite $1,346,750 | |
| Michael Iaconelli $1,325,839.00 | |
| Takahiro Omori $ 1,146,993.00 | |
| Zell Rolland $1,126,065.90 | |
| **Skeet Reese $1,264,558.30 | |
| **Aaron Martens $1,150,176.40 | |
| **Alton Jones $1,083,729.10 | |
| **Edwin Evers $1,020,075.00 | |
| **Kelly Jordan $1,013,962.50 | |
* Currently active with FLW ** Reached $1 million mark in 2007
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POSTED IN: BASS, FLW, Miscellaneous
4 opinions for What’s $1 Million worth?
Ryan
Oct 19, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Look at my Skeete Reese inching his way toward the top, and he’s still climbing!
ALDave
Oct 22, 2007 at 12:01 pm
There are some pretty impressive anglers who have reached a mill in a short period of time. Look at guys like Elias and Cook. They have been around for a long while now and still haven’t reached it. Still relavent at this point I believe
Ryan
Oct 23, 2007 at 11:20 am
Elias and Cook are gonna get theirs. No denying that!
Tim
Oct 23, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Man, I can think of a lot of things I could do with that kinda money! I bet they don’t use it to buy fish, though! =)
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