Entry 27-2

Emily Shaffer

Shaffer on Sponsors

Editor's Note: Emily Shaffer of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, won the 1995 Bass-N-Gal World Championship (the Classic of the women's bass-fishing circuit), and since has caught the largest bass ever weighed in at a Classic (male or female) weighing 9.01 pounds. In 2000, she won her first Women's Bass Fishing Association (WBFA) tournament.

Question: Tell me a little bit about the life of a tournament fisherman?

Shaffer: Your hobby becomes sleeping. When you become a tournament angler, you barely have time to sleep. I start on Sunday morning getting up and going fishing. I practice all of the time. Even if I don't catch a fish, I've learned something that day, and I've eliminated water.

As I put up my rods and reels, I think about my day -- what I've accomplished, what I've caught and what I didn't catch. Then I go eat. After I eat, I get my maps out and determine where I need to fish the next day. I follow that same routine every day of the week. In the morning, I get up and get my boat ready, and I eat breakfast. Then I put my rods and everything in the boat, go fishing and just do my homework.

Question: How do you go about getting sponsors? Do women have a harder time getting sponsors than men?

Shaffer: Yes, we do have a hard time getting sponsors. Anglers have a harder time getting sponsors in general these days. When I was younger, anglers could more easily get sponsors. These days, sponsors have realized that they're not getting the bang for their bucks that they should. If an angler wants to get sponsors, he or she needs to get to know the local writers. Take your local writers fishing. Get your name into the public eye. Go to a local bass pro shop and talk to the people. Get up and give seminars. That effort will get your name out there.

The more you get your name in print or on TV, the more exposure you'll get. Then you can go to the sponsor and say, "Hey, I give seminars at such-and-such a shop, and I had this article written on me by so and so. I can get your products exposure too." As you come up the ladder, you'll get more sponsors.

Question: How many tournaments did you fish in when you were first getting started?

Shaffer: The women's tour has five week-long tournaments. If you make it to the Classic, you'll fish in six week-long tournaments. I also fish a lot of open tournaments at home. When I first started fishing, before I went full time with the ladies' tournaments, my husband and I averaged fishing 20 tournaments a year together.

Question: So, you mostly now just compete in women's tournaments?

Shaffer: I still compete locally with the guys. But if I hadn't started fishing by myself, I wouldn't have the respect for anglers that I do. When my husband first started getting me into tournament fishing, we fished together. But when he got a job where he couldn't go with me, I learned what it was like to crawl through the vehicle, take your boat off the trailer, go tie it up, run around, get back in the truck, go park your truck and do it all.

Question: What is your goal?

Shaffer: My goal is to win an FLW tournament. I'm going to compete in two of them this year.




 

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