Texas style fishing as an Olympic Sport

A recent news article made much of the fact that in a recent fishing contest here in Texas, all the competitors had to undergo drug screening before they could enter the competition. The reasoning given is that the world of competitive fishing is trying to get itself taken seriously enough to become an Olympic sport competition.

The fact of the matter is that around here, competition fishing is primarily bass fishing which requires a Texas sized and powered bass boat, tons of expensive equipment including fish finders, electronic sensor fishing lures, high test space shuttle material lines, coolers with built in hot and cold dispensers, butt blister relieving creams, salves and pillows, cb radios with covert listening devices and good old boy testosterone and cash in equal amount. This is not your peaceful sit along the bank with a line and reel and contemplate nature experience, hell no, this is “Texas Boys with their Texas Toys” and don’t you forget it Yehawww!

So how will this translate, aside from the drug testing, to an Olympic sport? Many questions arise.. Will they stock the local lake with numerous equal sized fish and go for quantity? Will they standardize equipment to a simple line and reel along with a row boat and a tin can to pee in and go for quality? Will they simply turn the competitors loose on a lake and give a gold medal to whoever catches a fish first or will they go for number of fish caught in a certain time period. Of course if one of the rules states that the fish all have to be eating size, then they could do a whole sequence of competitive fishing, cleaning and grilling up as a triathlon style competition. But then how would they standardize the grill and barbeque requirements? Texas would definitely carry the advantage there as most serious grills are at least pick up size if not 18 wheeler rigs. And what if the Olympic judges don’t like fish? Could the gold medal earning results be given to charity or better yet, auctioned off on Ebay to raise funds for the next Olympic venue?

In the meantime, here in Texas, the protests against drug testing for competitive fishermen continues to stir up much controversy as many of the fishermen feel it is an insult to their freedom as well as “their Texas Manhood.”