Indeed, has been amazing experience for Suggs. The affable and unfailingly polite Suggs tried to be accessible and available to sponsors, the FLW and be a champion that took his role seriously. That accessibility, in fact, kept him from concentrating on his fishing to the point that he's a spectator this year, tossing out "stuff" to the crowd, sitting in the crowd cheering the anglers, and spending time with the media.
That, to me, is the mark of a champion. It's also an honest reflection of what other champions have told me is the simple fact that being a champion makes being a competitive angler much harder.
Big fish in the Forrest Wood Cup can translate into a million dollars. And the seventy-seven pro anglers in this field are all aware of the money. First day leader Mark Rose says while he's not trying to think about the money, "it's, well, a life changing deal." If his lead holds up until Sunday, he says he already has a plan "pray about it and try to use it as wisely as possible."
The festivities surrounding the Forrest Wood Cup would make it seem everything is going great in the fishing industry. In fact, industry insiders I've spoken with this week are telling me that it's really a tough economy if you're not in the "staples" of fishing.
Candidly, some boat and motor companies are hurting this year. And that's reflected in the news we've covered of layoffs, shutdown production lines and the discontinuation of entire boat lines in the more extreme cases.
But, the good news is that the bigger ticket boats are selling, with the low and mid-level boats taking the sales hit. That, the marketing people are telling me, reflects the fact that the buyers of the lower-priced products are seeing their discretionary income gobbled up by higher gas prices.
But until Sunday, everyone involved in the Forrest Wood Cup will put all that behind them. Rather than concentrate on the worrisome aspects of the fishing business, we'll watch world-class anglers fish for big money while we visit with customers - the folks who fish because they love it.
A final note about Thursday's weigh-in. The South Carolina National Guard provided the color guard and vocalist for the opening ceremonies. After a particularly stirring rendition of the national anthem, I asked a fellow guardsman if Staff Sergeant Steven David always "delivered the goods" on a song that can prove the undoing of otherwise successful singers.
"He can bring it," I was told, "he was one of the American Idol top 40 contestants."
This week, it seems everyone in Columbia, South Carolina is capable of "bringing it."
