Somewhere along the line a famous man once said, "The older one gets the quicker time passes."
It seems like just yesterday we looking forward to 2012 and now we are on the eve of saying goodbye to it. As time passes we have a tendency to spend more of it thinking about the past.
This year brought some great news for Chautauqua County and its sportsmen, including a two and half month long bear hunting season to an expanded archery season. While both have been a long time coming it took a lot of time to convince those in Albany the new season date are the right thing to do. The addition to the new Youth Big Game hunting weekend was a major plus to the hunting season schedule and will do more for the future of hunting than anything that has been done in years.
One of the biggest things to hit Chautauqua Lake in a long time was the visit of 25 of the nation's top professional bass fishermen in the country to take part in Major League Fishing's Summit Cup event.
Jack Link's Major League Fishing announced that its second televised event The General Tire Summit Cup - will premiere on Outdoor Channel at 9 p.m. Thursday. Summit Cup episodes will air six times per week, an increase of one episode per week from the first season.
Outdoor Channel, America's leader in outdoor TV, produced seven episodes of the Summit Cup, which was held in late August on Chautauqua Lake. Each day of the six-day competition comprises one episode with the seventh episode showcasing insider fishing tips.
The Summit Cup broadcasts will be shown throughout the first quarter of 2013 on the Outdoor Channel. The championship round also will air on Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT on NBC. Subsequent to its airing on NBC, the championship round will re-air on the Outdoor Channel the following week.
In addition to new episodes airing on Thursdays, Outdoor Channel will rebroadcast the Jack Link's Major League Fishing one-hour episodes throughout the week, allowing fans to catch a competition day they may have missed. The days and times are Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m.; Sunday, 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday, 1 p.m; and Thursday, 11 a.m.
"We are delighted to have an outstanding television schedule for the Summit Cup. It is quite evident, with the addition of another hour per week of coverage, that Outdoor Channel believes it has a great product in Major League Fishing," said Major League Fishing Commissioner Don Rucks.
"I believe anyone who watched our first event saw that Major League Fishing broke new ground with the way we covered professional competitive fishing. The second set of broadcasts will be even better. We had a great event at Chautauqua Lake, and I can't wait for sports fans to watch how these top-level anglers performed with no practice on one of the finest venues in the country," added Rucks.
Tom Hornish, Outdoor Channel President and CEO, said "Major League Fishing is among the cornerstone original programs appearing on our network in the first quarter of 2013. We know there is significant interest in the world of pro bass fishing among our viewers and are pleased to have worked closely with the league to offer the series on both Outdoor Channel and NBC."
Major League Fishing is a partnership between Outdoor Channel and 24 of the world's best anglers. The league features made-for-television bass fishing events designed to bring high-level challenges to participants and entertainment, as well as insight, to audiences.
Major League Fishing's made-for-television events utilize a format that allows anglers to weigh all the score-able bass that they catch. The bass are immediately weighed after they are caught, then released back into the water. Anglers know where they rank in the standings at all times via real-time leader boards in their boats. The competitors are not allowed to practice before events and knew the Chautauqua Lake destination only two days prior to the start of the Summit Cup.
Major League Fishing is probably one of the biggest events that has been hosted on Chautauqua Lake and will bring national and international attention to the excellent bass fishing that Chautauqua Lake has to offer.