A Look at How Covid-19 Is Impacting Our Sport

As for yours truly, my time on the water has been reduced somewhere between 50 and 60 percent in the last few months. Granted, I can't chalk it all up to the coronavirus, but that, along with the heat and humidity in recent weeks, certainly has been involved. For the most part, I've been limiting my trips to the scheduled Dewey Mullins Memorial Bass Tournaments.

Accordingly, I decided to research what was been happening in other circles as a result of the pandemic. It didn't take very long to find how Walker Smith of the Wired2Fish staff weighed in. "I'm certainly not taking this virus lightly, but what is it going to hurt to let us keep fishing?" was his response to learning that Illinois had closed all of its state-owned fisheries, wildlife areas, and parks.

"This is our pastime, and we're not hurting a soul," he continued. "Is there a better, more enjoyable way to practice social distancing...? Personally speaking, I can launch my boat and not touch a single thing that's not mine... . I'm not talking to anyone, and I'm dang sure not any closer than 6 feet from anyone. Heck, I won't even be 200 yards from someone."

One of the worst things for your immune system is stress. As Smith explained, "Myself and millions of others combat stress with fishing. Let us continue to take our kids on the water. Let us continue to breathe fresh, clean air... ."

I might add, "Let us enjoy what we can of the new normal."

During my research for this post, I also stumbled across an interview of Ken Duke, the managing editor of Fishing Tackle Retailer Magazine. It was done by Lyons Nida, a guest writer for Six Mile Post, the student news site of Georgia Highlands College.

"Potentially devastating" is how Duke described Covid-19's effect on the fishing industry. "Our very way of life has been fundamentally altered," he said, adding, "many industries have found themselves negatively impacted... ."

It first hit the production chain.

"So much is made in China," noted Duke, "and because of Covid-19, many of these products either have not been made at all or in a timely manner. This hit to the supply chain would be devastating enough on its own, but it's been made much worse by the impact on major retailers."

According to John Nida, president of a small Georgia fishing company, "60 percent of my company's revenue comes from business with big box retailers. When Covid-19 hit, big box retailers, such as Bass Pro Shop, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Academy Sports, immediately began to reduce the number of operating hours and reduce staff. It eventually led to their closing in-store sales to consumers, relying instead on consumer sales through online orders to be picked up curbside. For us, this had a dramatic negative impact."

Duke explained that the timing of the virus also was extremely unfortunate for the fishing industry. "The biggest time for sales is March, April and May, which, of course, is around the time the virus hit America. The entire industry essentially is missing out on their biggest season for sales... ."

While people are less likely to spend money on non-essential goods during a crisis like the current one, Duke noted there has been some good news for stores like Walmart that have remained open and continued selling fishing goods. "Unfortunately, though," he said, "the issue of supply has kept this from being a massive positive. There just aren't enough products to reload these stores."

"On the flip side, however," as explained by Nida, "roughly 40 percent of our small-business sales comes from independent dealers, and when consumers can't go to the big box retailers, they often go to local retail shops instead. To that extent, we've seen a jump in sales."

As earlier noted by Walker Smith of Wired2Fish, fishing is a sport that has built-in social distancing, so it still can be performed during a pandemic. Otherwise, the situation would be a lot more grim than it already is.