With the debut of BASS Saturday on Jan. 1, ESPN2 launches a new programming lineup that promises to excite bass anglers like a ten-pound largemouth smashing a topwater bait!
Immediately following BassCenter at 7:30 a.m. ET will be “Loudmouth Bass,” a program loosely patterned after ESPNâs popular “Pardon the Interruption.”
Each week, the hosts of Loudmouth Bass, Jay Kumar and Mark Zona, will debate issues with each other and a special guest.
Kumar and Zona are two experts who represent the world of bass fishing from very different perspectives. Kumar, the founder of BassFan.com, will provide a journalist’s point of view while Zona, an accomplished tournament angler, will give the perspective of a touring pro.
Their differing perspectives and backgrounds provide the basis for television’s first outdoors debate program. In fact, the one thing they seem to agree on is the need for a program like Loudmouth Bass.
“This is exactly the stuff that everyone wants to hear and know about, but itâs never been on television before,” said Kumar when asked about the subject matter of the program. “It shows that just like in all pro sports, there’s a whole lot more to it than just what happens at the events.”
“I’ve followed every dip and curve in professional fishing’s phenomenal growth over the last 20 years,” Zona added. “Loudmouth Bass will give us an opportunity to talk about what’s right with the sport and whatâs wrong with it. We’ll talk about a lot of the same things that bass anglers all over the country talk about.”
So what makes these guys “Loudmouths” and allows them to publicly air their opinions and differences each week?
“It certainly won’t be the first time someone’s called me a Loudmouth,” Zona offered, “but I take it as a compliment. I have a deep historical perspective and appreciation for the sport of bass fishing. I’m also an opinionated guy, but I back up my opinions with experience. I’ve worked in just about every part of the bass fishing industry there is.”
“Zona’s a fisherman so he thinks he knows everything,” Kumar said. “As a journalist, I know it’s impossible to know everything.”
“I look forward to coming to work every week now because I get to argue with Jay,” Zona countered.
Both Kumar and Zona are longtime bass fishing insiders.
Kumar began an outdoor writing career in 1991, later becoming a senior writer for Bassmaster Magazine and BASS Times. Ten years later, he left print media to found BassFan.
Kumar is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and a lifelong bass fisherman and outdoorsman whose adventures have ranged from bottom-fishing in the rough waters off Alaska to turkey hunts in Virginia’s Appalachian forests. He is also the author of the novel Dark Woods, a new outdoor thriller.
Mark Zona earned his reputation in the industry with a rod and reel in his hand. He fished his first bass tournament at the age of nine and still fishes competitively. Since earning his associate’s degree in 1994, he’s held jobs in virtually every corner of the sport of bass fishing – as a guide, a tournament director, a manufacturer’s representative and a semi-professional angler.
In the past four years, he’s earned eight top-10 finishes in the Northern Division of the EverStart Series, finished at the top of the division points standings in 2003 and qualified for the FLW Tour, all while working full-time as a boat salesman.
Kumar and Zona will face-off for the first edition of Loudmouth Bass on Saturday, Jan. 1, at 7:30 a.m. ET.By: ESPN Outdoors
