The main purpose of Randall Tharp’s trip to China was to work on his signature line of rods with the manufacturer. As the first American bass pro to fish there, he was surprised to see how many Chinese have been hit hard by the bass bug.
“The coolest thing for me was getting to fish,” Tharp said. “I got to meet this group of guys, basically like a bass club, and it was one of the better lakes in the entire country. They followed me around, filmed me for a couple days. They were just fascinated. I think I showed them some things they’ve never seen before.”
Editor’s note: See China photos.
Tharp made the trip halfway around the world with wife, Sara, to visit ARK Fishing International facilities in Weihai. He used the company’s rods last year and was putting his designs and name on 14 models, which they hope to debut at the Bassmaster Classic Expo.
“The trip was a lot more than that for us,” Tharp said. “We were there for nine days, went to like four different cities. It was pretty awesome.”
Seeing ancient history like the Forbidden City, built in the 1500s, awed the Tharps, as much as climbing to one of the highest points of the Great Wall (construction began around 771 B.C.) exhausted them. But Tharp got excited when he spoke of the passion among the Chinese anglers he met.
“The coolest thing is seeing what those guys go through to go bass fishing,” he said, “and their quest for knowledge and trying to becoming better anglers.
“I went to dinner with this group of guys for two nights, and none of them spoke a lick of English, but we had a translator. We basically never went to sleep for about two nights. Those guys just quizzed me from dinner until the sun came up the next morning.”
Tharp said they all had very smart, well-educated questions that mined his fishing knowledge. While there are not a lot of freshwater lakes and only a few with bass, bass fishing and stocking programs are growing in the country of 1.379 billion people.
“The place I fished was absolutely beautiful, and what surprised me was the huge population who fish,” said Tharp, who gained a big crowd on social media. “A guy in my boat had a cellphone and said, ‘We’re live right now.’ It was 3,000 viewers when we started, and about 20 minutes later more than 10,000.
“I was just blown away that there was 10,000 that even knew what bass was over there. I thought that was absolutely incredible.”
After flying for 13 hours from Dallas to Beijing, the Tharps took a high-speed train to the east coast city of Weihai, where 90 percent of the fishing merchandise in the country is made. After two days of work and tours there, they flew another 600 miles into Taiyuan, with another 40-minute drive into the mountains to the lake.
Tharp said he fished for largemouth bass – his biggest was a 4-pounder that served as icing on the cake – and while similar to fishing America, the baitfish were nothing he’d ever seen. Familiar sights came in the way of B.A.S.S. logos, like on the vehicle that picked him up.
“Other than the sticker on the van, guys I was around all had B.A.S.S stuff on,” he said. “They follow it was much as they can. I think the government regulates it, so there’s no Bassmaster Magazine. There are ways they can follow our tournaments, and they do. They live it, just like we do.”
After Tharp left, he was told his visit was documented on a national news report, something along the lines of, “American bass pro fishes China.”
“It was an interesting trip,” he said. “It’s not a place I’d recommend going on vacation, but we had really good handlers everywhere we went. There was always somebody with me that spoke Chinese.
“If you’re not kind of adventurous when it comes to eating, you can starve over there. You’re not going to find a cheeseburger.”
Sara tried that but ended up disappointed, like on most of her dining attempts. The unusual fare – “They don’t waste a thing on animals” – didn’t suit her palate.
“I lost 4 pounds,” she said. “The food was not my favorite thing. I asked, ‘When are we going for Chinese food? Beef with broccoli? Our translator said that’s fake Chinese food.”
A la A Christmas Story, the Tharps did experience at least one fantastic meal of a roasted duck, complete with a head to be chopped off.
“I thought it was delicious and one of the best meals,” Randall said.
While he was fishing in Taiyuan, Sara was told of a Burger King and ventured out for a cheeseburger, but she was disappointed when the bacon was raw and the hamburger cold.
Another big takeaway was just seeing how differently the people live, like most of the cities are mainly high-rise apartments. Randy said he doesn’t think there’s a middle class, that the people are either really poor or really loaded.
“It’s a luxury to have a car over there, and they’re way nicer than our cars – all Mercedes, BMWs, Porsches,” he said, adding traffic was a nightmare. “I don’t know how we didn’t see somebody get killed there.
“I’ve been to Manhattan, and it’s pretty crazy driving in a taxi. You can times it by five, and then you throw in a bunch of people walking, and on bicycles, mopeds and three-wheelers. There was all kinds of vehicles I’d never seen before. And it’s just total chaos. It’s like no rules. There’s some traffic lights, but nobody abides by them. It’s like every man for himself.”
Crazy, he thought, when told how much is costs to even import and own a car. An $80,000 vehicle would cost its owner around a quarter million U.S. dollars. Tharp was told the Ranger Z520 bass boat he fished out cost about $130,000 to have there.
Sara said it was a spectacular trip, sans the food.
“It was a lot cleaner than I thought,” she said. “We were nervous flying over there, but we had people taking care of us. I wouldn’t recommend going by yourself.
“The Great Wall was awesome. I would do that again. Everybody should do that, if you’re ever in China. It was amazing.”
The section they toured, which draws 144 million visitors a year, included a physically taxing climb to a summit.
“It was a lot steeper than I thought,” she said. “It was cold so we had three layers of clothes on, and after 10 minutes we began taking off layers. It was a workout, but when we made it to the top it was just beautiful.”
Going inside the Forbidden City is on the to-do list for next time, as is better planning. For the 13-hour flights, the neck pillow bought on the return flight is a must.
“The only thing I would do different – we would pack more snacks,” she said. “I just wanted a steak so bad.”
