FISH LIKE AN AMATEUR ........WIN LIKE A PRO !

Sealy Outdoors, Inc.
Creators of "McDonald's® Big Bass Splash®"
 

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Sealy Outdoors, Inc.; America's Leading Outdoor Production Company
Making it happen throughout the year, in and out of the office . . .

Bob Sealy  Founder & CEO of Sealy Outdoors, Inc. Bob is the Tournament Director for all of the tournament events. He was born and raised in Mexia, Texas, his father was a cattle rancher & auctioneer. He graduated from Mexia High School in 1967 and attended Navarro Jr. College. He then went to work in real estate for 19 years where he and Donna met and later married in 1976. Bob loves the outdoors and with his busy schedule still manages to find time to Fish & Hunt.

Donna Sealy  Donna was born in Madrid, Spain and traveled all over the world with her family while her father was active in the Military. She worked at Doe Valley Resort, as office manager, where she met Bob and they later married in 1976.  Together they have been promoting and conducting big bass tournament events since 1983. With the help of their son, Brandon, and daughter, Nicole, they have definitely made Sealy Outdoors a family affair.  Donna is responsible for accounting, administration, advertising in the office and making sure she is always available anytime the staff needs her.  Donna loves the outdoors and you can usually find her working in the yard or spending time with her family, that is when she finds the time to get away from the office.

Nicole Sealy  Nicole graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in '04 with a Bachelors degree in Business Management and has been employed with Sealy Outdoors as the Tournament Operations Manager over the Redfish Nation saltwater events. Beginning '07 she has been working with corporate sponsors and coordinating the special events at Sealy Outdoors such as the "Block Party". As the daughter of Bob and Donna, Nicole has been working the tournaments since she was 11 and has participated in every function of the business. Nicole is always willing to help and makes her weekends available for any of the tournament functions. She never meets a stranger and she loves the fishing industry.
 

Jan Fondren  Jan joined the Sealy Outdoors staff in Fall of ’05.  She is responsible for the promotion of Sealy Outdoors events at various trade shows, as well as, overseeing all merchandise sales. She also handles the administrative duties in the office. Jan is always there to lend a helping hand and you will never catch Jan without a smile. Jan has worked with the public in many aspects including public relations, and sales. She resides in Sam Rayburn with her husband Bill who is also a member of the Sealy Outdoors tournament/Block Party staff.  

Jimmie Clark Jimmie has worked with Sealy Outdoors for the past several years on a part time basis and has officially joined the Sealy Outdoors staff as a full time employee January 2008.  She is responsible for the oversight of all Freshwater tournaments here at Sealy Outdoors as well as assisting with Redfish Nation tournament events. She and her husband Rusty along with their daughter Ashton reside in Sam Rayburn. Rusty and Ashton also help out at many of the tournament events. Jimmie previously worked at the Evadale ISD and we are very excited to have her on our staff.

Sealy Outdoors, Inc. events could not be possible without help from an host of extra staffers who contribute their time and expertise to make the events come together. These are the folks who make it happen.  The CREW . . .

   
In 1983 Bob Sealy had a Dream.....and was to put together the ultimate big bass tournament - one which is open only to amateurs, but which overshadows even the richest of the tournaments on the professional tour. Today that dream has materialized into a reality and has reached beyond bass fishing into catfishing.
 

"Not All Bass are equal, Bob advises, But they do count . . . ";

Photo by Ed Snyder

There were many times Bob sat in front of a television watching fishing shows like Bill Dance, Hank Parker and Jimmy Houston, subconsciously saying to himself, "I wish that was me." Then after fishing several tournaments himself, he soon came to realize that these types of events weren't just for the pros, but for all types of fishermen and women. Of course, not everyone could afford the entry fees and expenses that the pros had to pay so he decided that he would start a tournament strictly for the amateurs and make it affordable for the occasional weekend fisherman. With all this in mind, Bob Sealy created what is known as today as the McDonald's "Big Bass Splash" Tournament Trail. These tournaments are directed towards the amateur fisherman, no pros no guides. There are hourly paybacks and the largest bass of the event takes home the grand prize.

The McDonald's "Big Bass Splash" tournaments benefit various Ronald McDonald Houses in the different states where these events are held. Bob has been involved with raising money for the various Ronald McDonald Houses since 1986 and has raised over $3 million. These funds are constantly increasing the house ability to operate. Since the Ronald McDonald House is totally dependent upon outside contributions, whatever we can contribute has to help somewhere along the line. The most important thing is that a lot of these children that are being treated in a hospital, and whose parents are staying at a Ronald McDonald House, don't survive. Bob states "I don't think people realize what a percentage that is."

If you were to walk through a children's hospital, just walk down the hallways, and realize that the children around you are afflicted with leukemia or cancer or other catastrophic diseases. These children are so serious and so severe that they probably don't stand a chance of making it over a period of time. You can't imagine a parent who can't afford to stay in a hotel room for weeks and weeks. A Ronald McDonald House is not a boarding house, it has all the comforts of home. When you have 10 or 12 couples that are all staying at a Ronald McDonald House, it also serves as a place where they can consult each other. They are all going through the same problem, but some of them have more difficulty dealing with it than others.

The McDonald's "Big Bass Splash" events over the past 20 years have not only raised funds for the Ronald McDonald House, but have also paid out in excess of 20 million dollars to amateur fishermen. Noted, as being one of the largest amateur big bass tournaments of it's kind in the U.S., the McDonald's® Big Bass Splash® tournaments have also created a family atmosphere and are referred to by most fishermen as "McBass". People travel every year to Sam Rayburn, TX; Toledo Bend, LA; Lake Fork, TX; Guntersville, AL from as far away as Alaska, New York, Los Angeles and Florida to migrate as one big reunion. Campgrounds, RV Parks, motels and hotels surrounding all these lakes are full of excitement and the anticipation of taking home a brand new boat or winning $ $ $ $ $ CASH $ $ $ $ $ $. In 2007 the McDonald's Big Bass Splash added Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, Kissimmee, FL to it's tournament trail.

Our tournaments promote family weekend fun - fathers, mothers and children spending time together. This is one of the reasons the Little Angler's Division was created. It is designed for children 12 years and under fishing for different divisions: Bass, Catfish, Crappie and Perch. This has always been one of Bob's favorites. He believes in the Future Fishing Foundation and loves working with children. He gets a kick out watching the kids come through the weigh in line with their catches. I remember on one occasion him saying "It warms my heart when a child comes up to the weigh-in grinning from ear to ear, holding a perch that's smaller than the palm of my hand - "I Love It!!!" It's families of children just like these, like yours and mine, who benefit from the help of the Ronald McDonald House. .

H-I-S-T-O-R-Y What is this? Well if you've ever attended a McDonald's "Big Bass Splash" tournament you'd know. The crowd gives you no mercy. Boats are given away at the final awards ceremony and if you're not there the crowd declare you "HISTORY". During the final awards ceremony Bob does his famous elimination drawing. As Bob reaches deep down into all the contestants entry forms and calls a name, the crowd gives them about 10 seconds before they are yelling "HISTORY" in hopes their name will be drawn next. This means that contestant failed to stick around for the grand finale and Bob must reach in and draw until he has five contestants on stage. The highlight of the whole event is when all five contestants are up on stage and knowing with great anticipation that four will have to leave and one will win the boat. We've watched people jump six foot off the stage and then we've seen people break out into tears of joy and go to their knees, because the last one standing WINS. 

Bob says that there are so many memories that will stand out in his mind forever. One in particular was April of 1992 on Lake Sam Rayburn, known to most as the "Granddaddy of them all". This was the largest tournament in the history of the lake, drawing over 6,000 entries. We paid back in excessive of a quarter of a million dollars in cash and prizes. Ron Stepan was fishing with his 13 year old son, Jason, in a flat bottom aluminum boat, when he caught the winning bass, a 12.13 pounder, worth $45,500. Ron was quoted as saying, " I'd never have landed that fish without Jason. It was as much his fish as it was mine. The money means a lot, but doing it with one of my sons means a whole lot more than anything money can buy."

Even though big bass fishing has been the stepping stone of Sealy Outdoors past success, other opportunities have opened up even more expansion for us. Bob created the "OPEN TEAM SPLASH". This was a change for Bob, after personally fishing different team circuits Bob found that a lot of fishermen were not earning enough money at each event because a lot of the purse was going towards a championship and not back into the fishermen's pocket. Therefore, Bob created the first and only team event to guarantee a 100% cash purse not based on number of entries and made it where fishermen actually made money. 

Now there's a new Splash in Town! Sealy Outdoors, Inc. has made another splash in the fishing industry with it’s Big Catfish Splash® tournament. After twenty years of producing the McDonald’s® Big Bass Splash^® events, and other successful fishing tournaments for both fresh and saltwater, a new way for grass roots anglers to compete has now been introduced through this exciting event.

Fishing for Catfish is quickly becoming one of the most popular pastimes for anglers; and who knows amateur anglers better than Sealy Outdoors? Taking the Splash® format that has been used for amateur bass tournaments and translating that to catfish was a natural progression, says creator and Tournament Director, Bob Sealy. The big question was where to conduct this first of its kind event, so when The Lake Fork Area Chamber of Commerce approached Sealy about bringing another event (in addition to the annual McDonald’s® Big Bass Splash® event held each fall) the decision was easy. Lake Fork, east of Dallas, Texas was chosen as the site of the first annual Big Catfish Splash®.

Sealy Outdoors' main goals as a promotional company is to develop and create promotional contest events that not only benefit worthy causes, but puts the average angler in the same limelight as the professionals. Sealy Outdoors over the years have directed many other tournaments, such as The Oilman's Classics, NFL Skeeter, Anheuser Busch, Tracy Byrd Celebrity, Burger King and Boy's Haven.  In 2003 Sealy Outdoors partnered with JM Associates and ESPN2 to bring the Redfish Cup to life and it is well on its way to becoming the premier saltwater event for redfishing.

Tourism centers and local chamber of commerce's helped to promote these events and realize a major economic impact for their local communities. Sporting  goods stores, convenient stores, gas stations, tackle shops, just to name a few are realizing the importance of these events as a major source of income.

After any major event Sealy's favorite last statement is "Wait until next year, cuz you ain't seen nothin' yet!"