Bass Pro Tour Changing Tournament Fishing Forever

[skeeter]

3 minutes ago, vernon said:

I am 1000% in favor of this deal but have to wonder what sort of effect it will have on the fan's following of the tournaments?

Who's gonna show up to watch guys not weigh in fish?

Trust me, I don't care in the least what the impact is and am thrilled at the potential positive effect on fisheries but am curious nonetheless.  

Some of these events are very well attended but what are they gonna do now?  Go watch on the big screen in some theatre?

I've been to a couple of BASS weigh-in's only because I was nearby and wanted to see what it was all about.

Other than the actual weighing of fish there didn't seem to be a heck of a lot going on that would attract many folks.

Great news regardless.

 

IMHO, it sounds like, thankfully and finally, they are realizing there are more "viewers" on TV that the sponsors can reach with their ads than there are locals who show up at the dog & pony show weigh-ins.  This will most certainly have a positive effect on the Bass population for the rest of us.  Hope it spreads to the other "Jerk & Transport" tournament operations. 

[vernon]

2 minutes ago, skeeter said:

IMHO, it sounds like, thankfully and finally, they are realizing there are more "viewers" on TV that the sponsors can reach with their ads than there are locals who show up at the dog & pony show weigh-ins.  This will most certainly have a positive effect on the Bass population for the rest of us.  Hope it spreads to the other "Jerk & Transport" tournament operations. 

Roger that.

So long as fans are content with TV viewing pretty much exclusively and not discouraged by seldom having opportunities to see their "guy" up close and in person I guess they'll be OK.

Seems like lots of sports events are trending that way thanks to the giant HD TV's in our homes and internet/social media options (at least one big reason why most new stadiums are getting smaller instead of bigger).

It's just difficult for an old guy like me to get my head wrapped around it all sometimes.

Bottom line though is without fan's you got no sponsors and without sponsors you got no sport.

Still danged happy to hear about this.

[moguy1973]

The Classic is really the only weigh-in that I can think of, on the BASS side of things, that actually has things for people to do primarily because it's the big tourney of the year I guess.

[Macsimus]

I "boat-captain'd" for my grandson this year and several of the high school tournaments he fished were in the SATT - Student Angler Tournament Trail - https://www.studentangler.org/ The trail is strictly MLF format. The first event had 134 boats and the second had 83 and I was mighty impressed with how smoothly they ran. One of the organizers has written a custom app for smartphones that allows upload of pictures that we take while each fish is weighed on a supplied scale along with data that we enter: angler team, weight,  and species, LM or SM. The data is tabulated real-time and there is a live leaderboard in the app so I could keep the boys posted on where they stood. We were allowed to launch and return to any of the available boat ramps on the lake and it was really nice to avoid the cluster of a weigh-in with that many boats. The app also had a boat check-in and check-out feature ensuring that all boats got on and off the water. While the adult boat captain is no absolute guarantee against cheating (eg, over-zealous parent), it certainly ensures that it is kept to a minimum if not avoided completely. I certainly don't understand the business/sponsorship side of it, but it surprises me a bit that the sponsors are willing to go with a no weigh-in format. All of these kids are wearing jerseys and the way in which the tackle and boat companies are salivating over this upcoming generation of buyers is laughable, to this old fellow anyway.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I hope it will just be the 5 biggest, i have no desire to watch guys catch 12" fish all day.  From Edwin Evers interview it kinda sounds like every fish wont count but they havent released the details yet.  IT will totally change the way guys fish if every small one counts. Most people that fish are interested in how to find and catch the bigger fish.     Personally i lost interest in MLF.   With the Selects, the Summit Cup, the Summit Shield, the world championship.  ITs very confusing to figure out.

[fishinwrench]

37 minutes ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

I hope it will just be the 5 biggest, i have no desire to watch guys catch 12" fish all day.  From Edwin Evers interview it kinda sounds like every fish wont count but they havent released the details yet.  IT will totally change the way guys fish if every small one counts. Most people that fish are interested in how to find and catch the bigger fish.     Personally i lost interest in MLF.   With the Selects, the Summit Cup, the Summit Shield, the world championship.  ITs very confusing to figure out.

I'm just hearing too much about what people want, and too little about what's best for the fish....and the areas of the lakes.   

Regardless of whether all caught fish are scored, or only the 3-5-10 keepers are scored, there's no need to haul fish away from the area they were caught from.   Nobody longs to see bags full of keeper bass, we all know what a bass looks like.  The potential thrill of seeing that is not worth the relocation of millions of fish.

[Terrierman]

It's about time.  BASS and all the other weigh in operations need to either get a clue or just fade away.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Im with ya on that. I dont need to see someone hold up a 2lber or even a 5 at weigh in.  I think scoring all the bass is just overboard, leaves more room for error. 

[5bites]

15 hours ago, merc1997 said:

i think with today's technology, it is a great step in the right direction for having a tournament.  it does two things in that the fish are released immediately, and two, they are also not displaced.  i do hope that it will still be the heaviest limit that is counted and not cumulative of total bass caught.

if everyone was honest and having the use of cell phones, i've wondered why even local tournaments are not using somewhat the same format.  it would require each team to have a digital scale, which could be determined style and brand to use, and then the bass and weight would be recorded via a pick, which does have a date and time stamp.  add the weights of the 5 biggest and there it would be.  

i watched the texas shoot out or something like that, and they were using the mlf format of weighing the bass and releasing it.  i believe it to be a great stride forward.

bo

I fished a couple MLF format tournaments this year. Check out Podunkers on facebook. It definitely changes your mindset from the traditional format. 

[*T*]

The format of counting 5 largest fish daily should give a contestant who is way down the leader board a better opportunity to more quickly move up with a few big fish.  And thought I had heard that mentioned as the method to be used.  Puts more emphasis on quality vs. quantity.  Either way of looks to be a move in the right direction