MLF CONTROVERSY

[Basfis]

5 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Ahh, sponsored by Ranger and Evinrude..... that's why I never hear about it. 🙄 

Competitive Fishing has become so political !   

I’m guessing it’s the host that keeps it under the radar. Joe Thomas is beyond boring as a host....

The Ueker reference is slanderous. Bob is awesome. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

10 hours ago, Basfis said:

I’m guessing it’s the host that keeps it under the radar. Joe Thomas is beyond boring as a host....

The Ueker reference is slanderous. Bob is awesome. 

Those two idiots couldn’t clean Bob’s bathroom.   They should be embarrassed to have that reference to Bob in print.   🙄

[Quillback]

I remember when UMF started it was a good show.  I believe when it started it was an hour long, now it's 30 minutes and maybe that boils down to about 10 minutes of fishing.   I thought in the early shows the anglers really wanted to win, now I don't get that impression.  

[Champ188]

6 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Those two idiots couldn’t clean Bob’s bathroom.   They should be embarrassed to have that reference to Bob in print.   🙄

My favorite Uecker line ... he's sitting as far out in the CF bleachers as you can get and he's yelling at the home plate ump, "HE MISSED THE TAG!!!! HE MISSED THE TAG!!!!" 🤣

[Champ188]

And on the subject of the Ultimate Match Fishing's unfortunate broadcast crew, Fishburne was one of the biggest hole poachers that ever fished BASS. I know that to be true from a number of guys who fished against that clown. Grandma would not have been proud if she'd known the rest of the story.

[ness]

 

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, ness said:

 

Love Uecker!

[WWM]

On 5/24/2021 at 6:21 PM, Bill Babler said:

Don’t know how you all feel about the format, but there seems to be some blurbs coming up. 
 

With score tracker it’s pretty easy to tell who is catching and who isn’t.   Pretty easy to take a boat ride around and find who is on them if your not  

It’s location, location, location in Florida and some folks that had 10 pounds that they found yesterday, suddenly have 60+lbs today fishing in view of the guy that caught them yesterday. 
 

I guess this has been going on a while but there were grumbling today. An easy way to fix it would be not to name the leaders but just how many pounds behind or ahead you are. 

I just got done with my first event with the BPT as a boat official. I would agree with what you say Bill about leaving names out of the deal. I know the anglers, for the most part, want to adapt and make changes to perfect the game and I’m sure you will continue to see this. 
For me, you can’t beat the format compared to 5 fish. People complain because they don’t like change, I think. Bass tournaments are just that, a tournament. BPT is more of a game. There’s rules you have to pay by aka penalties, time constraints for competitors, and biggest of all scoretracker. You know where you stand against your competition and how much time remains on the clock until the end of the “game”  

I can say that before 5 days out with BPT I didn’t know squat about fishing grass. I learned about types of grass, inside and outside lines, flipping, punching, and etc etc. It felt like I was on a different planet than the rock. 

Had-

Jonathon VanDam

Fletcher (caught an 8lb 6 oz punching mats)

Shaw!

John Murray (elimination day went from 37th and finished 19th to make knockout round)

Kyle Hall 

[Mitch f]

20 hours ago, Basfis said:

I’m guessing it’s the host that keeps it under the radar. Joe Thomas is beyond boring as a host....

The Ueker reference is slanderous. Bob is awesome. 

I fished a Skeeter only tourney tourney back in 2002 up in Lake Erie. I was walking down the path passing the boats and I see this dude with sunglasses and his arms crossed, leaning up against his boat with a smirk on his face watching everyone walk by. People would occasionally come by and ask him questions and he wouldn’t look at them, he would answer their questions while staring out in space. Thought it was odd. I later turned to a guy and asked who this guy was...he said that’s Joe Thomas. I said never heard of him. Alton Jones was there the next year at the same tourney and he couldn’t have been a nicer human being. Introduced  us to his wife and kids one by one. Stark difference in personalities between those 2 people. 
Alton Jones won the tourney and so did Joe Thomas the year before. Joe took out a local guide and caught a 7 lb 2 oz smallie. I stood right by him when he weighed it in. He did win a skeeter boat and donated it back to the tournament. So I guess I changed my opinion about him pretty instantly.

Alton Jones won the tourney the next year with his young son...pretty impressive. We ended up third place that year and Alton Jones daughter drew our name out of a hat and we won a brand new 19’ skeeter. My partner was Rick Lapoint, the Table Rock guide. I bought Ricks Half of the boat from him. 

[BassPastor]

22 hours ago, Mitch f said:

I fished a Skeeter only tourney tourney back in 2002 up in Lake Erie. I was walking down the path passing the boats and I see this dude with sunglasses and his arms crossed, leaning up against his boat with a smirk on his face watching everyone walk by. People would occasionally come by and ask him questions and he wouldn’t look at them, he would answer their questions while staring out in space. Thought it was odd. I later turned to a guy and asked who this guy was...he said that’s Joe Thomas. I said never heard of him. Alton Jones was there the next year at the same tourney and he couldn’t have been a nicer human being. Introduced  us to his wife and kids one by one. Stark difference in personalities between those 2 people. 
Alton Jones won the tourney and so did Joe Thomas the year before. Joe took out a local guide and caught a 7 lb 2 oz smallie. I stood right by him when he weighed it in. He did win a skeeter boat and donated it back to the tournament. So I guess I changed my opinion about him pretty instantly.

Alton Jones won the tourney the next year with his young son...pretty impressive. We ended up third place that year and Alton Jones daughter drew our name out of a hat and we won a brand new 19’ skeeter. My partner was Rick Lapoint, the Table Rock guide. I bought Ricks Half of the boat from him. 

Great story, thanks for sharing. From a distance... it seems like professional fishing has been able to maintain a fair amount of genuinely good guys. Alton Jones and Jr. sure seems like one of them, I'd love to meet them someday.