kbj3579

I know I'm going to catch holy heck for this, but.... hear me out. First let me say I have no vested interest in this tournament, but I am a local and I know the guy that start this. I'm a little bit torn, but here's my thinking. I am divorced and I have my son every other weekend, who has no interest whatsoever in fishing, so I limit my fishing to every other weekend he's not with me. April is prime fishing, I mean prime! So that means in April when the fishing is awesome I only fish twice that month, the Elite guys are coming on one of my fishing weekends, and if they had co anglers that's what I planned to do, but we all know that's not going to happen. So, I planned to fish a tournament that weekend, even if it meant me getting one up myself with a few other anglers. I'm not going to stop fishing just because the Elites are in town, especially in April. These guys are Elites, right? I do believe they are, they amaze me how they can find and catch the fish they do in the short period of time they do. Anyway here's what I'm wondering should we not fish because they are coming to town, is that what I'm hearing people say or is it because how the tournament is being promoted "Beat The Elites"? I myself am not 100% comfortable with the title of the tournament, but it's just a name. I was going to fish anyway that weekend and here's where I'm torn, when else am I going to get the chance to fish a four day event on my home lake at an affordable entry fee? I mean if these guys are Elites which I belive they are, they should catch them anyway right? I've also heard the argument that the local Chamber should put a stop to this tournament because they paid money for the Elites to come. But let's not forget that when the Chamber paid that money they also thought they were getting another 100 + anglers fishing that they are now not getting. So if they now will get that extra 100 anglers with the Beat the Elites tournament why would they want to stop it? (I seriously doubt that the local tournament will get 100 boats, maybe 50). Just something else to think about! Five Bass when you going to weigh in on this?

So you think the old guys can't hang with the young guns? Did you all watch this weeks UMF? Mr. Nixon put it on the former dirt bike racing young gun. I like Gabe so don't think I'm bashing him, but the experience from years of fishing, and especially fishing Guntersville truly showed in this match up. Larry picked up his worm and took Gabe to school. One of the very best shows I've seen in UMF.

Scott, I'm in the same boat (ha,ha) as you, well no I actually will be in my own boat, but anyway I don't know who to follow either. I probably am not going to make it the first day on the water, but I will be there Fri.-Sun. I plan on following Jamey Fri., who ever he is with, but Sat and Sun, not sure. I don't believe John Crews is going win it, I actually talked to him yesterday, super nice guy, but he's nervous, to much preasure, I think. He actually said "I'm excited and nervous". I think Ike is a must one day.

I absolutley hate to loose a fish. It really bothers me. I believe in doing everything you can to save your fish. I also love tournament fishing, I am passionate about it. I believe there is a balance between tournament fishing and saving your fish that must be acheived. I can only speak for myself, but I can tell you that just a couple of weeks ago I caught a 4+ pounder on a spinnerbait in a tournament, when I brought him in he was bleeding badly. The trailer hook had stuck him under his tounge, I took Please Release Me and rubbed on his cut and put him in the livewell, long and short is I spent 15+ minutes back there with him getting him revived. I checked on him throughout the rest of the day and he seemed fine, through the weigh-in and release. Now I can't say that he survived after he went back in the water, but I can say he looked as healthy and calm as the rest of the fish I released. I also felt good because I knew I did everything I could think of to keep him healthy, short of not catching him at all. I will atest for the Please Release Me product, since I started using it a couple of years ago, I have only had a couple of fish die on me, under my care. I agree with what some others have said here, it's an anglers responsibility to take care of our fish, you must do everything you can to minimize the chance of mortality.

You know what really get's old, RW? Just about everytime I come on here and read in the tournament section, you have to post a negative comment about tournament fishing. I know your a moderator(which means this may get deleted) and you have to read all the posts so that you can edit them, but how about editing some of your comments. I'm not trying to start some big mess here, but like I said it really does get old. You don't have to like tournament fishing, you don't have to understand it, and the way I see it is you can state your opinions on the subject under the proper discussions about tournament fishing, but all the time and constantly bashing tournament fishing, come on man, lay off. I have my opinions about...well I'll stop there and edit myself. I really don't want to get kicked off here, and I really do enjoy this site, although I don't post that much. All I'm asking is for a little respect to the people that enjoy fishing, whether it's tournament fishing or getting a bucket of minnows, a case of beer and trying to fish for the biggest fish in the lake. Thanks for your consideration.

Let me say first, I was very disappointed myself in the coverage. Especially when they billed Saturday and Sunday morning as being live, when all it was was repeat after repeat. Like one other post said, if I knew they were going to just show the repeat the next morining, twice (Saturday and Sunday), I wouldn't have got up when I did. I also think BASS has a very unorganized web site, I mean getting around that thing is tough, am I on Insider, Espn Outdoors or Bassmaster site, they have you jumping all around and your not able to just link back to where you were to start. I'm not one of those BASS bashers either, I'm a huge supporter of BASS and I want them to grow. Having said all of that, I think the thing they haven't worked out and may be almost impossible to do, is covering a live fishing tournament. I mean unless you have a ton of cameras or they are fishing on a 5,000 acre round lake, it has to be extremely tough to cover these guys that are spread all out on a lake. It's not like Nascar where everyone is within a 1.5 mile circle. I think also the footage that you do get is probably tough to edit down in the short amount of time that they have. I agree that I wish they would show more guys fishing, for me I would like it even if they aren't catching fish at that time. I love to see how these guys think and what they are doing to try and figure things out. Plus, it would be better for their sponsors, more face time and I believe it would help the sport grow by showing these guys personality more. I think we are a long way, at least technically, from seeing a live fishing tournament. I just don't think the technology is there yet. I do like the flw hat cams, but I don't want to see a whole tournament like that either. So the long and short of it is I'm going to give them a C overall, just for the fact that they did try and cover it the whole weekend, even though it was mostly repeated stuff. The actuall weigh in I'm giving them a big fat F, they showed them weighing out of order, didn't show all of the top 5 weigh in, they were jumping all around. I felt like I was on their website.

Hey don't forget about us middle aged dreamers with no money. Let's not discriminate here. LOL!

I'm going to go with a team, my picks in order: 1. E squared - I think one of the most versitle right now. I perdict first classic won with drop shot. 2. Hackney - jig, jig, jig 3. Kennedy - another one that seems to be there no matter the conditions. 4. Aarron Martens - Should be especially tough if fish stay deep. 5. James Niggemeyer - My dark horse, the boy can fish though, just go back and look at the Southern tour results last year. I left out the obvious Ike and KVD, you know one or both will be there the last day.

I would hope that we are not stereotyping ALL tournament anglers. There's no question there are ***holes out there, I've seen them, fished against them and had run in's with them. But let's be careful in grouping everyone together. I know if you have it set in your mind you don't like tournament fishing or tournament fisherman then you going to look really hard for the negative stuff. But I can tell you that I know of a lot of tournament people that do a lot of good things for the sport of tournament fishing and for the sport of recreational fishing. Examples: Taking handicap kids fishing, working on boat ramps, charity bass tournaments, these are just a few examples. I can't stand arrogance, that's not who I am or what I want to be associated with, and yes there are plenty of these guys and gals out there tournament fishing, but let's be careful we are not all like that. If that guy tournament fishing is an a**hole on the water that same guy is an a**hole off the water. An a**hole is an a**hole, it's not the tournament fishing making him that.

Great job Lee! We are all proud of you here!

Let me say this, whether we are athletes or not, I'm not sure! But I do know this, it will be a LONG, LONG time before the general public ever accepts fisherman as athletes.

1. Jerkbait 2. jerk, jerk pause - with extremely long pauses, that's win the fish bit. 3. 8 ft. 4. Main lake windy points. 5. Rock on sunny side. This is based on me getting my butt handed to me this weekend with almost the exact conditions as you describe. I know this was the winning pattern at my tournament this past weekend. I knew to do this my problem was not letting the bait pause long enough. I know because I went out the next day and caught some doing the above.

First let me say this, I think it's a great thing to have goals and dreams. Without them we are nothing, so keep the fire stoked. If you want something bad enough it will come, it takes dedication, hard work and MONEY! The money part is big. You need to find a way to secure the money first. I think what a lot of people are saying here is spend just 4 years by going to college and secure the money. I read something one time that a famous person said, "when you have nothing, no one wants to give you anything, but when you become rich and famous, everyone wants to give you everything." So you will have to earn it yourself first. If you are totally against 4 yrs. of college then get the associates. I will give you an example of how much it costs to fish one tournament as a coangler for a mid level tournament. 1. Entry fee $350.00 2. Gas 1700 miles round trip $420.00 3. Gas for boat to practice $90.00 3. Hotel Room for 5 nights $375.00 4. Food/Drinks (This is eating sandwichs mostly) $65.00 5. Fishing Lic. $21.00 Total: $1,321.00 That doesn't include tackle. Again I'm not trying to bust your dream, as a matter of fact I encourage you to go for it if it's what you really want. Just have a plan and follow through.

Ohhhhh! KU! You opened up a big can of worms. LOL! I feel for you man. LOL!

Hey thanks guys. If I can get my hands on one already made, that's what I'm going to do. I will check out Cabelas and see what I think.