IrishJig

Now that the final stats and money winnings were released by BASS I noticed that Jimmy Houston finished dead last in earnings for this year. He took home a whopping ZERO DOLLARS. He did not earn a single cent from the BASS Elite Series. Does that make you guys less inclined to listen to what he says on his show? Anybody can talk about fishing and edit a day on the water to make yourself look good, but tournaments are where you put your money where your mouth is. If you really know what your talking about, then prove it. He didn't prove anything to me this year. I've never really watched him regularly, but have caught his shows occasionally. But now I see no reason to listen to him because when he put his money where his mouth is he lost $55,000 in entry fees.

I would love to see BASS sell a season DVD. Fill it with extras like behind the scenes stuff at weigh-ins and in boat stuff that they don't have time to show on TV.

Thanks guys, I'll give it a try. I'll just have to do it when I have a very small amount of equipment with me in case I tip it.

I've seen people standing and fishing in jon boats and row boats quite a bit, yet I do not feel comfortable enough in mine to stand up in mine. Is there a width for a boat that is deemed safe to stand in? Or is it just a matter of having good balance. I have a 12 ft. long, 32 in. wide (I think). Does anybody stand in a similiar boat?

MoB - I have a hard time believing that ESPN is pocketing a lot of money from the tour, considering that they are hardly a floundering organization. I just have to believe that the sponsor contracts are still relatively inexpensive. If they signed contracts just a few years ago, it could have been before ESPN bought BASS, and they are not getting paid fair market value for their product.

I read that too. And it seems like they are going in the wrong direction. They need to figure out a way to decrease the entry fees, not double them.

The industry forces them to sell themselves to the highest bidder. Until the tournaments stop charging the anglers to fish, they are forced to sell products that they might not believe in just to afford to be able to fish. A pro angler should never fish a season and end up in the red. Athletes in other individual sports do not have to pay to play, and if ESPN can bring in some real sponsors for the tour then I bet you will see the anglers stop selling products endlessly. With the selling of everything else in sports (This pitching change is brought to you by Rolaids Relief...) why not sell the rights to the tournaments. I would still watch the "Bassmaster Cialis Elite 100 at Lake Guntersville" (ala nascar). I just think that with all the attention the sport is getting from ESPN some sponsorship dollars have to start rolling in soon.

Well, we have a fishfinder to locate fish that are deep under the boat. We now have a machine that brings the deep fish right to your boat. We have underwater cameras to see the fish as they come near the boat... If only thay had a machine that forced the fish to jump into the livewell we would have no need for the rod and reel. At some point it becomes more like a video game. I thought the point of actually going out onto the lake was to get away from video games and have fun trying to figure the fish out?? If there is $200,000 on the line, then you have to do what you have to do for the better of your family, but a lot of this sounds rediculous when it is being used by a weekend fisherman.

There was an article in Bassmaster a few months ago about stocking ponds. I hope you have help in how to do it otherwise you will be wasting a lot of time and money and everything will end up dead.

I know the basic laws of supply and demand tell me that trailers will be different prices everywhere, but let's set that aside for a minute. I'm looking for a used 12 foot utility trailer to pull my jon boat. About how much should I be expecting to pay. I live in Michigan if it makes a difference.

Is anybody else counting down the days until the new Bass Saturdays start on ESPN. I get a discussion show like the Sports Reporters where they actually talk about stuff that will interest me every week. I get a sports center show all about Bass. And the icing on the cake - a tournament show to top it all off. I CAN'T WAIT!!

A day on Lake Erie and a mountain of perch for dinner. They are not nearly as fun to catch as bass, but I love 'em for dinner with a sixer of brews.

Practice makes perfect. And if my wife would let me fish as often as I would like I would definitly be better at it.

I like the tournament shows the best. Bassmasters is my favorite by far, followed by the FLW shows. I like Bassmasters better because they spend more time on the fishing and don't spend half the show on the weigh-in. I also like Schooled w/ Denny Brauer as it shows the common man trying to fish, something I can relate to. I also like to see how a professional fishes water he has never been on, and how they go through their decision making process.

Grand Blanc, Michigan. A ton of small lakes by me. We have a lot of big lakes, too, but my 12 foot jon boat and electric motor have me spending most of my time on the smaller lakes.

As far as casting in the winter months I don't do anything. It just gives me more reason to go early in the spring as I try to regain what little touch I have. Most of my winter fishing time is spent cleaning and organizing my tackle about 20 times.