OCdockskipper

According to the interviews from Gerald Swindle, Scott Martin & others, Elite anglers were the initial target to fill the roster and it was sold to them using alot of peer pressure and a quick deadline. That is the definition of poaching. Don't get me wrong, it did expose underlying issues with the way BASS had allowed the Elite series to run and forced changes faster than would have happened had Duckett not started BPT. That was a good thing. I also agree that competition is good for the consumer, but the fact that it is good doesn't always mean that those who are competing are doing it ethically.

Just about any information you read about fishing the prespawn & spawn recommends concentrating on the north side of the lake initially, to take advantage of protection from cold north winds and less shade from the sun that is low on the horizon. I went out on my home lake today and found the fish beginning their move into known prespawn areas, nearly all of them fat females. However, more of the fish I caught were on the south side of the lake (about a 4 to 1 ratio). As I thought about it, I realized that was consistent with what I have experienced on my home lake over the years, the fish move up on the south side first. In thinking it through, here is a possible explanation I came up with: Orange County consistently gets afternoon onshore winds and very few cold storms. Since our beaches are south facing, that means the predominate wind direction is from the south or the west and only rarely from the north. That makes the south side of the lake more protected from wind than the north; Being a smaller lake (100 acres), there is not a huge difference in water temps from one side of the lake to the other. The lowest temps today (an overcast day) were 54.5 and the highest were 55.3, and the cloud cover kept them steady all day. Being an "urban lake" (surrounded by houses), there are not a lot of trees right at the waters edge, so the sun is high enough on the horizon to warm the south side just as much as the north side. The water temp variances I saw today weren't dictated by the north/south sides of the lake. I'm curious if Tom or other So Cal anglers have had the same experience as this or if this may be an outlier based on the lake itself.

ZMan TRD on a 1/15 oz Zman head. Color depends on the lake, first choice would be California Craw. Also, do all the guys who chose various plastic worms know that they only get 1? After 3 fish, they would be done, unless you let them use Mend-it...

This makes me smile because one of my setups is a Pro qualifier on a Bionic Blade rod. I wanted a shorter rod with a pistol grip and a the time, the Bionic Blade was the best rod with that grip. I have been happy with the performance of both.

I don't know if that was his goal, it just appeared that way when he poached a good portion of the Elite series roster to fill out his stable. The original MLF mission statement on the old MLF website out & out stated that the goal of MLF was to complement BASS & FLW, not compete with them. Whether Duckett was sandbagging back then or if he felt he had to change when BASS turned down the chance to incorporate MLF into their tournament structure is something I don't know.

With the assistance of hindsight, I would suggest that MLF made a mistake when they used the MLF structure for the BPT tournaments. What made MLF successful for TV was (is) placing pro's on an unknown lake and watching them figure out the puzzle. Heck, they even have a sponsored title intro to it every week (General Tires anywhere is possible). In that scenario, making every fish count fits with the structure of the tournament. By comparison, BPT allows practice and has multiple days of fishing on the same lake, so the every fish counts scenario doesn't work as well. I believe if Boyd Duckett had made the BPT "stage" tournaments regular best of 5 tournaments, it would have worked better. Keep the scoretracker and keep the catch/weigh/release, but he shouldn't have changed the scoring system for these tournaments. The MLF cups could have stayed as they are now, the reward for doing well in a pair of stages. They stay their own entity and would continue to be good TV. The BPT feeds the Cups as well as the Redcrest Championship, which also stays best of 5. If Duckett had really wanted to take down BASS, could you imagine if he had basically the same format for his tournaments, with the advent of instant scoring & release and a huge portion of the Elite field doing it. His choice to try to expand the MLF format via BPT in essence allowed BASS to catch its breath and not get knocked out of the water (pun intended) by new competition.

Yep

I invested my life savings in a trout farm and lost it all. I think all of the trout died when I drove over them with my tractor.

An aside to this topic, I just read that Jason Christie has signed up for all 8 BASS Opens for 2020. From outward appearances, it looks like rather than cough up $50,000 to just leave BPT, he has decided to try to qualify for the Elites and/or Classic and then leave when his BPT contract is up. Tough on the family, but I believe Christie did that before (fished two tours simultaneously) the first time he qualified for the 2013 Elite season. Trivia question - All first time Elite anglers were considered rookies in 2013. Who won the 2013 ROY on the Elite Series, besting Jason Christie down the stretch?

I know this is a misspelling, the question is which word you were trying to spell...

ALL upcoming tournaments? Well, I am having one on Saturday and so far, I am the only one signed up for it. Entry Fee is $980,000, first place is a new boat!

I would say those two changes are just as much about the fans as the anglers, if not more so. The two main complaints you read on this board about the BPT was that it was a dink fest and that there was no reward for leading in the early rounds. The two changes directly reflect those concerns that fans (us) had and made public. I think that is a real positive sign for BPT because a concern was if they became too much about the anglers and what they wanted at the expense of the fans, it would hurt the organization. There is a balance that must be met between the wants of the anglers, sponsors & fans and if you tip too far in any of those directions, you alienate some part of your organization or audience.

Even though the reviews have said they aren't the most hardy product, I bought some VMC bladed treble hooks to add to some of my crankbaits. My question is if it would be better to use them for the front hook or the rear hook? My gut reaction is the front hook, so that much like red trebles, it draws the fish to strike at the middle of the bait (in theory). What I was concerned about is with the blade in that position, would it be able to spin freely or would it get caught up against the body or in the rear hook. I know the bait would run true with the bladed treble on the back hook, but my hunch is that would induce short strikes. For those of you who have used these, what has your experience been?

Don't forget moments later when the bass is in the boat & the official declares "1 lb, 5 oz". What drives me nuts is that Ike never learns. We have all had small fish hit really hard and the initial fight makes them seem bigger than they really are. But for Ike, that is EVERY SINGLE FISH!! Every fish is a giant at the hook set and they almost never breach the 2 lb mark. When Ike is on MLF, I have to watch holding the remote to mute it when he starts screaming. He can be such a good teacher, it is a shame he thinks the other fake stuff (running back & forth on the boat during a fish fight, screaming, funky facial expressions) is worth doing. Additionally, at the bottom of that article, they noted that they have added a reward for finishing in the top of your 2 day qualifying round (Days 1&3 or 2&4). Heaviest weight in each of those qualifying rounds goes directly to the final round. I think that is a very smart rule change. Now all the focus isn't on the cut line, but rather at the top where it should be. It brings a little gamble in if you lean on your fish hard on your 2nd day, but come up short of winning the round. You could fish yourself out of position to make the finals, not unlike a traditional tournament.

Complete speculation, which is why I phrased it as "I could see". In a bankruptcy, often companies do what they can to salvage assets and FLW was operable in its past form. Returning it to that state could in theory keep it alive if the BPT boat sinks. Note that BPT could fail and you could still have FLW & MLF, just in their pre 2019 forms. I understand what you are saying above, but how does that translate to your previous statement that if BPT failed, it would be an absolute disaster for professional fishing? I have criticized Boyd Duckett for the way he went about recruiting for BPT, however he did organize every thing in a way to allow him flexibility should it not work out. MLF, BPT & FLW are all separate entities and in theory, could fail or survive without the other two. Obviously he is trying to use FLW as a feeder to BPT, which in turn feeds MLF, but that chain is not a requirement for any of those 3 to survive. If BPT were to fail, I doubt they would allow it to drag FLW & MLF down with it. The obvious scenario would be to cut the losses with BPT and revert FLW & MLF back to their previous versions.

The top 4 or 5 most expensive lures I own are lures I didn't buy, but rather lures I found while out fishing. We have some pampered kids who sneak in to fish our lake and when they snag their big swimbaits on a boat cover, they just break the line rather than risk getting caught trying to retrieve them. No loss to them, they just ask their parents for more cash to buy some replacements.

Why do you believe that? A decade ago, there was no MLF & no BPT and professional fishing was doing fine. When MLF came along, it was a bonus for those select few who bet their own money by becoming owners. I'm assuming it was profitable for them, but it didn't do much for all of the other professional anglers. IF BPT succeeds, it will expand the opportunities as far as the number of people who can make a living by being a professional bass angler. However, it may over saturate the market if the demand for the end product (tournament fishing shows) doesn't keep up. That is a wait & see proposition. If BPT fails, then I could see FLW reverting to its previous structure. There will be a bit of a scramble at the BASS open's level as 50-60 top pros jump back in in an effort to re-qualify for the Elites. But failure in business is a normal occurrence, it only means you are not meeting a consumer need. That could mean there isn't a large enough customer base for what they are doing or they are bad at satisfying the customers needs, either way, going belly up actually helps the rest of the market. Think of it like culling stunted bass in a farm pond.

Did you notice the change in prizes? Rapala is now involved & has upped the prizes for each event. 1st place per event now totals $4000 ($4500 for BASS members), an increase of $1500. Further, they are now awarding prizes for the top 20 per event, not just first. 2nd thru 5th is cool, $250 worth of Rapala stuff. The yearlong winner has been lowered, it no longer is a boat. It is a $15,000 BPS card, which could buy a small boat.

If the bubbling is just the plastic, I would install a floorboard made from marine plywood and covered in carpet. That will distribute weight more evenly across the bottom of the boat and not directly on that bubbling spot (as well as make the bottom of the boat look nicer aesthetically). If it is more than just the plastic, if the structure of the boat underneath has been compromised, then I would say it is irreparable.

So if I understand this thread correctly, there exist 40lb black bass. However, they are related to monkeys, making them too smart to ever be caught...

This is an excellent example where fish located north spawn earlier than southern brethern. An extended example of this is where I live in Orange County, which is almost due west of Big Bear (both south of Los Angeles). Early to mid February, the water temps here breach 60 degrees and stay there consistently, which coincides with when we see the first bass on beds. Our lake is shallow (13 ft max) and never drops below 50 degrees, yet the spawning period is still triggered by the same water temps as that of a lake much deeper that freezes over. These lakes have the same photoperiod, the latter is just at a higher elevation. So as far as spawning & prespawn goes, the environment the bass lives in doesn't alter what the trigger is.

Hey Glenn, no reason to get upset, I understand your situation. You are correct, trying to shoot a video and get information across can be difficult, especially if one isn't a trained actor and doesn't have a script. I thought it was clear I was having a little fun with you when I mentioned pedometers and forage having calorie amounts printed on them, I apologize if you took that seriously. @Dirtyeggroll may have hit the nail on the head when he wrote that the reason bigger bass eat bigger forage (especially shad) might be just because they can. Very simple explanation that is probably correct. Now about that being able to skip a lure further while sitting down claim...

Orange County, California has a few locations that meet all that criteria with 1 caveat. I'm on Lake Forest II in the city of Lake Forest. House on the water with a dock. Dozens of neighbors within walking distance, city population near 100 thousand, county population over 3 million. The ocean is 20 minutes away and even though there is snow on the local mountains, the temps here rarely ever dip below 40 or over 100. The fishing is great, most Saturday's you have the lake to yourself. The catch? Home prices start at $1.5 million and you have to put up with the California government. Canyon Lake is a little further inland, so it's prices are lower, but most lakefront homes are still over $1 million. The best of both worlds will typically be expensive.

All predators do not have the same brain power or ability to deductivly reason. If you believe bass identify targets based on the caloric intake, I'll take that bet. Bass identify targets based on the most simple motivator, hunger. Be it a crawfish, a hot dog or an abandoned Senko, they just eat it because it is there. If they pass up a potential meal, it is not because it doesn't meet their caloric needs. It may give off negative cues that make the fish wary, it may not match what they are keyed in on, many things but not the result of an evaluation of caloric intake versus caloric expenditure. We could go to a scientist to settle this bet, but I'd be happy to hear from a 3 man expert panel consisting of Paul Roberts, WRB, and Catt.

So I have to ask you about one of your answers. I pulled up the transcript to make sure I heard you correctly when you said "So, big bass have learned that there's a ratio of how much calories they are gonna burn versus how many they're gonna get as a reward." Where did you find the information that came to this conclusion? I ask because every study I have ever read portrays the brain of a bass as being unable to do math, much less determine how much calories are in certain critters and how much calories they are gonna burn in chasing them down. Are the calorie counts for each baitfish printed on the side of the soon to be meal? Do the larger bass carry pedometers so they can track their own caloric burn? I believe you are anthropomorphizing the basses action. If it is food & she can get it, she does. If not, she doesn't. She really isn't that smart. Elusive, difficult to catch, yes but those big girls aren't into calorie counting. Also, most everyone can skip a lure longer while standing in the boat compared to sitting. If you don't believe me, sit at the waters edge and see how far you can skip a stone. Then stand up and try.