OCdockskipper

Don't forget that the MLF that we have all watched is different than the BPT. IMO, a major component of MLF's success is the unknown fishing location and the single day of competition on it (i.e., no saving fish for a later round). BPT tries to shoehorn the traditional tournament structure into the MLF format and it falls a little short. Also, the money used to buy the FLW tour wasn't from the profits of MLF in their initial years (or the first year of BPT). Those profits went to the owners of MLF and unless they all chose to reinvest by buying FLW, was gone. Most likely the purchase of FLW was funded much like BPT was, through sponsorship deals on the front end.

Tom, on my lake, I tend to see the first prespawn females around the 2nd week of January (give or take a week based on water temps and weather patterns). I base that on the shape of the females, where they are located and how they react to moving baits. I may be missing some prior to that or misidentifying fish I catch earlier than that, but it is pretty consistent here. This guy may just be an overachiever...

I went out yesterday and was greeted with the coldest water temperatures our lake has had in a few years at 52 degrees. I know that isn't cold for many parts of the country, but these So Cal bass don't experience it much colder in their lives. So my expectation was to keep it slow, put baits right in front of their noses and grind out a dozen bites or so. As we all know, cold water bass don't eat much and we are looking for a few who are. So everything is unfolding as planned and 20 minutes in, I get a subtle bite on a TRD. A keeper, about a pound and a half, with a surprise as I go to unhook him. In his throat is a crayfish claw, still opening and closing as the bass is swallowing him. This little largemouth had barely finished gulping down a decent sized crawdad when he chose my TRD as a dessert to finish his meal. I wouldn't be surprised if he went back to his feeding grounds and gorged himself on little sunfish for the rest of the morning.

I think the a subtle change could do wonders, either; Keep the CWR format, but make it for your best 20 fish (or 15 fish or 25 fish, depending on the lake); or Your largest fish gets counted twice or 3 times. The first brings back the size versus numbers strategy, if you choose the correct number for the lake in question. The second gives everyone a punchers chance at the end. Down by 20 pounds on a Florida lake where your top fish is tripled, start hunting an 8lb fish in order to snap off the leader at the end.

One more... Loctite sells a basic super glue at Staples that comes in a small .03 oz container. You get 20 -25 applications per tube, so you never have the problem of it getting dried out or the cap becoming stuck. Plus if you step on it or drop it overboard, it was not a big container full of glue, so no major loss. The glue works great on Ned rigs & knots. It comes in a 4 pack for less than 5 bucks, so I buy 2 or 3 packs to cover me for the year.

I think it depends on what is the definition of "growing the sport". If they define "growing the sport" as being a representative of the sport to the public at large, making it more accepted to the non-fishing public and financing those things that take on obstacles to it (pollution, poaching, etc), then it would be good. However, if they define "growing the sport" as getting more people involved, people who know just enough about boats, fishing and the outdoors to be dangerous, the result will be more anglers on the same amount of water, more pressure on the fish and overall worse conditions for the fish. Not good. As a resident of Southern California, I see often how things that become fads blow through the population and don't benefit the activity or sport in the long run. All it does is make the folks engaged in selling products a little wealthy for a short period of time. For example, my home lake is surrounded by homes, most with pontoon boats. Most of these homeowners are the least sea worthy folks in the world, they have no clue about the difference between a boat and a car and really have no interest in learning etiquette of the waterways. Thank heavens, most of them only take their boats out on 4th of July, it would be a horrible mess if they were on the water weekly. If you are a casual fan of something, the audience that MLF is aiming at, you really don't care about it in the long run.

Yes, although he now goes by the name Stu Pidasso.

I hear you, as far as the actual fight, it will always go to smallmouth. Their build, how they live & their DNA make them great fighting fish, even in the smaller versions I have caught. Your picture is a great example of what I was talking about head size. Those big smallmouth seemingly outgrow their head (as do the big spots from Bullard Bar up in Northern Cal). In fact, as I think about it, that tends to happen with most fish in the sunfish family except for largemouth. The fish below was a bit longer at 24", but while not thin, was not near as thick as the smallmouth in your photo. As you can see she had a massive head and mouth for an 8 lb fish (northern strain).

It was, a evenly matched and hard fought game. Congrats to your Niners & best of luck next week. While you guys still have alot of football to play this year, here is a thought for next year. The way the schedule lines up, the NFC West will play the NFC East & AFC East as part of their schedule. That means we all get to play the Redskins, Giants, Dolphins & Jets next year, making our schedules a bit easier. Further, the Super Bowl will be on the West Coast (in the Rams new stadium), so if one of the NFC West teams grab the #1 seed, they won't have to leave the time zone. But that is a whole season away, the NFC will have 6 tough teams in their playoff bracket, with the winner most likely getting a shot at the Ravens.

No I haven't, there aren't many smallmouth bass in Southern California and the few I caught from Lake Mead over the years topped out at 3 lbs. I have been on board when 100lb plus marlin have been caught, like smallmouth they completely clear the water when they jump and never give up the fight. Also like smallmouth, they can & have jumped into anglers boats during the fight. Unlike smallmouth, a Marlin can end the fight by jumping into the boat & stabbing the angler with his bill. So I do understand the thrill of such a fight. What I was describing has to do with the build of the fish. From the pictures I've seen, as smallmouth reach the 5, 6 & 7 lb size, their growth is in the middle of their body. The get a football shape, very thick in the middle. As largemouth get to that size, their head & mouth continues to grow in relation to their middle. For me, there is something about that big ol' bucket head, that huge mouth that you can put both hands into, that takes a persons breath away no matter how many times they see it. I don't believe there is another fish native to North America with that type of physique.

While the fight from largemouth may not last as long as smallmouth or spots of the same size, I don't think there is anything those other two species can do that compares to when you are fighting a 7lb plus largemouth & she gets her big head out of the water, mouth open, wallowing back and forth. That is just something that freezes you in your tracks and takes your breath away.

The ironic thing is that a company that specializes in circumcisions & castration backs up to that beach...

Another memory from that time, I recall monitors being expensive, so one enterprising mom & pop store in the area sold 13" color TV's with a composite video to coaxial adapter for 1/2 the price as an alternative. When you were done with the computer, you could reconnect the rabbit ears and watch TV! Along the lines of that fun fact in the previous post, in 2005, I had a customer who wanted a Fujitsu 60" flatscreen for his beach house (at a time when 43" TV's were considered large). That TV cost $13,000 retail then, yet today, you can get a quality 65" 4K Smart TV for about $650, a 95% drop in price. Last one, about a decade ago, Home Depot decided to get into the AV business. They bought a huge lot of Phillips and some other brand flat screens. Six months later, they realized not only was their inventory soon to be replaced by the next years model, the retail value of it had dropped about 10%. Considering the thin margins on most TV's, it ended up being a bad decision and they dropped that whole AV idea quickly.

While there are some really good guys who are pros, I'm not sure if it is a majority who support each other unconditionally and entirely. Like any other group of competitive individuals, there are cliques and personality clashes, run-ins and disagreements. Some guys like Ott Defoe seem to rise above it and go out of their way to be kind to all, but there is a bit of a "mean girls" undercurrent in the profession. As an example, I marshaled at a tournament a few years ago and all 3 pros I was with had issues (and brought them up to me) with other pros. I'll leave out the names, but Day One Pro badmouthed a seemingly nice pro who he had had a literal run-in on a Florida open tournament earlier that year, Day Two Pro talked in length about a pro who had bent the rules, forcing Day Two pro to report him and a different Classic & AOY pro who created a wedge in a friendship between he & another angler. Day Three Pro mentioned that a particular pro hadn't spoken to him in 4 years following a final day disagreement. The latter two guys were great, I really enjoyed the day with them, but it was a little bit like high school.

I graduated from high school in 1981, just as the idea of PC's was coming around. My senior year, the school bought one computer in order to teach BASIC programming, but couldn't afford a printer to go with it. One engineer-to-be student took a Selectric typewriter and figured out how to hot wire it to the computer as a printer. That little rotating ball would be flying a mile a minute whenever we printed something.

I own a home theater company, so I deal with all of this daily. Harmony remotes & hubs are a good DIY solution, but they tend to only get you 90% there. Custom control systems from URC or RTI, programmed by guys like me, get it to that 100% where everything is automated and all you worry about is what you want to watch. There is a huge difference in folks under 35 versus over 35 as to what they want. The under 35's like using their phone for everything, so having a control app on it fits for them. The overs prefer a dedicated remote, preferably with hard buttons so you get tactile response as you press each button. Many under 35's are DIY when it comes to technology, but need help when it comes to work requiring labor. They need me to run or terminate wire and to mount the TV, then they want to do the rest. Over 35's can do anything that requires a drill or hammer, but want someone else to configure all the gear to make it work. Generational differences.

That is a largemouth as well. The gap between the dorsal fins, the lack of spots below the lateral line, the overall shape are what convinces me. I can't completely see where the jaw ends, but it looks to have a smaller mouth for its size, so it may just be a male. The light coloring can be from that particular fish being a bit pelagic, roaming around in open water as opposed to setting up base in the middle of a brushpile.

Although in some parts of the country, a red light may attract a few amorous johns...

I hear what you are saying. Just know that statement could easily be the lead for a PETA program against tournament fishing, to be shortly followed by "There really is no point to catching a large fish only to release it" as they change their aim towards fishing in general. I agree about hot live wells, however that is not the case with Elite tournaments. Since it is their livelihood and it costs them money if they allow fish to die, these guys typically are the best when it comes to fish care of the ones they keep. Hot watered live wells may be the norm on other tours, it isn't on the Elite series. Now, I will be the first to agree there is room for improvement, between boat flipping bass on to carpet and some of the hook removals done to bass that are immediately released, but livewell issues are low on the mortality scale. Also, the Elite series has a release boat that distributes the fish around the lake as opposed to dumping them all at the weigh-in site. Not the same as releasing the exact fish to the exact spot it was caught, but with Basstrak, they can get an idea where people where fishing during the day and release to those areas. I think the catch/weigh/release format is actually better suited to local and lower level tournaments. You have people with less experience often fishing in those tournaments and the facilities to keep the fish alive & later release them are limited, so it seems like a natural fit. I'm sure an app other than scoretracker could be used, that way the participants don't have to shell money out to MLF just to use the CWR format.

A couple of responses to the above portions of your comments: To make the blanket statement that people who don't like BPT/MLF don't like change is extremely dismissive. It ignores true reasons why people may not like those formats or those organizations. The claim that BPT or MLF is "the future of fishing" is nothing more than a marketing slogan that some people have apparently bought into. BPT is no more the future of fishing than the XFL was the future of professional football. I have reasons why I dislike BPT (the way Duckett chose to build his roster is foremost), but that has nothing to do with disliking change. I like the MLF concept and believe the mystery lake aspect has alot more to do with its success than anything else. The BPT is actually trying to be a hybrid of best 5 tournaments and MLF, but like ice cream & ketchup, it just doesn't mix well. Bass Fest is a better catch/weigh/release tournament than any BPT event. While your abstract concept of conservation is good, it misses the entire concept of managing fisheries. I grew up when catch & release was introduced and have never kept a LM or SM bass for food. However but I fully know that releasing everything I catch is not always the best thing for every fishery. Culling is a tool that can be used to improve fisheries and to discount it as being outside of the conservation tent is short sighted. Further, with the aggressiveness of groups like PETA, you need to know the true enemy to fishing in the future. If every fishery were to be catch & immediate release, PETA would attack fishing as nothing more than a way to torture fish. The use of culling and legal limits for fish to provide food at least keeps PETA at bay from trying to eliminate fishing as a recreational activity.

Would you care to explain why? I'm curious, not because I like or dislike Morris, just wondering specifically he has done to make you take that stance. I have read positive things about Morris as a person and negative things about some of his business dealings, so I think your input would be interesting.

Based on Swindles relationship with Jordan & Matt Lee (part friend, part mentor), I would not be surprised to see those two come back to BASS next year or the year after. They might have to go the Opens route, but they should do well enough to re-qualify for the Elites in the first year or two. Jordan has a legitimate shot to be the greatest Classic angler of all time, that has got to be tugging at him to go back. The peer pressure comment was interesting, I wonder how many other anglers allowed themselves to get swept along with the tide.

It may be a mistake to think that MLF's TV ratings translate to success for BPT. Although they are very similar, the "unknown lake" factor along with no practice & a different area or lake to fish for each round makes the MLF events a bit more dramatic than the BPT events. I for one watch MLF events, but find the BPT to be a bit boring (then again, I also prefer to watch the BASS weigh-ins without knowing the Basstrak results). BPT has some format issues it needs to resolve. It is a shame that Duckett & BASS couldn't have come to an agreement years back to make the MLF format a kind of "post season" event within the Elite series. That would have been the best of both worlds, at least for the fans. What would really be intriguing is if BASS created an MLF like postseason, designed specifically for TV. Take what works with MLF, discard the repetition ("General Tires anywhere is possible" promos & the such) and create an additional financial reward for those anglers who have good seasons. ESPN is always looking for quality content and BASS can provide it for them.

It is interesting when a person has their self esteem determined by the group they hang out with. It's like the 3rd string QB who believes he is a great football player because his teammates won the Super Bowl. Why is it always the people in the back of the group who are the most mouthy...?

I was thinking more about this today and I wonder if an issue for some of the guys who are shunning or leaving BPT is with the their format, fishing an 8 hr day where it is pedal to the medal the entire time. If you look at most other sports or competitions, the competitors are on the playing field for typically less than half that time and in many sports, are just observing for a good portion of that time (baseball for example). Having to focus for that length of time is d**n near impossible. With the heaviest 5 format, you can get a decent limit early and then spend the rest of the day trying to cull up, which is a lot less stressful and requires less focus than continually having to catch a fish or fall behind. It made sense for the original MLF format to have 7 1/2 hrs of fishing, they were going to an unknown lake with no practice. With BPT and having a couple of days of practice, they should cut the fishing day down to 4 hours. The shows would likely be more competitive and it is more reasonable to expect a person to focus hard for 4 hrs instead of 8. For events on medium to large reservoirs, maybe you could have a 30 minute period for anglers to get where they want to go, that way the longer runs aren't punished by losing fishing time and the shorter runs can graph stuff or check out other areas without the event starting. They also need to make a change to there being no difference between finishing 2nd thru 20th in the qualifying rounds. If they want to zero the weights, maybe each spot higher you finish means 3 more minutes of fishing the following round, i.e, the winner of the round gets 4 hours, the guy in 10th has 3 1/2 hrs, the guy who slid in at 20th gets 3 hrs. Some kind of award or advantage for doing better in the early rounds.