This just happened on Guntersville.  Winner gets $500k. Had participants from BASS, MLF and elsewhere. It's a non-scope tournament and was won by Tucker Smith, an angler unfairly derided as a "Scoper" with supposedly less "traditional" fishing skills.

 

Congrats to Tucker, that is a good chunk of change.. BPT's Jacob Wall finished 2nd and got a $130k check.

 

It's just a sample size of one event, but it's interesting to see anglers from both major tours head to head and no live scope.

 

Since it wasn't BASS or BPT unsurprisingly there wasn't great coverage. 

 

https://app.fishingchaos.com/tournament/AIVikqnHVZRXi685THnU

 

 

 

The top 3 were Alabama boys and two of the three were locals.  I'm guessing there was no significant off limits period which would give them a big advantage.

So much for saying the kids can't fish without FFS.

Yes it is a shame this did not receive more coverage. $500k is a staggering amount of money for a fishing tournament. I am going to take a look and see where the over $1,000,000.00 came from. If this tournament can generate so much money why can't the pro tournaments also generate similar amounts? Why are they still at around $100k per tournament? Maybe because there are more of those spread out, and this is a one time event?

 

I wish I had heard of this before the tournament. Thankfully it was all caught on camera so we can go back and watch most of it.

 

Here is a link to the full list of fishermen and their rank in this tournament. Some well known pros in there. Edwin Evers did better than other pros in this event. Chris Lane was in there. Bobby Lane. Todd Faircloth and others.

 

https://app.fishingchaos.com/tournament/AIVikqnHVZRXi685THnU/leaderboard/zj5LXtLTB5WdNT75PnbC

 

This next link goes to the tournament rules which also surprised me that all fishermen in this tournament had to be members of "Unified Pros" in good standing, and provide proof of Alabama license and valid Alabama boater education certificate along with $300k insurance proof.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J45e-XrWVH8WjV-yTiXnS-PgDA0dF7du/edit

 

There are some interesting rules to this tournament:

 

-All passengers in your boat must have their feet in the floor of the boat while engine is running in gear.

 

12. Sonar Use

Forward-facing and 360-degree sonar are prohibited during practice and competition.

 

18. Marshal Responsibilities

Observe the pro angler at all times and report any potential rule infractions.

 

I wonder why the marshal has to keep an eye on just the pros at all times? It makes it sound like they expect the pros to break the rules????

 

1st Place: $500,000

2nd Place: $130,000

3rd Place: $80,000

4th Place: $70,000

5th Place: $50,000

6th Place: $45,000

7th Place: $40,000

8th Place: $35,000

9th Place: $30,000

10th Place: $25,000

11th–25th Place: $7,500 each

26th–50th Place: $5,000 each

51st–100th Place: $1,000 each

 

So with 183 anglers, it looks like 83 of them earned nothing.

 

I was kind of surprised they did not have more rules on fish handling since this event is geared towards pushing conservation, they allowed fish to flop around in the boats. Seems to me if conservation was more important they would have included stricter fish handling rules that protect the "slime" coating.

 

I am all for a rule or rules that prevents slime removal from fish so no flopping around in the boat. No laying of fish on measuring boards, etc. Handle fish only by lipping them, and no touching or handling of their bodies in any way. Either we conserve or we don't! I think this issue needs more promoting.

 

Here is a link to an old thread about it here on this forum:

 

 

Link to official website:

 

https://www.theultimateangler.org/

 

And unified pros website:

 

https://www.unifiedpros.org/

 

Thanks for posting this- and giving me plenty to dig into.

Supposedly funded by AL state government in some part.  

 

All of those rules are pretty standard, aside from the FFS one.  The need marshals/observers because there are no co-anglers and A LOT of money on the line.  

What was the entry fee?

Kind of hard to measure a fish without laying it on a measuring board……..

 

another scoper wins a no scope tourney, I wish that would finally put the argument to bed but I’m sure it won’t. 

44 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Kind of hard to measure a fish without laying it on a measuring board……..

 

another scoper wins a no scope tourney, I wish that would finally put the argument to bed but I’m sure it won’t. 

Of course it won’t.

 

And not a peep on YouTube from you know who. It doesn’t fit the narrative.

 

I haven’t had the time, but if I get a moment I want to look up how Tucker won and how it  unfolded. 
 

It was kind of cool seeing all those big names on the same list. I wonder if there is something bigger in the works with this Unified Anglers thing.

Looked like he was showing off a football jig in what I've seen.

 

You guys are really trying poke that FFS bear huh? 

Trying to point out to the bear pokers that they were full of nonsense all along, and maybe encourage them not to bash young kids that work hard and win. Like fothergill in the classic……….  
 

this is a popular website, they read it 

🙄

Turns out kids can indeed catch bass without their fancy box, some of us already knew 

41 minutes ago, Logan S said:

Looked like he was showing off a football jig in what I've seen.

 

You guys are really trying poke that FFS bear huh? 

Just a bit of debunking.  And a bunch of good young anglers were unfairly insulted.

Hey young or old with a box or without if you got the juice You got the juice