OCdockskipper

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.

Like a lot of things in life, it depends. How did you leave your last job? Was it done upfront and with the employers blessing? Did you show your employer what was offered and explained why you were considering leaving? How valuable of an employee were you? Is it in the companies best interest in having you back? How did you conduct yourself when you were employed there? Relationships are the unseen side of business, I believe that both Swindle & Palaniuk have great relationships with the powers that be at BASS. Now if someone like Ish Monroe wanted to come back, his history of battles with BASS most likely would not help him.

Yeah, living close to Vegas, I typically will play one WSOP event a year, usually Pot Limit Omaha High Low. My son plays about 5 events a year, typically deepstack Holdem events. Generational difference, I grew up on different games than he did. For the past 22 years, I have hosted a "Night Before Thanksgiving Poker Tournament", a mixed game tournament that takes up the entire evening. During the Poker Boom of the mid 2000's, we had 80 - 90 players, but it has dropped down to 30 ish over the past few years. What is nice about the smaller number is we have whittled out most of the ego guys, so now it is a group of good, competitive players who actually congratulate the person who wins ?.

That is the norm & it is even worse at most WSOP events. A large percentage of players seem to be waiting to get into confrontations, always wanting to show that they know what they are doing and that everyone else is just a lucky fish. I've found that if you stroke those guys egos, you typically can manipulate them later on in the game or tournament. Ironically, many of the known players aren't like that at all. I've played with Mike Matusow at a WSOP event and he was actually quiet and kept to himself (not rude, just not boisterous). The late David Ulliot (Devil Fish) was one of the most personable players I have ever sat next to, he just loved conversation and was always looking to have a good time at the table. The only negative i can think of with a known pro I had was when Eric Siedel sat down next to me and he stunk to high heaven. I'm assuming he had pulled an allnighter or two, his B.O. was horrible. While I enjoy playing poker, I believe it & gambling doesn't always bring out peoples best qualities

Very cute, however it appears your daughter has been hanging out with Mike Iaconelli a bit too much...

When it comes to forage, I have found it is more important to imitate where the forage typically is and how it behaves than trying to match exactly what it looks like. For example, if crawfish are a primary forage in a lake, over the years, the bass in that lake will generally eat things off the bottom, in areas where the crawfish tend to be. If threadfin shad are the primary forage, you can expect the bass in that lake in the fall to follow them up creek arms and bust the schools up on the surface. Those lakes on the east coast that have had blueback herring introduced are excellent examples of how the basses behavior changes in relation to their primary forage. In many of those lakes, most of the spotted bass and many of the largemouth have changed & become pelagic in order to continue to feed of the herring. It doesn't hurt to imitate the size and color of forage (especially in clearer waters), but it is down the checklist.

From his announcement (not verbatim) - "...Half of my friends are on the Elite tour, half of my friends are on the FLW tour, I have a couple of friends on the BPT..." Setting aside the mathematical difficulties with that statement, I believe that it says volumes about his relationships within the industry. The problem with MLF acquiring FLW is that it instantly relegated FLW down to a qualifying tour (like the BASS Opens). That may be a tough pill to swallow for many of the FLW anglers who didn't jump ship to BPT, through no fault of their own, their tour has been minimized. I can see a few more FLW anglers following suit, figuring if they have to fish a qualifying tour, it may as well be the Opens. No matter Scotts success, i wonder if his decision has made Roland think about taking one of the Elites legend exemptions for a couple of years...

The Niners may need that 9-1 start, the last 6 games on their schedule look to be really tough. Atlanta was looking to be the patsy game, but that team has suddenly found themselves the last 2 weeks and may be reverting to their form of a few years back. Here is a prediction for you. If the Rams find the tweaks they need to really get their running game going and run the table to end the season (meaning they beat both the Niners and Seahawks), they will win their division at 12-4 and the loser of the Niners/Seahawks final game of the season will not make the playoffs at 11-5 or 10-6. Then again, the Rams could flounder around and end up at 9-7, who knows ?

He kind of looks like a huge perch.

I recall one thing a pro (I believe it was Terry Scroggins) said about Florida in relation to the spawn. Throughout the rest of the country, the bass move on to beds as the water warms into the 60's. In Florida, the bass move on to beds as the water cools into the 60's. Florida never really has a winter transition, from what I have read. When the temps get cool enough into the 60's come December/January, the bass start moving to the beds. The spawn continues into the spring, followed by post spawn, summer & fall patterns. Summer & Fall can be brutal, both temperature wise & fishing until the temps drop into the 60's and the cycle begins again

Two quick tips on casting distance & accuracy with spinning gear: Use braid or Nanofil with a leader. The inherent twist spinning reels puts on line (& creates a mess with mono or fluoro) is not an issue with braid or Nanofil; Choose a reel with a neck short enough that your index finger can reach the spool. This allows you to feather every cast in the same manner your thumb does with a casting reel. It is really satisfying (as well as handy) to be accurate with both spinning and casting.

Docks are the dominate cover on my lake, so when I take people out who have limited casting skills, I sometimes am forced to teach them how to skip (with a spinning rod) because it is the only way they will get bit. Using a 5" unweighted wacky rig senko helps, but it can be an exercise in patience. One thing I learned early on is if the skip they makes goes high, hits the side of the dock (or boat ?) and then drops down straight, I tell them to hold off on reeling it back in. A good percentage of the time, the noise of the miss will catch the attention of a bass under the dock & he will swim towards the noise to find a senko drifting to the bottom. If they hook up, I'm sure to tell them "Good miss".

The first thing I thought of is this the kind of thing that is in MLF's wheelhouse? I have been vocal that I believe a problem with the BPT structure is that it is run by the anglers and looks at everything from their viewpoint. Therefore, how the organization changes and grows will always have a "whats in it for the pros" mentality. I don't see MLF looking outside their current interests to form tours or leagues other than what will be participated in by their pros. I understand they purchased FLW, but they existed prior to BPT so owning it or not owning it made no difference to the BPT pros, it was already there. There will always be an exception, a Boyd Duckett or two, who are business oriented first and tournament fishing second, but it seems obvious that most BPT anglers would not have any interest in sharing the spotlight with any kayak series (or college or anything else) that draws eyes away from them). That is BASS's ace in the hole, being a "fishing organization" first and a company that has an Elite pro series second. If the Elite pros have an issue with the amount of coverage given to the kayak series, or the Bass Nation or the college series, too bad. BASS, because of their organizational structure, has the ability to start and run whatever kind of tours that are of interest to bass fishermen over the years. A while back, fly fishing was tried, kayak fishing now, who knows what would be in the future. By having their organizational focus on what their members want, what bass fishermen are doing at that time, they are much more flexible to change with the times. Now when is the Pond Boat series going to get started up...?

This may sound overly simplistic, but if someone spends 200 hours fishing and they only catch 1 bass, the first thing I think of is that there were no bass where you were fishing. Not no bass in the lake, just the places you chose to fish. I'd focus a little less on the minute details of the gear and lures and a lot more on finding the bass. Start with season patterns to get you in the general locations and then fine tune it from there. Bass are curious by nature (remember, they are in the sunfish family) and if you put something near enough of them, a percentage of them are going to bite. Even if you are doing the worst possible technique, at the wrong time of year, if you are near any bass, there are always a few that are interested in committing suicide.

FYI, Weather Underground is also the name of a domestic terrorist group that was active in the US in the late 60's & early 70's. They planted bombs at places they disagreed with and set fire to houses of people they disagreed with. Not the most savory group one would like to be associated with. I find it is surprising a private company would choose to use the same name.

One thing i have noticed about lakes that don't have any shad is it changes where the bass are, but not necessarily what they will bite. For example, my home lake has only bluegill & crayfish for forage (and the occasional small carp, catfish, bird, etc). The bass relate to the forage, so in the fall, when shad eating bass are going to the backs of creeks and busting up schools of shad on the surface of middle of coves, the bass in my lake aren't. They are where the bluegill & crayfish are at that time. A bluegill colored or shaped lure may fool more bass than one that looks like a shad in your lake, but the latter can still catch a boatload. What is more important is how the different forage is changing where the bass are and how they are oriented to eating.

Tom, I believe @jbsoonerfan is not questioning what you are saying, rather asking whether that information is something that MLF made public or is an accumulation of bits & pieces over the past years. For example, the early versions of the MLF website had a page of "Who we are". On that page, it stated that MLF was started to complement the Elite & FLW tours, not replace them and the idea was to hold MLF tournaments at times that didn't interfer with anglers ability to fish those other tours. Looking at that now, we know that Boyd Duckett was either lying when he had that printed or he changed his mind when given the opportunity (sponsor money). Either way, it shows he really isn't a man of his word, which is ironic being that so many anglers trusted him when they changed tours. If BPT ends up in the tank in the next few years, I would expect alot of folks having no shortage of negative words about Duckett.

First off, comparing results between the two won't always work. If your goal is to catch the 5 biggest, how you attack the lake will be different than if you are just trying to catch the most poundage. Getting skunked in a 5 biggest tournament is not unusual, especially in places where a big limit the following day is very possible. However, getting skunked in a BPT tourney, after multiple days of practice, would be a bit humiliating. The Opens is a bit more of a proving ground and there are plenty of guys who fish them who call themselves "pros", but really make a living in another manner. Kind of like the waiter who considers himself an "actor" and just works at the restaurant until his big break comes, or the guy who shows up at the casino in the evenings and calls himself a "professional poker player". There are plenty of people who fish the Opens religiously who are really just average bass fishermen. If it wasn't rude to do so, I'd be happy to list some of their names or even Traits that they have. Finally, as far as size of the fish, you are comparing the BPT to the Opens, I don't think that is the correct comparison. BPT to the Elites is more apples to apples, both have the top anglers who had to qualify in some sense in order to participate.

Without commenting on whether or not anyone on this thread could make it as a pro, I think that was the point of Brayberry's post. The skills needed to win an Elite event are different than those needed to win a BPT event and some pros have not been able to make that transition. Most everyone on this board has had 50 fish days, so there is a bit of understanding what is needed to do that. Very few of us have had a 30 lb bag, how to do that is a complete mystery to most. Obviously, Edwin Evers, Jordan Lee, Jacob Wheeler are examples of guys who can flourish in either format. However, guys like Ish Monroe & Dean Rojas have really struggled. I don't think it is a coincidence that those same guys in the latter category have won in big fish shootouts were it took over 100lbs to win a 4 day tournament. Rick Clunn talked about how he grew up catching 10 fish limits of 2 lb bass and how hard it was to transition to catching 5 fish limits of 4 lb bass. He has done it to a point, as seen by his victories on the St. johns river, but he said he would have had to undo everything he had been trying to learn over the past 10 years if he had been part of the BPT.

Watching the news doesn t cause a problem for me because I am in different people's homes every day. My daily experience is that most people are good and honest while some aren't. I believe the percentage of the latter is higher in more populated areas, but that is based on my experiences, not any actual data. A good thing about being exposed to both is that you learn how to spot each type quickly.

I have been in construction since 1985, first as an office employee scheduling installations and for the last 22 years, as a C7 low voltage contractor. While the problems caused by contractors have been similar over time, their causes are different. In the 80's & 90's, communications with people in the field was difficult. The only phones were landlines and if you couldn't reach a person at an expected location, you had no idea where they were or what was happening. A legitimate reason for a missed appointment didn't really matter because it took hours upon hours to find out why and relay it to the customer (much less advise them before hand). The problem today is that many contractors rely too much on their cell phones and are basically on call 24/7. Instead of having a central location where all phone calls are logged and a customer knows they can call & talk to a human being, guys try to run their business out of their pocket. It doesn't work, you forget to return calls and there is no mechanism to remind you. When customers call our office and ask for my cell number, we don't give it out. We politely explain that we consider it inappropriate to be working at one customers home and be on the phone discussing things with another customer. If there is something that needs a decision right away, the office will text me. A majority of people understand & appreciate this, knowing that when we are working at their home, they will be our entire focus. A small percentage have an issue with this, but not surprising, they are also the ones who will call at 9:00 in the evening saying they would like me to "stop by" the following morning. These folks are also the ones who are the slowest to pay. Many contractors came up through a trade, learning the hands on portion but not the steps involved in running a business. They forget that the skills they have in the trade are of no use if their business is being run into the ground by bad customer relations.

It is a little known fact that Bass are excellent landscapers, although they only do their work at night. When darkness falls on gold courses, the Bass migrate out of the ponds and do course maintenance, mowing the grass & relocating the pins. The don't work on the sand traps however, that work is left up to the carp.

I believe you have misread or misunderstood what I wrote. I never wrote that starting BPT was unethical. I wrote that the manner in which Ducket went about it was, in my opinion, unethical. Do you see the difference I am making? I have no issues with BPT or any other tour that comes along. If the market can support it & it fills a need or want, then more power to them, they will succeed. My point was Ducket could have bowed out from the Elite series years ago as he built the MLF organization. He chose not to, hence my negative opinion of his actions.

Well, as our mothers all told us, 2 wrongs don't make a right. Ethically, if an organization is upfront about entry fees & payoffs, it doesn't matter what the ratio is as long as the company lives up to what was advertised. Don't begrudge profits going to the company that created the stage for others to launch from. If BASS had never been formed, Rick Clunn would have been a guide on Lake Conroe. If Rick Clunn had never become a BASS pro, someone else would have won those 4 Classics & BASS would still be BASS. If BASS had lousy payouts, then the market corrected itself by introducing other tours. They had to have been doing something right all these years, people wait in line to fish their tour.

You are correct, Ducket didn't do anything legally wrong, he just stepped out of bounds ethically in my opinion. Happens all the time in business, people work or are involved with companies, gain as much insider info as they can and then use that to leverage a new company of their creation against their former employers. Ducket spent 5 plus years working on MLF, originally under the guise that he was not going to compete with BASS or FLW, but just complement them, all the while being involved with BASS and the other anglers who fished the Elite series. To me, it just looks real shady. I think the reason I don't like people doing those actions, even though they are legal, is how it then effects the future generations of employees or contractors who work for or with the organization afterwards. You would have to think the organization that was poached from would be distrustful after that, making it less of a positive place to work at or for. There is & was a lot that BASS could have done to stop this from happening or mitigate its effects years earlier. They didn't, or didn't effectively (or fast enough), hence the result.