MLF Format

[WRB]

In natural lakes the majority of prey is shore oriented called dermasel, where in man made reserviors that have both dermasel and pelagic fish outside deep structure can have a good population of prey and bass. Perch and crappie can be pelagic and natural lakes with those fish prey can also have decent number of bass off shore. Obviously the Great Lakes and large natural have both pelagic and dermasel prey fish.

I have been bass fishing for over 60 years and know first hand 90% of bass anglers fish the bank areas, it was close to 99% a few years ago. Having bass fished all over the country it doesn't take me long to locate bass anywhere, if I can do this so can any pro. Finding active feeding bass takes time on water you never been on unless your timing is right.

Tom

[RichF]

While I only have a third of your bass fishing experience, I too know that 90% of bass anglers target the banks, that's why I agreed with you.  I guess it just comes down to a matter of interpretation.  If I went to any lake and immediately went straight to the obvious shoreline structure and caught some bass, does this mean I am highly skilled at finding bass quickly?  I would say no, but if that's all it takes...shoot, I'll take the compliment!     

[Turkey sandwich]

.02

 

I like the format a lot.  It's a dramatic change from the 5 fish limit structure and it forces anglers to fish differently in places where they may have little to no familiarity.  

 

As as for figuring out fish and finds patterns... Most tournaments encourage pre-fishing, scouting, etc.. With more information available, a skilled angler is going to have a much easier time putting together effective patterns and targeting larger fish.  When dumped at a lake with a boat and topo map and virtually no notice, that's a much different story.  It forces the angler to come up with a few game plans on the fly.  Sometimes that means the most efficient plan is beating exposed cover and obvious structure.  Now, if guys are still able to pull 40+lbs of fish from the obvious suff most guys hit - that's a pretty impressive achievement!  Guys on here complain about water being beat fishing from the back of the boat or during recreational boating seasons.  These guys are doing it under the gun.  That, to me, is impressive.  It also shows that sometimes the most effective strategy is the obvious and that paying attention to details like wind, birds, cloud cover, etc can make or break a day, especially when you can't rely on finding pelagic fish offshore. 

 

As for Ike... I am nothing like him on the water and the style isn't me, but... I'm a huge fan.  He's one of the best on the water and he brings an energy to bass fishing that's huge.  For those of us who are already deep in the sport, we may get drawn to quieter guys, but for someone looking from the outside in, this isn't the most exciting sport.  Ike brings that.  He brings outside attention and notoriety to fishing and the outdoors and that, to me, is huge.  A kid watching a tournament isn't going to get pumped watching Denny Brauer stroke a jig.  That same kid is going to be pumped watching Ike dance, scream, hug people, and do back flips after winning a tournament.  

[12poundbass]

34 minutes ago, Turkey sandwich said:

.02

 

I like the format a lot.  It's a dramatic change from the 5 fish limit structure and it forces anglers to fish differently in places where they may have little to no familiarity.  

 

As as for figuring out fish and finds patterns... Most tournaments encourage pre-fishing, scouting, etc.. With more information available, a skilled angler is going to have a much easier time putting together effective patterns and targeting larger fish.  When dumped at a lake with a boat and topo map and virtually no notice, that's a much different story.  It forces the angler to come up with a few game plans on the fly.  Sometimes that means the most efficient plan is beating exposed cover and obvious structure.  Now, if guys are still able to pull 40+lbs of fish from the obvious suff most guys hit - that's a pretty impressive achievement!  Guys on here complain about water being beat fishing from the back of the boat or during recreational boating seasons.  These guys are doing it under the gun.  That, to me, is impressive.  It also shows that sometimes the most effective strategy is the obvious and that paying attention to details like wind, birds, cloud cover, etc can make or break a day, especially when you can't rely on finding pelagic fish offshore. 

 

As for Ike... I am nothing like him on the water and the style isn't me, but... I'm a huge fan.  He's one of the best on the water and he brings an energy to bass fishing that's huge.  For those of us who are already deep in the sport, we may get drawn to quieter guys, but for someone looking from the outside in, this isn't the most exciting sport.  Ike brings that.  He brings outside attention and notoriety to fishing and the outdoors and that, to me, is huge.  A kid watching a tournament isn't going to get pumped watching Denny Brauer stroke a jig.  That same kid is going to be pumped watching Ike dance, scream, hug people, and do back flips after winning a tournament.  

You're spot on with Ike! Love him or hate him he can fish and he's extremely smart! He has a degree in marketing and after reading his book you get an inside look at who he really is. He's absolutely passionate about fishing there's no question about that. Part of his "allergic reaction" to catching a fish as Zona likes to call it is from his passion for fishing the other part is pure marketing. In the cut throat business that pro bass fishing is you not only have to win but you have to stand out. He already has the resume he the only angler to ever win the Bass Nation title, Classic title, and AOY plus his other wins. Take those away we'd still know who he is. Look at Gerald Swindle, he's won 2 AOY's which is a big feat but he's never won an elite event. I think his biggest win is an Open. Don't get me wrong the guy can fish and he's one of my favorites on tour, but how long was it in between his AOY titles? Yet he's remains a household name and one of the highest paid anglers as far as sponsorship goes for a decade or more despite zero elite wins. Why? Because he's loud vocally and clothing wise, and we all tune in to see what's going to come out of his mouth at the weigh in. I personally wouldn't do what Mike does but you have to respect his out of the box thinking. It's paid his bills when tournaments haven't. 

[OCdockskipper]

1 hour ago, RichF said:

... If I went to any lake and immediately went straight to the obvious shoreline structure and caught some bass, does this mean I am highly skilled at finding bass quickly?...

 

I would say that makes you skilled (maybe not highly skilled).  I say that because we have all seen novices fish obvious structure & cover and catch nothing or next to nothing.  Their lack of skill prevented them from "finding" the bass that were there.

 

I think we sometimes take for granted how much knowledge & skill we aquire over the years.  To paraphrase the line from "Caddyshack", you may consider yourself no slouch, but don't sell yourself short - you are a tremendous slouch .

[WRB]

I will add read the MLF finals thread on this page, positive feedback.

MLF has limited the size of area on larger lakes the contestants can fish and in this MN series the lakes were small so they could fish the entire lakes and the lakes were isolated from heavy bass fishing pressure making obvious areas still under fished verses high pressured lakes where obvious areas get pounded. The keys to these tournaments are locating active feeding bass under whatever conditions that prevail during 6 hours of fishing time.

Skilled tournament bass anglers face this at every event, stay or move when the bass stop biting, pro's tend to move to develop patterns.

Tom

[RoLo]

 

When you're viewing a traditional Bassmaster tournament on TV, did you ever wonder why

the pro angler always makes bass-contact soon after the camera-boat arrives?

No problem, every camera boat is running all the time, but 99.5% of the tapes are scrapped.

Back in the 80s or 90s, Roland Martin came clean when he told the viewing audience

that the 30-minute fishing video you watch has probably taken months to televise (you can believe it).

 

Before MLF was in vogue, Chris & Bobby Lane had a one-on-one brotherly shootout

on lightly fished Lake Jackson, just east of Lake Kissimmee. WELL, two of the most feared sticks

in Florida produced a TV show that was no more exciting than watching grass grow.

In fact, it was beginning to look like a Double-Skunk, but a dink or two finally saved the day. 

After all is said and done, that was real world fishing and there was no hero worship.
 

To be sure, the anglers competing in the MLF format must tune their game plan to numbers

rather than quality. That is plainly seen by their lack of locational management,

by electric motors that run constantly and in my opinion, randomly. There are no riflemen,

they are all shotgunners striving for maximal area coverage. I have fished Lake Istokpoga, FL

a great number of times, and I've never seen so many runt bass from those waters.

However, most of what we see in Major League Fishing is the stuff that would ordinarily be deleted,

real-world stuff. Best of all, the MLF format favors the leading characters...the bass.

 

Roger

[WRB]

I am sure MLF does a lot of editing to fill 40 minutes of TV time, ads take the rest.

You hear the anglers talking about the short bass they catch and only see them if a penalty for miss handling dinks occurs. 

Bobby Lane has a temper, broken a few rods in half, the stress is real!

Tom

[EmersonFish]

I'm not saying MLF should change their format, because I know it's been very successful, and I know I'm in the minority, but I'm not really a huge fan. I'd love to see a tournament where they used the same catch/release, live scoring system, yet used a five fish limit. It would be just like a regular tournament except we would get a running bag total, and the other competitors would know what their opponents had. This would also make for the possibility of some pretty dramatic finishes, as someone who was trailing could catch a couple big ones and vault into the top (you know, like in an actual tournament except no one knows it just happened), whereas in the MLF format, half the guys are often totally out of it by the third period. You could even continue to use the 12 inch limit since you are releasing the fish. As for the potential for guys going an hour without catching a fish, that's why these shows are edited. And even if they were focusing on catching bigger fish and there was more time between catches, would that be the end of the world? Maybe we could actually watch a guy's fish catch from beginning to end and get an idea of what he was doing instead of just seeing guys land fish over and over again? And in my format, you'd have slightly larger field fishing lakes where you know they are likely to catch them.

 

There are probably guys on the outside looking in of MLF who would love to get involved and there is a market out there for this kind of programming, so I might just start this thing myself (What's to stop me beside a bunch of high priced lawyers?). I just need some significant financial backing and a team of people who know how to do stuff.  

 

Luckily, with Bass Live and FLW Live, we get a taste of this, but we don't get to see it come to it's dramatic conclusion and it is not tightly packaged like MLF. Here's hoping that BASS and FLW are able to expand of their live coverage as money and technology allow.

 

  

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, EmersonFish said:

I'm not saying MLF should change their format, because I know it's been very successful, and I know I'm in the minority, but I'm not really a huge fan. I'd love to see a tournament where they used the same catch/release, live scoring system, yet used a five fish limit. It would be just like a regular tournament except we would get a running bag total, and the other competitors would know what their opponents had. This would also make for the possibility of some pretty dramatic finishes, as someone who was trailing could catch a couple big ones and vault into the top (you know, like in an actual tournament except no one knows it just happened), whereas in the MLF format, half the guys are often totally out of it by the third period. You could even continue to use the 12 inch limit since you are releasing the fish. As for the potential for guys going an hour without catching a fish, that's why these shows are edited. And even if they were focusing on catching bigger fish and there was more time between catches, would that be the end of the world? Maybe we could actually watch a guy's fish catch from beginning to end and get an idea of what he was doing instead of just seeing guys land fish over and over again? And in my format, you'd have slightly larger field fishing lakes where you know they are likely to catch them.

 

There are probably guys on the outside looking in of MLF who would love to get involved and there is a market out there for this kind of programming, so I might just start this thing myself (What's to stop me beside a bunch of high priced lawyers?). I just need some significant financial backing and a team of people who know how to do stuff.  

 

Luckily, with Bass Live and FLW Live, we get a taste of this, but we don't get to see it come to it's dramatic conclusion and it is not tightly packaged like MLF. Here's hoping that BASS and FLW are able to expand of their live coverage as money and technology allow.

 

  

Everything you just explained is the MLF to a tee with the exception of a 5 fish limit. If you are given a five fish limit there's the potential for the leader board to sit idle for quite some time. With the MLF that possibility isn't as great. 

I agree there are times where someone gets out in from and you know by the end of the first period who's most likely going to win. Then like the final Edwin Evers was way behind I think well into the third period and made one hell of a final push to make it interesting. Some days it'll be a blow out others it'll be a nail biter...that's fishing for ya! 

[wdp]

On 3/22/2017 at 0:36 PM, Team9nine said:

 

No offense meant, but it's a sad reflection on the sport, and the current media/tournament mentality when you feel embarrassed by catching a bass. They can't get big by not being small, first. I love catching them all, big or small ?

 

-T9

I agree. I still thoroughly enjoy days where we go to a lake that's all about catching numbers. Still fun to tie a mini rattle trap on an ultra light & try to catch 40 dinks in 2 hours. ?

[EmersonFish]

10 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

Everything you just explained is the MLF to a tee with the exception of a 5 fish limit. If you are given a five fish limit there's the potential for the leader board to sit idle for quite some time. With the MLF that possibility isn't as great. 

I agree there are times where someone gets out in from and you know by the end of the first period who's most likely going to win. Then like the final Edwin Evers was way behind I think well into the third period and made one hell of a final push to make it interesting. Some days it'll be a blow out others it'll be a nail biter...that's fishing for ya! 

That's why I said something to the effect of use same system, yet use the 5 fish limit, which is a significant difference. I'm glad people are so passionate about MLF. It's good for the sport. I just believe there is room for an alternative. And as for the leader board sitting idle; the 5 fish system will not compete with guys catching similar fish over and over, but a full day of fishing edited down to a 1 or 2 hour show will generally keep people interested, unless they just generally dislike fishing in the first place.

Again, based on the reaction I get when this topic comes up, I accept that I am in the minority, and will be happy to support MLF as it is. It is certainly better programming than 99% of anything else on TV.

[hoosierbass07]

I know when MLF is on TV - every Saturday (and Fridays and Sundays) once the new year starts (January 1st) on the Outdoor Channel.  I have no idea when the Bassmaster shows will be shown on ESPN2 because they are months after the Bassmaster events.  In the time I've watched MLF, I've gotten to know the fishermen and their personalities (or TV personalities they put on).  I don't get that when watching the Bassmaster shows.  I give MLF credit - they push the individual competitor personalities. 

 

 And I've said this before - I catch a lot of dinks.  So to see them catch dinks like me - I like that!  It's fun to watch who gets crushed in the MLF competitions.  lol.