Lake Fork

[JediAmoeba]

This morning listening to the oldheads was a little disappointing- basically old men yelling with a raised fist for the kids to stay out of their yard. 

[gim]

13 hours ago, hokiehunter373 said:

It’s mind blowing how many of them prefer to whine about it and get their butts kicked than try to learn something new

Easier said than done. The mind loses its ability to take on complex learning as you age. My old man can’t even operate a smart phone at his age.

 

The old saying goes, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” does have some truth to it.

[JediAmoeba]

Did Cooper Gallant stop fishing? 

[F14A-B]

McKinney has this thing… what a tournament! 
 

 

10 century belts today! Wow what a lake!! 

3 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

This morning listening to the oldheads was a little disappointing- basically old men yelling with a raised fist for the kids to stay out of their yard. 

I think I understand Gmans dilemma, but he CAN invest in the technology if he wants to continue to compete in this sport. Or not..

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Historical derby, and one that captures the true extent of the future for the sport.

 

5/10 are rookies.

 

A 19yr old is going to win, and a 22yr old is going to come in 3rd.   

 

I'd love to see a mix schedule of FFS and non FFS derbies.   You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, but we can't lose not just the old guard of the sport, but the true art of "old school" fishing.    

 

Congrats to Trey, the real prodigy, sorry BMP.    Shocking derby on a number of levels, but seeing all those beautiful big Texas Bass was just incredible.   Again TWP and the people of Texas are the real winners of this derby.  

 

 

[Texas Flood]

Congrats to Trey!

 

 

Also, how can you not root for Tyler Williams?

[JediAmoeba]

2 minutes ago, Texas Flood said:

Also, how can you not root for Tyler Williams?

Dude has the cleanest deck - 4 rods. Everyone else has a disaster.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

How can the MLF compete with this product, both last week and this week.

 

Mckinney, Fujita, Milliken....I just can't see how MLF can compete with this.  You have to tune in to watch just those three if you really want to follow the bleeding edge of our sport.    

 

 

[F14A-B]

McKinney is the future of the sport, congratulations to that young Man. What a tournament he fished. Congratulations to all the Top 10 century belt winners!! 

[Team9nine]

41 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

How can the MLF compete with this product, both last week and this week.

 

Mckinney, Fujita, Milliken....I just can't see how MLF can compete with this.  You have to tune in to watch just those three if you really want to follow the bleeding edge of our sport.    

 

 

I think you’ll see some natural segregation by demographic and field between the two - it’s already started somewhat, and these recent events will only encourage more separation from what I’m reading across various forums and other online media. May be the minority, but a lot of anglers have little interest in the guys you named. Just an opinion 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

4 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

I think you’ll see some natural segregation by demographic and field between the two - it’s already started somewhat, and these recent events will only encourage more separation from what I’m reading across various forums and other online media. May be the minority, but a lot of anglers have little interest in the guys you named. Just an opinion 

I get it for sure, makes sense.   

 

Right now MLF's product can't compete imho, however if they did no FFS derbies, yeah I could see a major split in professional fishing from a fundamental level instead of a league one.     That MLF would get a ton of fans, for every person who likes FFS, another hates it.   

[Koz]

Amazing - the top 10 all weigh in with over 100 pounds. This tournament ended up being a showcase for forward facing sonar. We saw guys literally chasing down one big fish instead finding traditional "fishy" spots and attacking those spots.

 

Among the top 10, eight of them were born after 1990. These are guys that grew up on technology and video games and I think that makes it much easier for them to adapt to and master FFS fishing.

 

Moving forward, I wonder if BASS rolls with this technology or if they place limits on it. Maybe practice and the first round or two only, or have some tournaments with no FFS.

 

And no, I'm not against FFS - I just installed it on my kayak this afternoon. I think it has become necessary if you want to compete in tournaments.

 

As far the limited cameras, my guess is that within the next two years that BASS will require all participants to have multiple GoPro or similar cameras mounted on their boats and all of the action will be live streamed. For the TV broadcast they could simply switch to any boat and camera. The BASS website will probably also start a subscription service so you can login to the site and watch as many of the feeds as you want to watch.

[Susky River Rat]

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube

They did with the A rig 

[king fisher]

  It is called a professional elite series.  To me that means the best anglers, competing with the best equipment in order to win and make the most money in pay outs, and sponsorships.  By limiting the electronic equipment, they would be also limiting sponsorship dollars from the electronic companies.  This sport is not big enough for tournament organizations to turn their backs on major sponsors.  Like it or not the electronic companies want to use the professional circuit to help sell their products to the average angler and for good or bad, that is not going to change.  Loosing sponsorships from one company making the A rig was not going to be a big financial hit.  Also the A Rig had potential of becoming so popular, that other lures would not be used, actually hurting sponsorship dollars in the long run.  Now that the A Rig has been out for awhile the fears, that it would be the only bass lure used has been shown to have simply been paranoia.  Electronics have far more economic impact, and will only become more popular. I hear it all the time, It's all about the money.  Yes it is all about the money, that is why it is called professional bass fishing.  I am a recreational angler and can choose when, where, and what I want to fish with.  If I was being payed, I would have to use my sponsors equipment, fish where the tournaments are being held, and keep up on the latest technology in order to compete.

       I may not agree with how they fish, and the equipment they use, but I also want to see the very best, with the very best equipment, competing at the highest level.  That is what I believed happened at Lake Fork.

[TnRiver46]

I guess the young kids are just supposed to let the old people win……….

 

 

g man has livescope and has for years , he’s invested. He got a century belt at lake fork last time they were there, think it was 2021. 
 

old guys have never dominated tournaments, live sonar is a convenient excuse

 

i knew Tyler Williams was good but didn’t know he was that good. Congrats to McKinney, he put in the work all offseason while the old guard was busy hunting and complaining 

[Pat Brown]

And to see Tyler Williams get so far with Bama Strolling.  It really warms the heart.  🥹♥️🎣

[TnRiver46]

The kid loves a jig and so do I 😂 

[Tennessee Boy]

It has been a great tournament season so far.  KVD is retired and I wouldn’t be surprised if McKinney takes his place.  I hope both tournament trails are successful.  I enjoy all of it.  I’ve been extremely busy the last three days and haven’t been able to watch much but I did check the score often.  I personally would love to see more use of slot limits.  It seems to have worked on Lake Fork.  

[TnRiver46]

Amen @Tennessee Boy! Wish we had them more places

 

But I will say, when I was camping at lake fork I talked to a guy that was snagging fish off beds and said he didn’t give two rips about the slot limit, he was filleting a 6 lber. Rules are only as good as the enforcers and they…… nvm 

[F14A-B]

I remember when KVD was a rookie..

 

people were talking smack about him, his age, his style.. he’d run that trolling motor on high and throw that spinner bait 600 times a tournament. It seems change is inevitable.. 

 

 

[bowhunter63]

Does anyone remember the old fishing hot spots maps and books  Now I’m showing my age 😁

[F14A-B]

41 minutes ago, bowhunter63 said:

Does anyone remember the old fishing hot spots maps and books  Now I’m showing my age 😁

Haha, I had one in Florida, I used it extensively and it was worth its weight in gold!! 

[PhishLI]

2 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

 KVD is retired and I wouldn’t be surprised if McKinney takes his place.

It's possible, but these days with this tech it's hard to imagine anyone holding the throne for very long. I imagined the '23 ROY Joey Cifuentes coming out on fire having not only grabbed that title with so many high finishes last year, and also having 2 wins, but it didn't happen. 65th at Toledo and 85th at Fork so far. You wonder how? I think the answer lies in the fact that all of the younger guys have been on an accelerated learning curve over the past 10 years with YT, etc, so there's parity in their skills. It comes down to who can get to the winning spots and hold them. Perhaps that's always been true, but now that electronic sight fishing is the name of the game it's just different than in the past. I wish him luck though. Seems like a good kid, and his parents were thrilled. A great moment for all.

[PhishLI]

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I guess the young kids are just supposed to let the old people win……….

No excuses from this older guy.

 

[TnRiver46]

^he said he drove 1,000 miles in one day, you can’t be considered old if you are capable of that 😂