St John’s River

[PhishLI]

16 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I'm actually trying to be empathetic to his current moment in his career and saying I can see why he's more personality  and less performance at this current stage.

Yup. Father time is undefeated. That said, he does have 2 AOY titles, and he tied for 2nd With Palaniuk in the last Fork event that Lee Livesay won. Run through the stats of the Elite field and you'll find out how few of them have even sniffed a 2nd place finish. It's hard to win and easy to bomb. Fujita just placed dead last at St. Johns. After the end of last year's season and after winning this year's 1st event that would seem to have been impossible, but it happened. Florida ended his shot at AOY which is something he was gunning for. Just holding your spot on the Elites is tough.

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Just holding your spot on the Elites is tough.

I know - just look at 'my man' - the Llama... 2021 was AOY...this year he's back in the bottom of the pack.

[Pat Brown]

Seems to me like the St Johns River is a great place to go every year to shake up the tournaments a bit and challenge to offshore electronics experts.

 

I really enjoyed that tournament a lot.  I also enjoyed watching Fujita wreck em on livescope earlier this year.  I think it's more important now to be good at everything than it ever has been.

[Choporoz]

On 4/20/2024 at 1:53 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I don't love seeing two anglers working together so closely.  This has been getting worse since I've been back in the sport.     The anglers are forming little packs, roommates, etc., and they agree to share information.  The MLF is even worse. 

 

Walters and Hamner, and the Johnston brothers are the most notable examples recently.   

 

This isn't a team sport imho, sharing fish, sharing locations, giving bed fish to your brother, none of that stuff feels right imho.  

Agreed.  That's one thing that bothered me about top level kayak bass tournaments, also.   There's tight knit not-team teams that make some question the individual nature of the sport. 

[Team9nine]

33 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Seems to me like the St Johns River is a great place to go every year to shake up the tournaments a bit and challenge to offshore electronics experts.

 

I really enjoyed that tournament a lot.  I also enjoyed watching Fujita wreck em on livescope earlier this year.  I think it's more important now to be good at everything than it ever has been.

Agreed. My initial thought after checking the standings each day was that with a little time, effort and thought put into scheduling, tournament directors could probably squash most of this giant FFS debate by simply selecting a better mix of location and timing for their events without even having to touch the third rail of restricting or banning of equipment.

[gim]

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

tournament directors could probably squash most of this giant FFS debate by simply selecting a better mix of location and timing for their events without even having to touch the third rail of restricting or banning of equipment.

 

Like scheduling the northern smallmouth events in midsummer?  Everyone knows what's coming with those.

 

It could all be avoided by simply scheduling them during a different time of year.

[JediAmoeba]

On 4/20/2024 at 1:53 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I don't love seeing two anglers working together so closely.  This has been getting worse since I've been back in the sport.     The anglers are forming little packs, roommates, etc., and they agree to share information.  The MLF is even worse. 

 

Walters and Hamner, and the Johnston brothers are the most notable examples recently.   

 

This isn't a team sport imho, sharing fish, sharing locations, giving bed fish to your brother, none of that stuff feels right imho.  

I disagree - it should be a team sport. Team Daiwa guys should share info, strike king guys should team up, etc.

On 4/20/2024 at 2:58 PM, Team9nine said:

 

 Which is why I posted a couple weeks back that anytime a Johnston bro doesn’t win an event is a good tourney in my book - lol. Looks like I‘ll be a little sad come tomorrow though - but they’ve been doing this since they started fishing the US tours.

 

Also never watch weigh-ins because I can’t stand Mercer. Haven’t cared for him since before he was selected as BASS MC, back when he was a Canadian Swindle that I never found funny. Actually, I almost never watch any tournament coverage these days unless following a specific angler. Just not happy with where the sport has gone.

Mercer is the worst. Can't stand him 

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, JediAmoeba said:

I disagree - it should be a team sport. Team Daiwa guys should share info, strike king guys should team up, etc.

By the time you finish with all the cross-sponsorships....everyone is talking to everyone.

[JediAmoeba]

Just now, MN Fisher said:

By the time you finish with all the cross-sponsorships....everyone is talking to everyone.

Maybe guys wouldn't be such sponsorship sluts if there was a "Team Trophy" each year?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

26 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

By the time you finish with all the cross-sponsorships....everyone is talking to everyone.

 

Imagine how big the team for Pure Fishing or Rapala would be vs. old boy repping a local construction company 

[PhishLI]

Info sharing caught on camera. Must be OK with BASS.

Scroll to 1:14:20 if it doesn't auto-start there.

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

It's not even a secret about these clicks.   I haven't watched that episode in a few months it seems like, but I already know BMP and Carl J share info big time.   

 

All these dudes are "clicked up".   

 

It's one thing for Patty Walters and Justin Hamner to both have the same areas on Grand Lake during the practice, and then do a coin flip at the beginning of the derby for starting spots, but when you literally see a huge Bass on bed, go to another angler and give him the fish......that's a terrible look for the sport imho.    

 

They have off limit periods for info sharing and can't receive info from locals.   Not sure why this doesn't extend to angler-to-angler scenarios.