I got hooked on bass fishing when I was in grade school, and that’s over 50 years ago!!! Been watching bass fishing for 30 years or more, back when BASS tournaments were on TNN. I love the Major League Fishing format, can’t wait to see the show each Saturday.
I fished 14 of the BASS tournaments on the amateur side over the years, and was a marshal at 5 of the Elite Series events. In close to 90% of those tournaments, my pro partner had something bad to say about BASS. It was the tournament director, entry fees, not listening to the fishermen, etc., so I wasn’t surprised to see 68 of the pros split and go over to MLF. I hated to see it happen, as I’ve been a life member of BASS since ’82, but the guys had to follow their heart and their pocketbook.
You’re right, it will give a lot of new guys a chance. Look at all the new guys that have come on board in the last few years, including Brandon Card, the Lee brothers, Bradley Roy and our own Seth Feider. It’ll take a couple of years to get to know all the new names, but it should still be good.
With that said, BASS still needs to improve their television coverage of the events. The last Elite tournament I watched last year, they covered the first 3 days of the tourney in 6 minutes. Then, you had to listen to that idiot Mark Zona give the lay of the lake, or whatever he calls it. I don’t wanna see a couple of guys giving their impression of what’s going on, I wanna see the pros catching fish. What are they using, why are they using it, what’s the structure, cover, etc. they’re fishing? Not “here’s what we can show you on a map of the lake”. That’s why I’d rather watch MLF, the camera is right there to show what they’re using and what the target is.
