How many follow professional Bass Fishing?

I follow it. I prefer the MLF format. They’ll get the kinks ironed out.

There are some big limits and big fish being caught at Lake Fork. Yesterday there was 3 limits over 30Lb’s and big Bass was 8lbs 12oz. Today already 1 limit over 30 and several in the mid 20’s. Yesterdays weights were way down from what was expected due to the weather conditions. I do believe it is going to take over 110 Lbs to win this one and possibly even over 120. That’s between a 5.5 and 6.0 average fish – Wow !!!! Seth is hanging in there. He just needs to catch a few of those monster fish that are out there and he has a chance at making the cut for the final day.

Some excellent coverage of the FLW cup today. A local Minnesota fishermen ( Joel Willert ) is in 2nd place right now. It looks like its a rather tough day of fishing so far. Totally different weather today than what they had during practice. Its good to see some of the local fishermen doing well on the big stage.

fishthumper wrote:

Some excellent coverage of the FLW cup today. A local Minnesota fishermen ( Joel Willert ) is in 2nd place right now. It looks like its a rather tough day of fishing so far. Totally different weather today than what they had during practice. Its good to see some of the local fishermen doing well on the big stage.

Austin Felix, another MN stick just stuck a couple nice fish to move into the top 10.

Nice to hear some MN guys are in the thick of it. I’ve never really followed the FLW tour but it sounds like they are getting into some big ones on Lake Fork. I’d love to fish that lake some day.

Hearing rumors that MLF is buying/already bought FLW to make it a sort of “minor leagues” for the Bass Pro Tour. Interesting to see if that’s true or not.

Minnesota fishermen fishing 6th, 9th and 12th. That was great to see. I’m sure the 24,000, 21,000, and 15,000 pay checks were nice for them as well. It sure would have been nice to see one of them with the life changing 300,000 1st place check. A few big kicker fish and it could have easily happened to any one of them. This just goes to show how good of fishermen we have here in Minnesota. Know and fishing against all 3 of these guys I can also say they are really great guys as well. Congrats to all 3 of them on both a excellent tournament and a Great season as well.

I see local boy Seth Feider is doing well on day 1 at Cayuga lake in New York. He’s one of the fishermen that they have a camera in the boat with today. He boat flipped a near 6Lb fish and both he and the announcers went crazy. he even gave his Marshal a big hug – That was kind of funny. He probably should lay off some of the fish he’s catching today. He’s caught 3-4 nice fish that has not helped his weight and will probably need them over the next few days. He is just looking for 1 more nice fish and he will probably just go fish all new water looking for a few more spots. The live coverage makes my day go by a little faster. I’m heading out fishing later today so this just helps pass the time till then.

Yeah he had a nice day. Chris Zaldain and 3 others got their boats broken into and emptied last night. And Zach Birge beached his boat today. Been a rough tourney for some.

First big news for the 2020 tours. Gerald Swindle and Brandon Palaniuk are heading back to the Elite Series from the Bass Pro Tour (MLF). I’m happy two of my favorites are heading back to the tour that I enjoy the most. I don’t imagine these will be the last to switch sides either.

Agreed. I like watching the fast-paced competition of MLF, but when the average fish is a pound and a half it turns into a dink-fest.

I personally would rather catch 5 quality bass than 30 small ones and would also rather watch the pros work on their strategy to develop the best patterns to catch the biggest fish. Sounds like Palaniuk and Swindle do too… and yes other will follow..

I watched the MLF Redcrest cup or whatever it’s called on the river in LaCrosse today on the Discovery channel. They caught a ton of fish. It was great. Everyone was catching em. Does not motivate me to ice fish.

I don’t have the link but if you are really interested Swindle had a pretty amazing interview on Bass Talk Live’s podcast a week or so ago. Some people don’t like his antics but he was very serious during this interview and gave some VERY interesting details on why he left. It’s about halfway through the podcast.

https://www.basszone.com/post/btl-replay-12-03-19-gerald-swindle

Speaking of Swindle He has to be the best person at skipping a jig around docks that i have ever seen. watching him is what got me into that tactic.

Youbetcha wrote:

Speaking of Swindle He has to be the best person at skipping a jig around docks that i have ever seen. watching him is what got me into that tactic.

Kind of like the skills competition at the NBA all star game (3 point, dunk contest) I would like to see for bass fishing. Set up a dock skipping course for the likes of Swindle, Andy Montgomery, etc and see how they do. Just once, I hope one of them clangs a 1/2 oz jig off a pontoon (like a certain amateur I know does

FryDog62 wrote:

Kind of like the skills competition at the NBA all star game (3 point, dunk contest) I would like to see for bass fishing. Set up a dock skipping course for the likes of Swindle, Andy Montgomery, etc and see how they do. Just once, I hope one of them clangs a 1/2 oz jig off a pontoon (like a certain amateur I know does

That would pretty cool to watch honestly! those pontoons will get you… especially when there is wind. not that I know would know or anything

And here is another reason to add disdain about Duckett and the MLF. The guys who paid their dues, fished heir a$$es off in the FLW all this year, and made the cut for the championship get shoved aside because there won’t be an FLW championship.

Boyd will never see a dime of my money.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I don’t have the link but if you are really interested Swindle had a pretty amazing interview on Bass Talk Live’s podcast a week or so ago. Some people don’t like his antics but he was very serious during this interview and gave some VERY interesting details on why he left. It’s about halfway through the podcast.

I heard the interview as well, pretty interesting. I dunno, I kind of like his antics, although I have to interpret his redneck slang for my wife – haha. What are your thoughts on those that don’t care for him? Other pros, fans, or sponsors?

I am a little bit surprised that BASS is as willing as they are to take some of these guys back so quickly. Then again it is a business and if getting some of the Bigger names back with BASS helps them I’m sure they are willing to do so. I will have to say I thought that MLF would have done a much better job than they did in their 1st year. Their TV coverage was just not all that Great. I think Bass did their best job ever in covering last years season. It was exciting to get to watch lots of new fishermen step up and make the most of their chance. Some of the Bigger name fishermen just didn’t do well under the MLF format. I sure making the switch from many years of Looking for 5 Quality big bass bites to looking for as many bites as possible regardless to size was a little difficult for some. I think there is a place for both formats to do well in the future. Fishermen are just going to need to decide which format fits their fishing style the best.

FryDog62 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
I don’t have the link but if you are really interested Swindle had a pretty amazing interview on Bass Talk Live’s podcast a week or so ago. Some people don’t like his antics but he was very serious during this interview and gave some VERY interesting details on why he left. It’s about halfway through the podcast.

I heard the interview as well, pretty interesting. I dunno, I kind of like his antics, although I have to interpret his redneck slang for my wife – haha. What are your thoughts on those that don’t care for him? Other pros, fans, or sponsors?

I love watching him and think he’s hilarious so I’m not one that doesn’t like him. From the sounds of it the sponsors are sponsoring their anglers on either format but both Swindle and Palaniuk have hinting that their sponsors were VERY happy that they were going back to BASS.

As for the pros it sounded like he’s had a few of the MLF guys reach out to him and wish him luck and make sure he knew they were still friends but also hinted that some friendships may have been lost.

It’s not a lot to these two (I mean it is, but it isn’t), but it’s pretty telling when a professional fisherman is willing to pay $50,000 to leave a format to fish the one they left the year before.

“Some of the Bigger name fishermen just didn’t do well under the MLF format.”

At Redcrest, Jordan Lee was at or near the bottom of 30 fishermen, Justin Lucas was AOY of BASS in 2018 and blanked the first 2 periods when he switched to MLF.

I personally still think it takes more talent to catch the biggest 5 fish, than to catch thirty 1-2 pounders (and a 2 lb 14 ouncer is a “GIANT”). I also think after some of the bigger names struggle in MLF, they’ll head back to where they are more comfortable at BASS. Not all, but there will be more…

I fish multi species…but guide for bass 80% of the Summer.. I watch em all occasionally but like to glean fishing techniques from those that share.:)

tom_gursky wrote:

I fish multi species…but guide for bass 80% of the Summer.. I watch em all occasionally but like to glean fishing techniques from those that share.:)

So which group do you think does a better job of Sharing ?

I think MLF is fun to watch. I’m not convinced its going to stand the test of time tho. I will be watching the replay of the Redcrest cup on Discovery Channel tomorrow at 7. Ice fishing just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Gotta admit I enjoyed watching Redcrest. Warm, sunny days, catching smallies in a river not far away… and then I looked out the window

FryDog62 wrote:

Gotta admit I enjoyed watching Redcrest. Warm, sunny days, catching smallies in a river not far away… and then I looked out the window

And this is my point! When the BPT is cut and edited it’s great to watch! But the live-streams are painfully slow. It is a format made for an edited TV show, not live coverage like BASS is. That’s just what is it.

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FryDog62 wrote:</div>
Gotta admit I enjoyed watching Redcrest. Warm, sunny days, catching smallies in a river not far away… and then I looked out the window

And this is my point! When the BPT is cut and edited it’s great to watch! But the live-streams are painfully slow. It is a format made for an edited TV show, not live coverage like BASS is. That’s just what is it.

I actually really like the Bass Live coverage. With Camera’s in 4 or 5 boats and the other commentary I think its really cool to watch. Last year was a blast with all the BIG smallmouth tourneys they had. I got a kick out of how long some of the fishermen would fight some of those big Small Mouth. I really wanted to get into MLF but just could not. Watching fishermen hook small bass after small bass and reeling them in record time just was not real exciting for me. I was one of the people who was originally in Favor of the whole MLF format. I’ll have to give them another shot next year and see if the TV coverage gets a little better.

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FryDog62 wrote:</div>
Gotta admit I enjoyed watching Redcrest. Warm, sunny days, catching smallies in a river not far away… and then I looked out the window

And this is my point! When the BPT is cut and edited it’s great to watch! But the live-streams are painfully slow. It is a format made for an edited TV show, not live coverage like BASS is. That’s just what is it.

I actually really like the Bass Live coverage. With Camera’s in 4 or 5 boats and the other commentary I think its really cool to watch. Last year was a blast with all the BIG smallmouth tourneys they had. I got a kick out of how long some of the fishermen would fight some of those big Small Mouth. I really wanted to get into MLF but just could not. Watching fishermen hook small bass after small bass and reeling them in record time just was not real exciting for me. I was one of the people who was originally in Favor of the whole MLF format. I’ll have to give them another shot next year and see if the TV coverage gets a little better.

That’s what I’m saying Fishthumper. I can’t watch the BPT livestreams. They are brutal watching one lb bass after one lb bass over and over again. But they still do catch big fish now and then, and when they edit all the dinks out for TV it’s entertaining. I LOVE watching BASS livestreams because you see a lot of big fish caught because that’s what they’re going for!

My point was BPT is geared for edited TV shows. The Elite Series is geared towards live action.

Am thinking we should either start an IDO fantasy BPT/Bass league – or –

…a drinking game based on how many ounces Mike Iaconelli is off every time he hooks a fish. For instance, when he screams “GIANT!!” bet on the over/under of 1 pound 8 ounces. Or, when he yells “OH MY GOD, a 4 POUNDER!!” Predicting how many ounces below four it actually is and that’s how many ounces you have to drink..

I haven’t seen much MLF, but that stuff that I have seen didn’t grab me at all. I like the idea of the immediate catch, record, and release, but I didn’t care to watch them set the hook and fling a one pounder out and skim it across the water to the boat in a matter of a few seconds. I’m not sure I care for the fact that they know where each other angler is at in the standings. While it’s interesting to see them react to that, I think the element of unknown in the BASS format really changes the anglers’ strategy too and makes it interesting. The zebra striped officials shirts came across as cheesy to me too.

I too really like watching BASS Live, and I think those announcers do a great job. It doesn’t come across as scripted and you can tell that they are just as interested and captivated by the anglers as we as viewers are. You never know when an angler is going to set the hook on a true giant.