Ya I really liked Zona as well. I’ll still watch the coverage but probably will not enjoy it as much. Although I’m not a big fan of livescope either for pleasure use or for use in professional fishing it didn’t seem to effect my enjoyment of watching the fishing coverage as much as it did for some.
I’m just a DUDE, watchin a screen, watchin ANOTHA dude, watch a SCREEEEN!
IYKYK
Final EQ Bassmaster Open starts today with live coverage all three days. It is a given that Fothergill makes the Elites, but can he hold on and be the top guy?
Have any of you saw the recent change to the elite series for next year. Fishermen no longer have to pay the entry fee’s. So no more pay to play. Reading the changes I’m not sure if this is a good deal or not. My guess is for some it will be, other it will not be. The payouts have been restructured. The Top 20 look about the same. After that there are some real fall offs. Lots of the fishermen use to have their entry fee’s paid for or partly paid for by sponsors. I hope those sponsors now continue to pay the $ but do so directly to the fishermen. I do think this will change how some of the fishermen fish. Some will no longer fish in a way to try and just get them a check to cover their expenses needed to make it to the next event. I think they will now fish more for a win or at least a high place. I guess only time will tell if this will be better for fishermen or not. My guess is for some it will be, for others probably not. But its a move in the right direction to make bass fishing a little more like other professional sports. You can read the details here :
I guess the link does not work. http://www.bassmaster.com
I read about this last night.
They were previously giving out as much as $10,000 for finishing in a spot around 30th place (out of 100 anglers). To me that is a lot of money for only finishing in the top third of the event. With the new structure, 30th place only nets you 850 bucks.
Not collecting 45,000 from 100 anglers is 450,000 not gained though. Where is this lost money being replaced? Has to come from somehwere.
I think BASS is grasping at straws here.
Not collecting 45,000 from 100 anglers is 450,000 not gained though. Where is this lost money being replaced? Has to come from somehwere.
I’m not sure the total payout is still the same. I think it may be far less. I think more money is now coming from the online and live coverage. The amount of viewership is way up on the live coverage and thus my guess more advertising $’s.
Place Payout Place Payout
1 $100,000 21 $4,000
2 $30,000 22 $3,500
3 $25,000 23 $3,000
4 $20,000 24 $2,500
5 $15,000 25 $2,000
6 $14,000 26 $1,500
7 $13,000 27 $1,000
8 $12,000 28 $950
9 $11,000 29 $900
10 $10,000 30 $850
11 $7,000 31 $800
12 $6,000 32 $750
13 $5,750 33 $700
14 $5,625 34 $650
15 $5,500 35 $600
16 $5,375 36 $550
17 $5,250 37 $500
18 $5,125 38 $500
19 $5,000 39 $500
20 $4,500 40 $500
I was wondering what Milliken fishing was posting about, this change explains it.
Here’s basically what he posted:
2024: Winnings $97k + AOY $10k + Classic $10k = $117k – Entry Fee’s $45k = $72k in the green
2025: Winnings $34k + AOY $0 + Classic $2500 = $36,500 – Entry Fee’s $0 = $36,500 which puts him $35,500 in the red compared to 2024.
Essentially you have to finish higher to earn the same amount of money you did in the past, as the winnings they dole out fall off exponentially.
Its the anglers who routinely finish somewhere in the 15-40th place that are going to really suffer here. Werm’s example above illustrates that well.
Thats an eye opener from Milliken. Would $36,500 cover your costs for the year with travel, room, food and gas expenditures?
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