There are very few fishermen who make more than me

Sounds like you are a legend in your own mind there!
I could easily say that if I won $100,000 in a fishing tournament, I still would be in hole.

Pro fisherman are cool, but have a kind of suck job being gone all that time from their loved ones and having to pay to go to work.

It looks appealing, but knowing a few that have done it and do it today, it's not all fun and games.

In my case i got into the line of work 31 years ago and always wanted to work my way up to be a Safety Director. Well after 23 years, I finally got that position of being a safety director over 5 states. I hated that job with a passion. Never home, never even knowing what town or city I was waking up in most of the time.
I say that to say this, be careful what you wish for and want. It might well be something you regret.
Same goes I guess for a pro angler. It is a lot more than just casting and winding your reel and standing on stage smiling. I can think maybe I would have like doing it in my 20's but after having a wife and kids, no, that is not for me. I would rather fish my 20-50 boat tournaments, one day thing and go home and sleep in my own bed.
Now I enjoy fun fishing for about 6 to 8 hours and going home and taking the wife out to dinner.

I am good, I retired at 50, life is a doozy!

Oh and I never hated my job 1 minute out of 31 years.

Oh I’m not bashing the guy- just think the perspective is lacking . If you interview any Joe six pack on the street I bet half of them would say their employer sucks and the boss is a nincompoop.

There will be a mass exodus, half are getting cut.

Bottom line is this, from what I gathered from this chat..mind you for the most part we never even talk fishing. He is just tired of the rules always changing, he is tired of the politics within the MLF. He pretty much just said, that the fun of fishing is taking a backseat to a lot of other things there. Most of the anglers are not happy but to leave and go to BASS, means you are leaving what you have worked for a lifetime to achieve, be on a top Pro Circuit. No longer fishing for 20 or 30 thousand but 100 thousand or more.
BASS is an option for him, but then you have to go through the Opens and to fish the Opens you better have some deep pockets because you have to fish them all now to qualify for the Elites.
I met him a few years ago when i live on Logan Martin. He and a couple of his fishing buddies rented the house next door for a tournament there. In the afternoon, we would sit out at the dock and talk about everything but fishing since they had to be very careful as to not get any information from locals.
He just called to remind me that he will be coming through in a few weeks heading toward the Kissimmee Chain for a tournament. He would stop by and we could fish for a day or so. He said he needs to know the Coosa River better since he did not do very well at Lay Lake during Red Crest.

He must not be really fed up... Just whining... This happens in every office, on every jobsite... Guys get together around a water cooler, coffee pot and bitch about how bad they have it. But no one has the guts to act... Watson was fed up and acted, all the other on the BPT just sat back and kicked rocks while looking down, shoulders slumped. Why didn't he join Watson???... Until you/ he puts a name to a face this is nothing more than gossip... I know a couple of guys...

And as far as bass fishing as a career... There are a hundred professions who are on the road more, see their family less... Some make more money, some make less... I spent an average of 250 nights a year in a hotel room, for 25+years, worked a lot of 7 day weeks, a lot of holidays, including Christmas... Power Plants run 24/7/365, and someone had to be there... So touring pros get no sympathy from me when they whine about how hard it is... Dan

BPT will seize to exist within a few years in its current form. They’ll combine the invitationals and the current bpt into one and you’ll have the old flw. Which was in such bad shape the owner killed himself.

FBD.

You really think Irwin killed himself and his wife over a fishing league? Cmon man..🤷‍♂️

What’s ironic is Boyd Duckett had the guts to do the very thing you suggested and he gets vilified for it.

I think you are leaving a lot out on why BD gets so much push back and is not as well liked by some fans.

That’s the water cooler talk- everyone knows better than the boss, etc. I’m sure he is guilty of a lot but the overall resentment and anger directed at him is the fact they started another league and that’s viewed as some sort of betrayal to BASS by some folks.

He had a good formula for success.
He (and the other owners) got greedy and screwed it up by cutting corners and expanding in the wrong areas from the very beginning
Then changing formats, rules, regulations, criteria, wild inconsistency of rulings.
.....add his personality/character into the mix and there you have it.