Platinum Ray Roberts weigh in?

Where's the tournament going to do the weigh in? I want to come watch the festivities! Only been on Ray Bob one other time, gotta start preparing for a tourney out there!

It was cancelled .

Ouch. Thx.

Why was is cancelled?

He knew it was cancelled....

Only 5 boats paid from what I hear. Still seamed like they should have held the tournament some guys paid way in advance and had spent a lot of time prefishing. They will get their entry back but not all the gas money and time they spent on the lake. Just my opinion I realize it's a business and they need to make money, but sometimes you just need to bite the bullet.

Wow, that is crazy not to go ahead and hold it!

The original on Ray Bob was cancelled also. The backup tourney to take its placeon cedar creek was cancelled.
I spent weeks practicing for CC only to have it canceled the week of.
Unfortunate? Yes. Wrote it off as a loss and moved on.
But they have to what they have to do. I don't blame them a bit. If they held it with 5 teams they would lose a ton of money in operations and payout.

The only reason the trail is around is because guys said they wanted it, but it comes down to it and no one wants to sign up. I would like to see them fire back up full swing next year. It has great potential.

And before someone asks, no I didn't sign up for this Ray Bob tourney. Had prior arrangements and no time for practice either way.

That's one point of view, here's mine, I just wasted 72 hours of vacation time , alot of fuel money, alot of time . They knew Sunday when it was the last day to sign up they weren't going to have it , they should have called then not the night before practice starts .

This was the best idea for a tournament in many years. I fished two years ago and there was over 150 boats . Then I started hearing fisherman complain about some rules and some changes being made for certain anglers . Well here's what happens when the fishing community loses trust

As far as the business side and them making money or not should be a non issue . They said they were going to have a tournament , five people signed up , you fish it . Yes, you may lose money but you save face and earn anglers trust .

The lakes they cancelled last year were from flooding , this is way different .

To top it off I have been sitting on my couch for three days because the lake was off limits. Guess il go fishing

In the words of Forest Gump, " that's all I have to say about that".

I was not registered for the tournament, although I really wanted to. I completely agree with Brad's line of thought. There is a reason the field was at 150 when it started and has got down to where it is now. If I had burned the amount of vacation that he has to fish the tournament and then it gets canceled a day before prefishing starts I would have a very hard time biting my tongue. It should have been canceled when only 5 people had registered or they should have held the tournament.

At least it was cancelled a few days before the Tournament, I guess it was to be this weekend.

A few years ago on Roberts back when it was slot we had some tournament cancelled around 2 am Saturday the day of the Tournament, and many had pre paid, I can't remember the name of the trail and they maybe gone now or ran under another name.

But it was claimed because of wind, rumor was turn out was to be low. And yes many people spent time including me finding fish and burning gas, etc...

I fished all the first year when it was $1000 The fields were not at a 150. It was capped at 100. Only 1 event, the rayburn had 100. A bunch of the rayburn guys put deposits down to fish all just to get into rayburn then bailed. After that 80-90 give or take when they opened up registration again. It had a ton of potential it got a ton of press. It was a great idea. I think there were a couple of mistakes made early regarding schedules changing and some off limits problems. It would be nice to see it be reworked and rerolled out at some point. If there were only 5 entries what was really the point. Brad I know you were participating and it's a bummer. I imagine a whole bunch will pile on that never spent a nickel on the deal and never intended to. But that's how it goes with trails in Texas. I give credit to them for trying something completely new. Unfortunately the cutting edge can be a tough deal. I know they put a ton of work into the deal.

From what I have seen that platinum trail has been a major bust.

And that is what killed this trail. Was never advertised as a jackpotter's trail, though the way the rules were set up, that's exactly what it became.

Now I understand......

It didn't help for sure. I bet if they had a do over the entire years entry fee would have been due at the beginning. That would have put a stop to that.

Well that stinks for the guys that were planning on fishing it. I did not have a warm and fuzzy feeling about that trail when it first came up, I felt like the entry fee was going to be too much. Anybody remember the old Angler's Choice Super Team Trail, it all sounded great at first as well, was very short lived. I am not taking a shot at the owners of the trail, some businesses fail and some don't, good luck top them on the next one.

Asking for a lump sum payment at the beginning of the season is going to be tough. I'm not sure people CAN come up with the money and even if they can, I don't know if they will tie themselves down that far out.

I'm not sure what the answer is for these guys.

For sure it wasn't meant to be for everyone. In their defense they really believed that the guys were gonna fish all 4. I think they were shocked at what happened. At least that was the feeling I got when discussing it with one of them. I think the bad deal was there was a waiting list and some of those guys would have fished all 4, once the first one passed they lost interest and it kind of spiraled. In my opinion the guys who bailed dealt with them in bad faith from the beginning. It is what it is.

Three thoughts on this:

1) Do not fish the heavily jack potted lakes. There are a lot of options for lakes with a 75-100 boat field. It will be difficult not to have some locals on any lake but some lakes are worse than others with regards to having heavy favorites.

2) Make the championship worth qualifying for to fish from a $ perspective by holding back more $ from the qualifying tournaments.

3) Go the opposite direction and just schedule a $50,000 1st place tournament on Rayburn every month for 6 months.

What is now many years ago, it was fun fishing a circuit that traveled the state. There were two circuits (individual, not team format) that I specifically recall: (1) Redman circuit (now BFL) - never hit Rayburn repeatedly in the same year, (2) Anglers Choice Pro-Draw & Pro-Am - we fished from PK to TB to Choke.

The anglers didn't ruin this trail. The rule changes did. It broke the trust of a lot of anglers and now they will pay for it. Nothing against their organization but look at all their trails. Bass n Bucks used to be almost as good as champs as far as pay out and entries. They brought this on themselves. If they would have stuck to their guns and made everyone pay for all tournaments this would still be a premier trail that would have people on the waiting list every year. Just my $.02

What actually killed the trail is opening up the remaining spots to the "jackpotter's" on the other lakes. They changed their rules after the season had already began, which pissed a lot of people off.

This

It's really the same thing we are talking about. Now I agree with you but were the rest of the events to have a lower payout all season because some rayburn guys can't act right? It wasn't like 2-3 it was a bunch. In my mind it was 15-20 teams. The only way to have stopped it was more up front money.

The truth

Joke!!!!

Jacking around with the off limits was another problem for sure.

You can't blame the Rayburn guys. Every one of them followed the rules and upheld their end of the deal. If a deposit was required for the rest of the tournaments, then they forfeited their deposit. If PTT refunded their deposits back, then that's on PTT.

Out of curiosity did one of the Rayburn teams win it ?

Anyone notice how well TXTT, TTO, and Basschamps are drawing this year? These folks do it right!

All top 5 places were won by Rayburn locals.

Champs and txtt are very well run trails.

I don't fish a whole lot of tournaments but I've fished some basschamps and they run a great tournament from my experience. I like the 5 day off limits before the event. I've also fished some media and it's good also. They do allow prefishing leading up to the tournament day but only if you have prepaid for the tournament. I think champs has it right.

I'm just waiting for them to come to Lewisville so I can Jackpot it.

One of the problems as I see it is there are way too many tournament trails in the DFW and East Texas area. If you look there are 3 to 4 tournaments every weekend on every major lake in the area and there aren't enough fishermen to cover all of them. Simple supply and demand. Gas has gotten cheaper but entry fees haven't, hotel rooms haven't, and bass boats dang sure haven't.

You can't complete to win against someone who lives on a lake and fishes only that lake. At best in these tournaments you are fishing for points accumulation toward a year end Championship that has a good chance of being held somewhere the jack potters aren't so prevalent.

There is no doubt there have been some major goofs by some of the tournament operators, but the competition for the limited number of anglers is what is hurting the trails.

Make the yearly entry fee high enough (all to go toward the year end championship) and the tournament fees low enough (not enough money to draw the jack potters) and you may have a winning formula.

^^^^^^ No

Shot themselves in the foot, lost angler interest.

There are obviously a lot of haters out there. Thanks for your comments... even the bad ones.

We have made a lot of mistakes over the years, and we take responsibility for them. We are also "paying for them" as one put it.

The $500 entry fee did not work this year. It will not be back. Changing rules, off limits, lakes, etc, is a bad thing and it won't happen again unless there is an act of God.

I am sorry to the two or three people that took time off of work and were planning on fishing this. I told you this when I called you, but I understand your desire to express your anger, dissatisfaction, and whatever else you want on the forum. I am embarrassed by this.

That is all I am going to say on the forum. If you would like to discuss anything, my number is below.

Bash away...

My two cents.....
Basschamps, Media, Texas Team Trail, JC outdoors, BLT, the list goes on and on.......

All of these trails put on tournaments to make money. It's a business, Period! Yeah some trails fit some people better than others, some people like other trails better than others but at the end of the day.....Its a business. If you owned a business and we going to lose money if you sold your product for less than cost, you wouldn't be in business long. I get it!

They made a business decision so they can continue to provide a trail for guys that like to fish their trail.

THIS!

I think we need a state-wide, high entry, high payout, series only fisherman, and 1-day practice like TTT.

TTZ draw not to shabby either, the market it pretty saturated IMO.

You aren't gonna ever get rid of jackpoters unless you go pro

This...

If the payout is good, there will always be jackpotters. The entry will never be high enough. Practice days or not, jackpotters still will pay to play.

Bull. If PTT had required all four tournaments paid in full up front, a bunch of the jackpotters would never have played. They may have only had 50 teams instead of 100, but they would still have had a trail.

I agree.

says two jackpotters.

I have no problem with those types of tournaments, most are, even FLW Costa is right now.

However, I think a high entry, high payout, and statewide series where you must fish all events or give up the complete entry would be successful. Jackpotters shouldn't be threatened by this type of series because they still have FLW Costa, TTT, Bass Champs, BLT, Media, JC Outdoors, etc to choose from.

This^^^ and if they had stuck to their guns they would have had people standing in line. I believe their are enough people in Texas that can afford to do this that are not pro's that would have kept this tournament going and growing. I believe it will take time now to convince people to come back and they will lose money to get it back. This is kinda like a spouse running around it's hard to regain trust. just my .02

Jackpotter's are just good ole boys who spend more time on the lake than on social media.

...at one or two lakes. they're also "thrifty" meaning they don't like to burn their entry fees for nothing. I have no problems with that.

there are others like me that don't have a single lake, single way to fish, or care that much about making money at a "hobby". we like the challenge of figuring out different bodies of water different times of year and putting a consistent season together with all the variables and challenges as a "series angler". to each their own.

I have been approached numerous times by anglers asking me to host a "high entry fee / high payout" series, and I'm always interested to hear your thoughts and ideas for tournaments. However, one thing I learned early on was that no matter what you have to offer you will not please everyone. The tournament business is very difficult and the costs associated with hosting a single event has significantly increased over the past two years that the majority of tournament anglers are not aware of. Besides the basic costs of hosting a tournament such as fuel, staff, and fish care, we now have mandatory permit fee's plus secondary liability insurance requirements that are above and beyond what many organizations carry annually. I know of one event recently where the tournament director had to pay over $700 for a one-day liability policy.

TTZ Solid!

This, and for the record if you can't write a check for 4 k some people should be selling some boats they can't afford. I bet that deal would still have had close to 100 if not full.

Actually only $2k for most people.