Toyota Texas BASSfest

Weigh-in is still ongoing, but wow! Love how much faster the weigh-in is going. BASS was able to show photos from various angler's day on the water while the angler was on stage. Really cool addition to their program. Poor Trip doesn't know what to do with himself up there.

From the angler responses so far, everyone seems to really enjoy fishing the TTBC format. Weighing and immediately releasing fish allows those guys more time to fish.

Hope it catches on

Love the new format. I spent some time on the water watching some of the guys today.

I have enjoyed it myself. I am driving down on Friday to enjoy the festivities on Sat.

Digging this format....it has got to be easier on the bass, but I can't see it replacing the current format, or is it possible? ...

Wish I was home and could go out and take part in all this!

I like it! Obviously not feasible in team tournaments or even draw tournaments but at the elite level I think it would be awesome for them to go this direction for every event.

How can you view this? Been busy and don't have time to look it up. Thanks.

The fish they caught is the worst thing that could have happened to Rayburn. The pressure will move from Toledo to Rayburn next spring. . Texas would be better off if BASS never came here.

I hope they keep coming, its good for the local economy.

https://www.bassmaster.com/

Good, it will get more boats off Fork.

Just think, with this format the elites would be able to fish Fork without worring about the slot

Yeah, they did it for several years and slayed them.

Kvd nailed it....rip Rayburn

The sad truth.

Rayburn has hosted more B.A.S.S. events than any other lake in the U.S. There are more than 400 bass tournaments/year on the lake. And you guys are gonna cry about this one? The lake will be fine. Always has (except a few years after the LMBV) and always will.

I agree with everything you said but no denying the impact of new pressure. It has crushed Toledo bend. It won't be the same for years to come.

Yep, the pressure will increase and the fishing may get a little tougher, but the economic impact to the region will be welcome.

Don't look now but they are really smashing them this morning. Ehrler already has 21+ and there are a good number of guys with 15-16 already.

Except for the local businesses who need to stay busy as much as possible.

The local businesses do just fine. It's not a typical lake. Compared to a lake like fork loaded with businesses, Rayburn with the Corp and national Forest is pretty isolated. It stays busy

Look what happened to the local businesses in Zapata and Del Rio after the fishing tanked there. I don't see it happening to that extent in Jasper but the long term ecological impact of BASS holding events and touting lakes as #1 in the country are well documented. Falcon, Amistad, Toledo, Guntersville, etc... have all experienced downturns in fishing due to increased pressure from BASS tournaments and coverage. While there is no doubt that the short-term economical impacts are positive for the local communities and businesses, the long term impacts may be worse. Business is always steady in the Jasper area just because of the sheer amount of local/regional tournaments the two lakes host every year. Zapata got lucky that the turnaround time was so short, 2-3 years of poor fishing and it is now on the rebound. Del Rio fishing based businesses never rebounded, although the fishing has improved somewhat.

Just some thoughts on the matter. I can agree with both viewpoints... but as a small business owner I would take steady business over a long-term vs. a boon of single year and then no business.

No doubt

There are not 400 tournaments a year on Rayburn.

I bet it close to that. Any given weekend there is probably 10 different club tournaments that nobody minus the ones fishing know even exist. Last few Saturdays I've launched at Monterrey there were 4 or 5 clubs weighing in come 3:30. That's one ramp.

Question I have though, in the blog they were comparing Rayburn and Toledo. Toledo it says had 110 anglers vs Rayburn having 109. Who is the guy missing? Did someone drop out halfway through season?

Yea someone did, I read it in a blog or something earlier.

Jay Brainard. He dropped to spend more time at home with his newborn son.

Think it was Jay Brainard who dropped out. Perennially in the 90 place range since he joined the Elites.

You're probably right. Might be closer to 500, since this report was done by Todd Driscoll in 2010.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_t3200_1561.pdf Bottom of page 3.

A total of 405 tournament events were held with 25,396 total participants.
Of these, 304 were conducted by “bass clubs” (<50 participants), 82 by
“lower open organizations” (>50 participants with entry fee <US$130), and
18 by “upper open organizations” (>50 participants with entry fee
>US$130).

This floors me. I guess I can't account for the 300 club tournaments. That's 6 per week! I know during the prime months there are 3 working man tournaments in the evening but they only last 3-4 months. Apparently there are a lot more clubs around here than I ever imagined. Thanks for the info.

You're welcome, sir. That report is jam-packed with a bunch of good info

Good find Fouz. I knew there are numerous clubs every weekend. I didn't know about the working man tournaments during week. Amazing how well Rayburn fishes for the pressure it gets. I wonder what would happen if say pressure were to drop over 75% for 2 years or so. I bet lake would truly be insane.

Would love to see the numbers of just normal anglers not competing in tournament events on these high profile fisheries. I'd suspect it's close to 4-5X the 25k in tournament anglers in a year. Tournaments get the brunt of the negativity related to blame for pressure when in fact they're a small portion of the overall fishing activity on any body of water.

Rayburn is fine, Toledo Bend and Guntersville will be fine. The skies not falling. It's not BASS' fault or FLW or MLF or any other tournament organizations. Stop the madness.

Anglers want to fish good lakes. They're going to watch forum posts, TV, social media etc and they're going to plan trips to places that they enjoy and give them a better chance to catch fish. That hasn't changed. We just have faster access to the data/info today.

Me too, Mark. My original point was this...

Big Sam is really showing out this week. Anyone who has been around long enough knows how cyclical these lakes are. The old girl continues to pump out 20-30 LB stringers week after week, even with the pressure. Toledo is fine too, it will be back in a few years. Even though it may sound like KVD is now an employee of the Lufkin or Jasper Chamber of Commerce, he speaks the truth. People will come, people will spend money and yes, fish will be caught. But the sun will rise and another 30 LB bag will be weighed, at least for the foreseeable future.

A lot of people are worried about Rayburn and all the pressure on it and that the fishing has fallen off on Toledo Bend some of the pros have said it Rayburn has a lot of grass right now and didn't Toledo Bend have a lot of grass a couple years ago and now it gone I think that's more of the key than anything .

Rayburn is Toledo 2-3 years ago, then the people showed up.

Still waiting on an upswing for Lake Waco



.....it's coming, I know it is


Majority of lakes cycle...both of those big girls will be fine....no telling how many fish on lakes of that size NEVER even see a lure

Y'all want them to just jump in the boat man WOW

...

Shocking they would award 100k to someone weighing in on a different set of scales than another competitor. All it takes is a minor adjustment to give him the advantage.

Before the event I read this regarding the scales. Some may find it interesting reading. Some may duplicate the components for themselves

https://www.bassmaster.com/slideshow/bass-staff-assemble-scales-texas-fest

Pretty sure they are all using the same kind of calibrated scale.

There were more than 70 bass over 10 pounds caught on toledo last year. Yeah the lake is dead /sarcasm. While it is not fishing like it did last year it is no where near a dead lake. You can still go out there and catch big ones if you go find where the fish are now, and not go fish for where they were in the past. Heck just check out the Toledo Bend Fishing reports page on facebook Jason Courville is posting up giant fish every week that are caught on his guide trips.

The only thing I didn't care for about this tournament, was that there was no "suspense" at the final weigh in. I'm not real keen on knowing what each guy has every day, but I really don't like the weigh in being a formality. Maybe show the weight of each fish on BassTrakk as an even poundage and then at the weigh in each day, the ounces get revealed to show the overall actual weight? To keep some of the suspense alive? Just my thoughts on this format

I liked the format.. much better for the fish which I think is very important.. but its also important for the anglers to trust the system of weighing the fish. Its a tough call to put your chance at 100k to be decided by one of 101 digital scales, powered by a 9 volt battery! You just have to keep the faith!

I like the weigh in format a lot. As for suspense they could just keep the weights a secret but personally I like it

Final day weights are a secret to the pros
. Pro does not know final day weights and not allowed to look at bass track

If you want suspense, don't follow basstrak all day...

But they aren't the ones watching the weigh in. No suspense at all makes for bad viewing at the weighin IMO

I'm not sure that the powers to be care too much about live audiences any longer. It's not where the money is.

http://www.bassfan.com/opinion_article/1439/end-of-an-era#.WSMsq5IrIY0

Interesting read from Balog.

Aren't they all