I cannot figure out why neither BASS or FLW do not fish lakes like Palestine and LOP

Lack of vacation days is my excuse.

FLW Everstarts had event on LOP a couple years ago, very low turnout and jackpotter won it. I think Jim Tutt talked them into trying it. I liked event, but tough fishing.

http://www.flwoutdoors.com/bassfishing/a...sional-results/

When is the Texoma event ? I may want to try and get in on the non boater side.

It is because a bunch of people got ticked off they did away with the real TTT

They have had everstart at pines and bfl at palestine quite a few times

I hope that the Texas division can garner some additional following so we don't loose this opportunity. This provides a lot of exposure for angler's and has the opportunity for a huge payday. If you haven't tried it I encourage you to do so, which every side fits you situation. Going different places and fishing against the competition will make you a better fisherman at home. I always learn a lot at these events.

Russell Cecil

April 30-May 2

If they don't pass a budget by this weekend Amistad will be closed!!!! Part of the homeland security shutdown for no funding!! Just like before!!!

Did you see the results Amistad is not half the lake it use to be. Not many limits or big fish long way to go for poor fishing.

Have you ever competed on either of those lakes, Doug?

I fished Amistad as a co-angler and had a good time. But I was talked into it at the last minute. I was not going to do it because of the $500 entry. I do fish the BFLs and going from $110 entry to $500 is pretty steep. I think they would get more co-anglers to sign up if the entry was somewhere in between, say $250 to $300. Just my 2 cents worth!

Rob pretty much nailed it.

Competition is the big one, you have BassChamps and TX Team Trail, Big payouts for little coin and they due pay pretty deep along with bonuses and side pots as well.

Secondly that some have touched upon it but I don't think have really pinpointed it, Travel. Since TX is so huge, they are only able to really pull from Louisiana, Arkansas and OK. To have a tourney on Amistad, they have to drive 8-10 just in TX. Don't get me wrong, others come from other states as well, but they are definitely the minority and those typically will fish all the events in all the regions. Look at where they have all the other divisions tourney lakes, they can pull from 6-10 states because one does not have to drive more than 4 hours to get there. I live near Austin, my drive to Amistad 5 hours, Rayburn 5.5 hours, drive to Toledo 6 hours drive to Texoma 4.5 hours. These are average drive times and do not include N/S portions of the lake. The other divisions can drive 4 hours and come from two states away.

Third, time off - this is another huge factor. I will typically fish the two weekends prior and then drive on Tuesday and fish the rest of that day and Wednesday. This takes a major toll on the body and equipment, tow vehicle. Why, because I don't have the time to take off a full week, 3 tourneys, that is 15 days, 3 weeks of vacation. If I had the time, I would take the whole week off.

One that I feel that has been missed is the championship, they took it away 3 years ago and brought it back last year and this year. I think that was a big deal and left a very bad taste in a lot of anglers. When they took it away, only the AOY made it to the cup, so if you bombed the first tourney, then why continue. I do like the fact that they can take more to the cup from the championship format they have now and they had more Texas anglers in the top 10 last year than any other region.

One final thing I believe is also big contributor is the entry fee, went from 1,000 to 1,500 and they dropped a tourney, so instead of paying $4,000 (4 tourney's) you are paying $4,500 (3 tourney's). $500 more in entry fees and fishing one less tourney.

FLW is a business and they have to make changes/adjustments to keep that business going. I will bet you a crisp $100 bill that they treat each division as a separate profit center and can tell you what there margin is for each division. While I do not know if the TX division is profitable or even break even, they know, and they know how many anglers they need to break even. Why is it that in the past they only limited the field to 150 anglers? That was there magic number to sustain a good margin. Since the TX division was not pulling the 150 field and has not in the past 3 years, they were keeping track of how many they were having to turn away in other divisions. So a business decision was made to open the field and not limit the number of anglers. By doing this, it allowed them to pay much deeper into the field, thus increasing anglers participation because it allowed an angler to have a shot at winning, top 10 and also a better chance at getting a check, but it also increased there margin as well. While other divisions getting more anglers does help the divisions not getting enough anglers (TX), it will only be a matter of time and the business decision will be to drop the TX division. I know they do not want to make that decision, but business is business and FLW may be forced to do so.

Just my .02

This is a great topic and needs to be addressed not only by the pros and co-anlgers but also the principals of FLW. I fish as a co-angler and cannot say enough on how efficiently the tournamanets are ran. My main reason for fishing is to gain knowledge and techniques on the �how to�,� when to� throw what lure in that day�s conditions. I zeroed both days at Amistad but was not one bit discouraged throughout the tournament. I gain one or two points in each event and chronicle that in a log to reflect back on. Every pro I have drawn has been exceptional at giving advice when I have asked �why�. Timing and placement of the tournaments in my opinion are critical to get the maximum draw. There are many parameters that go into the scheduling. Ron Lappin had made mention of the issue (lack of draw) in the pre-tournament meeting and they are open for suggestions. More incentives? Less money for entry? Reduce the cost to an angler if he or she enters all tournaments in that division.

Well I will support them to the end. And when that comes I guess I will switch over to the Tour. I hope the Texas divison stays for I have met so many good people and that will be hard to replace. Best fishing family in the business.