Kind of a sad day seeing that the ole Zell will not be fishing the elites with BASS. I fished as a co-angler with him once. Don't know if you would ever find a better person to spend a day in a boat with. He has a down fall like a lot of older guys have. The day I fished with him it was at least five times he went to pull into spot and if someone was there he would not go in on them.
Hopefully he can fish FLW and the BASS opens

Why even post something like that? My friend said.....

If you actually saw it yourself it would be different.

I have been told a lot in my life that isn't anywhere close to the truth.

Yall know everything, I know nothing sorry to ruffle anyones feathers so I deleted. Guy had no reason to lie to me. A guy my dads age that I became good friends with after I quit dating his stepdaughter. Nice for a local guy to put me down too, thanks.


These boards are getting ridiculous, 2cool getting just like this. I quit posting on there, this one is next I guess now. Geez.

But it was hearsay (rumors) about a couple of well respected men.

Guess I missed something.

Big fan of Zell..

Sad to see him go, but it's time to open up that spot for a new guy looking to make a career in this sport!

I must have missed something myself.

I've had the chance to sit and visit with Zell a number of times over the years. He's a quality guy that has does it the right way.

He was on the Ranger fishing team back in the day when I worked for Texas Marine in Beaumont and he came to several demo days and seminars and he was a awesome guy to be around. He had no problem sharing his knowledge with anyone and was just a pleasure to be around. I root for him in every tournament Pop R king!

Sad to see Zell out. I always root for the old school guys.

I also didn't see Mike Kernan on the list, guess he's out too?

Here is more on who's in and out on the Elites this year...link

For those that must have missed something, there have been some posts removed from this thread, that is why some of it does not make sense.

Zell and Mike Kernan both are fishing the FLW Tour. Zell is out because he didn't qualify for the Elites for the 2016 season. Mike Kernan chose to fish FLW instead of the Elites.

Its for sure a sad day when you see a legend like Zell who is a dear friend of mine not fishing the ELites after fishing them for the last 30 something years. He has paid in almost $1.5 million dollars in entry fees in his lifetime to Bass and for them to say he's out is just wrong. But on the flip side of things if you never make room for upcoming anglers who want to get in and qualified there will never be any room for them either. Its just wrong how they went about doing what they did to Zell. I wish Zell and Mike both nothing but great success in FLW.

I got to listen to him at a seminar one time and talked with him briefly as well. Nice guy and seemed like a class act. I would have to bet he's the best topwater fisherman out there. He can catch them on a pop R anytime of the year.