I won 500$ one time in a derby on Lake Gaston,VA. I've fished in about 20 local open derbies and been in the money five times or so. I'm so far in the red I'd have to win the classic to break even. It's worth it though. I've met a lot of great people through bass fishing. It's not about the money for me.

Our goal has always just been to have fun and hopefully win enough money to cover the entry fees for the year which I think we've done 5 out of the last 7 years or something like that. Our biggest single check was $3450 for winning a small JCO Tourney on Fork 6 years ago.

I would never in a million years fish for the money because there simply isn't enough in it. It's literally 1% of 1% that make really good money and that doesn't take into account the stress of living on the road, converting a really fun hobby into a job, etc. And like everyone else, despite the checks we are WAY in the negative over the last 9 years.

One time at Lake Worth I won a free pack of tungsten weights.

Have won an ABA, BFL, FOM, And several Tops 10s across those.... And various smaller circuit wins. It don't add up to much.

I won a boat once and the most money was $600

I got a free hot dog at a bass champ event one time!

Just wondering how someone that has fished 23 BFL tournaments, pre fishing, equipment, gas, lodging, been down that road and this doesn't add, just sayn

Self deprecating humor, love it. Not sure you're being honest though Mr. Buda.

most I ever won at one time was $20,000 for second place in All-American....only lost by couple pounds and line broke on winning fish right before I had to come in...winner (Doug Garrett) received $100,000...

Harold, those 23 tournaments were as a co-angler, had a buddy that also fished co that traveled with me. No pre-fishing, and all other expenses were split. Used to live in Jasper so I had free lodging most of the time with friends there. Always wondered why a co-angler would drag a boat down and pre-fish when they had no say in where they were going to fish. Did you pre fish as a co-angler? Did it help? I just showed up, fished and had fun.
Thinking back on it, and factoring in the pro tourneys, winnings after all was said and done were probably closer to 7-8k but still not a bad run.

I wish I could have seen you chasing it around trying to get it out of the livewell hahah

I've won a couple hundred here and there but the most was at Lake Eufaula a few years back. $1000 for 8th place and another $650 for hourly big bass in the Lawter tournament. Mine was 6.00 lbs and there was only one bigger at 6.20. Big Bass overall won over $9,000. So that one hurt a little

I use money from jackpots and opens to help pay my bills....do I count on that money? Absolutely not

Back in late 80's redman (BFL) Georgia and Alabama were separate divisions and generally had full fields or close to to it...one year they decided to do a combined Georgia and alabama tournament on lake Eufaula.. had somewhere around 375 entries and they handled it pretty good with two sets of scales...back then redman/bfl was draw tourney and I remember the drawing seemed to take forever the night before...back then big fish pot was $5.00 with $4.00 paid to fisherman and $1.00 went to bass research (or probably mike whittakers pocket)...fishing was really tough but
I caught a 9.8 lb fish plus a couple more keepers and ended up winning big fish which was worth almost $1,500.plus I placed in top ten and I think my check for that was worth $900.-1,000. so that was good payday for late 80'S....
fast forward a year and I went no-boater to a bama division redman on wheeler...drew out with a nice guy who in the coarse of conversation mentioned he was a branch mgr. for a bank....later on in the day we got to talking about big fish and guy says you aunt gonna believe what happened to me at combined Ga./Al redman on Eufaula....he said I caught the biggest bass I ever caught in my life...weighed 9.2lbs...said that he watched the weigh-in line hoping his fish would hold up as big fish..he said with just a few fishermen left to weigh in,he went in marina to get a coke and when he came out...one of his buddies told him "some sumbitch' weighed in a 9.8 oz fish and beat me out of all that big fish money..
didn't say anything for a few minutes and finally told him that if it would make him feel better,the guy that won it needed the money more than you being a banker and all....he wheels around and says "do you know him"....and I said "you're looking at him"....he did threaten to make me swim back to the landing......

Ha! Nice story beartrap.