BASS is live today and they have two live channels going. Interesting to just watch guys fish on the Live Mix and not listen to the studio crew.

Also after watching the MLF guys on their live stream it seems like the BASS guys are working at such a slower (almost lazy) pace compared to the MLF format. The BASS anglers seem so relaxed while fishing and taking their time.

Probably safe to say the BASS anglers blood pressure is much lower as well, looks like a few of them have perfect conditions for sight fishing too!

Im not sure I agree that it is more relaxed or lazy, although i understand your point. Its definitely a different pace (fishing for 5 bites). I will say the 2 most notable things to me are: 1) the production value of MLF is far superior and 2) Tommy and Zona are soo much better at the commentary

It would be nice if they had a little more action to provide commentary about.
Right now I would say Bassmaster is behind both MLF and FLW in production value. Zona, Sanders and Hite still are the best however.

You're also comparing commentary from guys that had one go of it, vs guys that have been doing it together for 10 years. I love have multiple options, and multiple styles to watch. As a fan, it's great.... Actually, just think, between now and next Sunday, the only day without professional fishing competition will be Monday.

Zona and Sanders need to go to MLF, they would have a monster product then.

I think Zona and Sanders and Davy are doing more with less. But I think come Saturday, I am swapping over to FLW Live, as I think the better fishing is on Toho and that should be a bit more fun to watch.

I was thinking how I would rank the three live broadcasts and if they were all on at the same time who would i watch. For me it's which body of water I want to see is more important. If one tour is down south and 2 up north, I'll take the southern lake. However I think I will drop whatever I'm doing to watch 2-230pm on MLF days 3,4 and 5 and watch the drama of the anglers making the cut.

Agreed. MLF really has them all beat with the drama of the last 30 min on those cut days. So damn fun to watch.

100% agree. I'll spend Monday reading up on the pattern & baits from the two Florida tourneys

I still don't understand everyone's fascination with MLF, I tried watching it live and couldn't get into it. I cannot relate to the format so it doesn't appeal to me. every time I would check the leader board for mlf the guy leading would have a big bass of 2-3lbs and average below 2. Idk I just can't get into it.

FLW has become way too much of Scott Martin. I have nothing against Scott at all, great angler. But its like he's a part owner of the company or something. Him and his sponsors are all you see on there.

Agreed

Fish catches are much more interesting than watching guys fish for an hour without a bite. It may change later on different bodies of water but for the most part MLF fishing was action packed. I found myself nodding off during Bassmaster live today. Also the pros for MLF seem to realize they are part of the entertainment. Lots more discussions of techniques and what�s going on.

www.bassfan.com/docktalk_article/19611/balog:-socks-knocked-off#.XFylsjNKiUk

I liked Balog's take on the new BPT. Dang link. www.bassfan.com

I guess as a fan of professional bass fishing why do i have choose just one trail to support? I enjoy all 3 and think some are acting like you got pick a squad and ride or die with. All 3 are giving me great coverage options to enjoy. I ain't mad at any of them.

I'm not either but dang! MLF sure left the cupboard bare at BASS

I like it all.

Compare previous Elite event average weights there to this one. Less grass now and a good amount of not so well known guys but lo and behold you might me surprised. This current group are holding their own.

Texas "rookies" Whatley & Livesay showing up. Helluva start fellas

I was and am more excited for the elites than the BPT. Just my preference but I like the 5 biggest format. It�s what I fish and what I prefer to watch. BASS will make more stars and I�m excited to see who steps up. Pretty good first day.

Lee Livesay making a move to the 1 spot early this morning.

Its interesting. I was looking more forward to BASS than BPT because Im a 5 Fish guy too... however after watching both, i prefer the BTP - from a pure entertainment value.. Im not sure if it is the format or familiarity of the anglers (probably both), but Im leaning BPT... of course we dont have to choose, so i will watch both.. just not what i expected

Yeah they are and by the way it's looking... when they come this way there will be hell to pay with them sticks.

This was my exact observation as well.

Me too, these first few days I just can't get into BASS live with all the big names gone. If its a stand alone FLW or BAS event I'll probably watch but looking forward to MLF on conroe next week. FWIW I hope Menendez or one of the old guard can win it, I will check the result for both FLW and Elites sunday, but until them I'm out.

Congrats to Lee Livesay on smashing them today!

72 year old Rick Clunn is in the top 5 going into Saturday. Ol dude is still gittin it.

Lee sitting in 2nd. Atta boy!!!!

Way to go Lee. Awesome

I enjoyed the angler backstory - they should genuinely profile each throughout the series. It�s makes them more relatable to me and perhaps other competive anglers similarly situated and probably other spectators as well. It seems to have more of a �grass roots� feel and I also really like the �Live Mix� with angler commentary. I�d like them add the Basstrax estimated weight and perhaps a banner of other contenders. Would like to see a stronger BPT/MLF influence on their fish care particularly when culling...

I'm pulling for Clunn. I'm an old guy too.

Like how, carpet penalties?

You must have seen Menendez cull this afternoon on bass cam. I�ll have to admit, it was pretty bad.

Dirty hippies everywhere. Sure hope they don't hit any minnows with their prop.

What he throw them all out on floor, saw Biffle do that once

Yeah he threw one in the floor of the boat while he found 2 other fish to beam. One of the culls came off of one and his beam had floated over to the other side of his live well . 1 was flopping around down there for 2-3 minutes. At one point he had 3 flopping around in the floor.

I�m no tree hugger, just seemed like there has to be a better way.

Man, they are catching some good fish today. Lee's landing of that good one was awesome. The 2 brothers knocking it out of the park. Clunn hanging in there. Wow.

Yeah he is check out this post of his last catch https://www.facebook.com/teambassmanager/videos/244527059811766/ #ROY

helluva a lot more exciting then watching to can catch the most two pounders.

I got FLW casted to the TV and both the "live mix" and bass live pull up on the laptop.

I got bored with MLF and turned it off last week.

Wow, Menendez. 2 nice spinnerbait fish out of the same laydown.

Can someone explain the reason for the turmoil or point me to the post or thread that explains the whole spill with this MLF vs. BASS

That was fun to watch. Second one was caught flipping.

Ricky still hanging in 8th place. Ol folks can still catch'em.

Awesome to watch today. Lots of big 'uns being caught. Johnston brothers are sticks.

They are.. thought they could of been hyped up by the media but boy was I wrong lol

Here you go, hope you have some time to read Running List of MLF Pros - Let's Track It

The BPT is going to make the other tours step up their game for the fans. You can already see that happening. I bet a bunch that thought they separated from the herd today are going to be surprised.

That was some good TV today. Smashed the biggins.

Ditto...saw some good'un's come aboard

Wah?

There goes the notion that the new Elite guys can't catch them.

BASS is going to be just fine.
Like has been said the only one they can�t replace is KVD

St. John's sure outperforming Toho!

Great coverage

Ain't that the truth. My folks were at the Toho weigh-in today, they sat in the truck and watched the Elite weigh-in lol.

BASS knocked it outta the park today. Very good show.

Don't you just love all the new names in the Elites! I do!

I had the thought yesterday that out of the 3 trails the Elites probably is the one us average weekend anglers have guys that we can relate to the most in. Pretty cool to me seeing the new guys getting it done.

Did Mercer enunciate Livesay correctly ? Sounded like he said Live-ah-say. I've heard it said Live-say. Don't know which is correct but the dude can flat catch'em.

GIANTS!

Absolutely!! I have to admit. I would much rather see guys catching big ones than 1.5 pound fish. I enjoyed watching today more then BPT.

I think it was a great performance in the traditional "elite" style... today was outstanding and could be said that "they caught them moving up at the right time"...yes, some truth to that,... however, there were still some experienced anglers (Elites and FLW) that didn't do so well today,... today was not a "gimme", ...yes, a ton of good 'ol biggerns caught... but those that caught them had to earn them,... hooray for Clunn, Menendez, and Pirch!!! And Lee Livesey from Lake Fork!!�...what happened to Fritts?...geezzzz!

ALSO..... glad they started the Live coverage on Day 1 Thursday!...

St John's got right in a hurry. 3 30+# bags wow.

Guy's were catching 20+ today and were sad about it LOL

I think BASS will be just fine. Awesome to see all the giants being caught. Rather see that than a bunch of little ones.

BASS had a huge hit today and we got to know some new names in this sport. Will be getting up early to watch it all tomorrow. Hoping Lee does well!

It was good but Bass Champs on Rayburn will beat that every time with just one day of fishing.

That's a team event though.....Elites do it solo.

Yea, and there were only 35 guy's fishing not 352 teams.

I was comparing the fishery more so than the anglers but guess I worded it wrong. Will do better next time.

Is it just me or are they pronouncing his name wrong
. I�ve always thought his name is live-say not liv-a-see

I'm back and forth between FLW and the Elites, both are putting on a great show. I like the way FLW is using the drones, you get a great feel for exactly what they're fishing and water color.

That drone footage had me mesmerized. My girlfriend asked if I was ok as I watched Cox move through a canal on it.

Crews is putting on a clinic! dang!

he pronounced it himself on the Finch Nasty fb advertisement. it is live-uh-see

Ok thanks, didn't see the ad but figured Mercer had it right.

I was there in Palatka and the St.Johns over Xmas. I couldn't buy a bite...and these guys are pulling in 8lbers...:)

Guess that was kinda funny.

Menendez is going to have 30 before it's over, I think he's going to pull this one out.

This is insane.

Clunn refusing to lose!

It will be incredible if Rick clunn wins

https://www.bassmaster.com/blog/tournaments/2019-bassmaster-elite-st-johns-river

They mentioned Menendez's big fish at Richland Chambers here as well as Elroy Krueger. When I was a boy in HS in San Antonio Bass Club, Elroy and his brother Raymond Krueger were both fishing with us most months. I still remember we fished Amistad when it was still filling, 85 foot low. We put in at Diablo East and there was a big dock with a restaurant on it. Elroy had just gotten a new boat with a large outboard. I think it was 100 horsepower which back then was huge. When he came out of the restaurant after breakfast his boat was under water, held up partially by the dock lines. Seems he forgot to put the plug in.

Wow, what a day for the legend Rick Clunn.

I have fished with Lee on Fork and like his style of fishing. Really enjoyed fishing with him. Congratulation!

I posted the other day about seeing a seniors tournament on TV. I guess with Clunn, we just had one.

Can't believe he was using a spinner bait on some of those fish.

I've met and talked to him before also.

Both are good dudes and great fishermen

Good luck to both.

BTW, who won, I had to leave

Sound quality for the weigh-in is lacking

Mercer is probably going to go deja vu and yell, "Ricky Clunn gets it done!"

Probably rain related.

Congrats to Clunn

Clunn wins by a few pounds. Crazy

From what I gather bass had more people at weigh in today than the "smartest guys" had the entire event. At their weight in with no fish and no audience. Bass still is THE event that people go to and follow. People love weigh ins and big bags.

After watching both I'm gonna have to agree with you. A 34 lb. sack of bass gets me real excited. What a show these guys put on and the weigh in with those 9 lb'ers was awesome. Way to go BASS.

Duckett has made the comment several times, he does not care about spectator involvement, he wants corporate involvement. All about the $$$$ and that�s why I hate the MLF/BPT.

Really kicking my self for not putting Clunn of my fantasy fishing team, as inspiring as his last win was I doubted he would do it again. Proved me wrong and he was just short of breaking that 100lb mark. He�s still got it!

Agreed

He's right, and because of that they will get the TV money and contract, the current BASS model is too niche but yeah the fishheads came out for their weigh-in today but they are a very minute percentage of the sports audience.

think Duckett saw the growing popularity of high school and college fishing and saw an opportunity to grow the television audience....plus he saw how the professional golfers own their tournament trail and realized it was time for the fishermen to own their trail instead of "fishing for their own money" and letting B.A.S.S. pocket the profits...

When people compare fishing to golf I laugh.

After watching bill Jordans success deer hunting I think I'll start a squirrel hunting show.

prior to starting Realtree,Bill Jordan worked for his Dad's boat dealership in Columbus,Ga. and was a pretty good tournament fisherman....They used to have a big draw tourney on Eufaula....250-300 fishermen in it and they gave away a boat....this was somewhere between 1983 and 1985 and I got drawn with Bill.....Bill and his partner had won a Hydrasport tourney the day before so I agreed to go in Bill's boat.....
I ended up winning the tourney (and the boat) by just a few ounces over Bill who finished second....Bill was a really neat guy...he played football for Ole Miss and was a wide receiver and teammate of Archie Manning...

Rick Clunn for the win!

You �hate� a for profit business venture for attempting to make a profit? Are you aware that BASS and FLW are for profit businesses? These kinds of comments absolutely baffle me...

I played a killer round of putt putt last week

Nope, I hate the fact that all they care about is money. If you don�t care about your fan base, then you are worthless to me. Why would I support something that has no care about us being there. If that �baffles� you, then you are a salesman. When BASS or FLW come out and say that their fans are not of importance to them, then I�ll hate them too.

What �baffles� me, is the fact that they think housewives & kids are going to take their viewership to another level.

Someone posted on a forum that Duckett �said� something and therefore that means it must be true and that the entire organization doesn�t care about their fan base? Ok, got it.

And I�ll take the salesman comment as a compliment.

Hey Mark Jones, listen to the Duckett interview on Bass Talk Live. You can hear it from his own lips and then you can come back to apologize for being wrong. Don�t take the salesman comment as a compliment, how do you know if they are lying??? Their lips are moving. I look forward to your apology. If you�re going to work for them, you should at least listen to your bosses interviews.

I don�t listen to bass talk live but if you say that�s what he said and that makes you hate MLF/BPT then I guess that�s cool. So sorry that I wasn�t aware. Please forgive me?

Lastly, I don�t have a boss. I own all of my businesses... lead salesman actually.

That's a lot of housewives and kids

More like 50k folks clicking 20x each to get it to work. Lol.

That's so true, but BASS and FLW weren't any better. It's a beating trying to get any of their sites to stay up.

Duckett will be sad when he realizes that kids don�t watch tv... they watch YouTube haha

It was more people than that but point taken. Lol

The interesting thing is really how sticky the live is for all of them (MLF, BASS and FLW) people just stay there and watch and if the feed goes down they click on the leaderboard and then come right back. Crazy.

This is true.


Duckett did say that their app was the second most downloaded, espn being the most. Now I don�t know if he means outdoor apps or all apps. Only time will tell on the true numbers.

....and wait for it....


That was over a 5-day period. So....more like 10k folks. 20x a day x 5-days. Lol.

Just diggin.

I watched it sporadically, as my connection would allow, during my lunch hour.

During the rest of the year the abuse the fish take to give the fans the excitement of the couple of anglers that matter weighing in their five biggest fish is tolerable but for them to catch so many 7 pound plus bass off of beds and stuff them in a livewell up to 8 hrs with 4 other giant bass (Clunn had two 9 plus in his) and then spend the time in a bag and get carried around the stage seems very unconservation minded and hard on the fishery. The Bassfest format were they are weighed in the boat and released would make much more since during the spawn. With the live coverage and BASSTrakk we already know what is in most of the bags already. Cutting off live early so there is still a surprise at weigh in should be enough excitement. I do not look at them slinging those big full of egg females around and think how awesome, I think I hope they live and what a waste of a spawn. Biggest five great and unknown weights at weigh in great but not relocating bedding bass miles from home. I like all three formats but do prefer the fish care of the new one. BASS does it in some tournaments and I hope the will do it in more in the future. I have never understood their thought on nets being bad for the fish but flopping all over the carpet is fine. I would let them have their nets back.

ANY professional bass organization who wants to claim conservation will eventually have to adopt the the Catch-Weigh-Release format. And if a bass' jaw really can be broken, Menendez did a good job of that with his big fish yesterday the way he hoisted her out of the water and swung her around for his spectators.

Yes and let's let the weather warm up a bit when fisherman are um fishing and kids chasing little league all over the country. Let's then look at those Saturday and Sunday numbers. Heck that Florida event may have been the best of the year

In comparison I have to say i enjoy what BASS/FLW does more than BPT. Plus BASS has Zona. Love that guy. There isn�t another Zona. MLF format has just gotten boring to me. That�s just me. Wish them luck. To each his own.

don't forget the effect all the spectator boats have on the classic and actually all of the B.A.S.S. elite tournaments...MLF should reduce some of that effect by having their tournaments during the week.....if you ask the pros privately,I'm sure most of them would tell you they would prefer to not have spectator boats plus we've all heard about those guys who will pull in and start fishing a spot after the pro leaves knowing the pro needed to save those fish for the next day...

From some MLF shows a couple of competitors have went and found the angler lighting up the scoretracker and fished his water. All trails have pluses and negatives.

I agree on both points, he torqued on that big fishes jaw good right when he caught it too. Look if you gonna keep it to eat or mount fine I got no problem but bassmaster priding themselves on fishcare and conservation and then watching Clunn and Menedez cull by throwing all their fish in the floorboard is quite hypocritical. If BASS really wants to go the conservation route all their elite tournament need to be like TexasFest is, but keep the Classic traditional.

Hippies dirty filthy hippies everywhere.

Watch it man! Peace.

It's funny that last year KVD and 79 others were boat flipping fish onto the carpet and everyone called them the greatest conservationists in the world, and now all of a sudden it's a mortal sin. Now if you don't have an umpire dressed up for a football game, or you DO have water in your livewell, you're doing it wrong.

For real. This stuff has gotten ridiculous. It's a dang fish. All those guys were doing the exact same stuff a year ago and Id be willing to bet they do it when they aren't being watched under the eye of MLF. Me personally. I watched the last 15 min of the florida MLF tournament. Thought it was the most boring thing I've ever watched. Will not watch again. Just my opinion. They wanna make money hey I dont blame then one bit. That's what makes the world go round. But the format isnt for everyone.

Ever catch a one eyed bass? I caused it with a Trokar flipping hook. Lucky that fish was still alive! Lol. I boat flipped the hell outta that little fish. It flew all the way across the bow, back into the water, then back to the boat. Then flopped on the carpet and went under the console. I had to dig it out with some pliers. It went behind the hot foot. Got stuck between the hot foot and LSS2. Almost just quit trying to get it, but I needed that little sucker to make 5!

It�s JUST A FRIGGIN FISH!

Good lord, you guys act like that one fish was a family member. Lol.




All of the above was just a joke. No hate mail or hate PMs needed. I do try to take care of the ones I catch. The eye thing happened though. Sorry little guy.

Don't dirty up the water with facts.

Yeah, only a bunch of heathens would be caught fishing a BASS or FLW event. Oh, wait, I just remembered, a bunch of these non-hypocritical conservation minded guys are going to be fishing this years Classic, and BASS Opens, and Costa Series events whenever their schedules allow. But I'm sure they will give themselves penalties since there won't be a zebra shirt in the boat with them. "Oops, that poor fish touched my shirt! I'm going to have to sit down and repent for 2 minutes. I think I even heard it whimper."

All in the timing, we got blanked on some of the same spots you saw on streaming the week before

Course there was a talent differential as well I suppose haha