Apologies Mark that comment was not intended for you.

Livewells will never cease to exist, us Cajuns like to filet our 6-9 lbers without having to ice them down.


I just can’t wait to see what the ratings will be in 4-5 years. I was interested at first, but became more bored with it every tournament. At first I made it a point to watch it, now will watch if I have time.

At first was was watching bass tracker all day, then I started checking at the end of the day, then I just looked after the tournament to see who won.

I think it was extremely popular because it was new. The newness is wearing off, and I suspect the popularity will as well. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out. But if the mid-tier pros, are able to make a better living, good for them, glad to see it.

This is what I've heard from like 90% of tournament anglers that I hear talking about it, or posting about it. After the first 2 tournaments or so I had no idea they were even going on and didn't care at all.

The current format will have to change or they will fail.

Same here. I have an open mind to the format and looked forward to watching a new and different tour, but I became way less interested as the year went on. Unlike many on here the "dink" factor really doesn't bother me. However, I'm not a fan of the weights resetting between different rounds or the switching of lakes in the same tournament. As the year went on it really did start to have a gimmick feel to the whole thing. I do think they need to make some adjustments to their format.

Fortunately for MLF/BPT, only 7% of bass anglers are "tournament anglers".

.......I'm still wondering if Boyd is going to let Thrift smoke Kools, or Camels!

I don't like this at all. MLF format is hard to follow and the website is not easy to find things. I don't like watching guys catch as many 1lbers as they can because it is not exciting in any way shape or form. I like the 5 fish format and seeing the guys that turn their 8-10lb stringer into 20-22 lbs. To me that is what separates the tiers in tournament fishing.

I will keep an open mind that this will turn into something new and exciting, but I am not holding my breath.

Good point. One thing I've noticed from non tournament guys MLF catches their interest initially Bassmaster does not probably because MLF correlates more to the stick and ball sports. Will MLF hold those viewers IDK but all my relatives are outdoorsman but they're hunters not fisherman, they watch outdoor programming, all of them know what MLF is now, some of them watch MLF, none of them watch Bassmaster.

The way that guy can catch fish, Boyd probably let him smoke crack...

Boyd smokes, so I'd imagine he'll let Thrift do whatever Thrift wants.

What percent of non-tournament anglers watch tournament fishing?

I think the percentage is much higher than that especially if you count guys who fish one or two charity tournys each year...maybe somebody smarter than me can start a poll and maybe ask the question similar to this..

what kind of tournys do you fish each year?.

club tournys with an occasional open or charity tourney...
open or tournament trail tournys…
occasional charity tourney...
do not fish tournys….

Great poll, but since many of the TFF bass fisherman are also tournament fishermen, the results will be skewed to the high side. The 7% I quoted is the national percentage of bass fishermen who are also "tournament" fishermen. I'd imagine that's pretty accurate.

I would agree.

We’ve done this work already and the number of “competitive” anglers is less than 2 million in the US. The number for anglers competing in 5-10 events a year is much less than that.