With 1 tournament left, Seth Fieder is leading the pack at 699 points.

Top 5:
Patrick Walters, 644 points
Chris Johnston, 630 points
Jason Christie, 618 points
Brandon Palaniuk, 613 points.

Seth has had a helluva year. He's had 4 top-10's & his worse finish this year so far has been 29th. If he makes the cut at the St. Lawrence River, I don't believe anyone can catch him.

So who gets cut, bottom 12 that aren't rookies or taking medical exemptions?

Great question. I'll be curious to see how that plays out as well.

I still look at BASS as a watered down pool of talent. Yes, Christie, Hackney, Palaniuk are back but even those greats don’t create the pool of talent at MLF with the likes of Wheeler, Lee, Evers, DeFoe, Ehrler and on and on and on.
BASS is doing their best to convince us that Zaldain is their new KVD….whatever

^^^^^^^THIS!^^^^^^^^

For sure.

I would venture to say the guys like Feider, both Chris and Corey Johnston, Patrick Walters, Hank Cherry, Brock Mosley and a slew of others can match up against any angler outside of BASS.
These guys are very good, they have not had the top billings as those other guys, but they are getting there. I would take the top 20 BASS guys and put them up against any other top 20.
A name recognition does not make you great.

Be nice to take top 20-25 from each major trail and have championship $200k to winner to a lake each trail has not been too and have a 3 day tourny with 1 day of practice, this would make great TV.

, good job Fieder

Seth had done a great job. But when you compare the two top 20 AOY line ups, to me there’s no comparison. I watch both. They are two different games honestly. I think the pressure to keep catching fish at a BPT event is more stressful than the best 5 bites, but that’s my opinion. I like BASS, they’re just behind in the amount of talent. It’ll take time, but the BPT line up will improve also; ie, Shuffield, Floyd, etc.

The fact that John Cox could not crack the top 20 in BASS and yet has done it in the BPT says something to me.

I think he had a tournament where he bombed and finished almost dead last and he is still top 30

If you think that fieder, livesay, Walters, Chris Johnston and many more couldn’t fish with any bunch you put them in you’re blind. Anyone that did not know who Bryan New was before he made the elites isn’t much of a fan of the “sport” of bass fishing.
When one of the best at mlf was the LAST invited after ole Mr Phoenix boats said no thanks you lose you’re argument on the best of the best.


Now. I will have to give you a 10 out of 10 on the Zaldain comment. Bass has made me disdain the dude by trying way way WAY to hard to put him up on a pedestal. It’s obnoxious. Dude gets top 5 in bass track and Hite wants to stop play and award the trophy to zaldain without a weigh in. Dude can fish and he’s good but shut up for Pete sake

#DaveyLovesTheStache

I see so many very good anglers in BASS. The problem is if you have not followed BASS in the last few years you do not know any of them, and then some people equate that into them not being that good.
The MLF guys got their name recognition from fishing in BASS and moved on. Some have come back because they loved the format better in BASS than MLF.
I have no problems with either format, I think MLF has some very good anglers also, but they became that way through BASS. Including one of the first ones to come back was Swindle. Give these newer guys a few more years and you will find out that BASS has got a full field of top notch anglers.
I think the MLF has seen where their future lies and that is with new guys and the very good upcoming guys through their tier system in the FLW league. BASS does it through the Opens and that has proven to be a good way to bring in new blood.
Again both have good anglers but I would take the best 20 from BASS and feel very comfortable with them against any league.