I've always said I would not interfere with a guy that makes a living fishing. And for me that means staying away from the lake. There are just to many lakes to choose from. But if it was my only time to prefish I would go fish. But I would move if I was in there spot. But thats me.

Unless the “next person” likes to keep a few bass to eat every once in awhile. In that case they should be loathed as the dregs of society. 😁

I've never been on it during a major tournament but have accidentally showed up the Friday afternoon before The Big Bass Splash; I'll never do that again. If you've got to scout for Bass Champs I'd say most definitely go given the time constraints you are dealing with and yes if you feel you need to yield to the BPT guys I'd back that idea too. If you hang around you just might pick up some really good info for your tournament. Watching them fish might literally be worth its weight in gold.

Go if you want its a public lake just be courteous. Its going to be a zoo and I prefer avoiding the crowd, with all the damn people moving here I have almost exclusively moved to fishing during the week. I was on a lake Thursday and it was still busy, I don't even want to know what it looked like this weekend with the nicer weather.

I’ll be fishing.

I wouldn't do it but that's just me. No ill will if you do decide to.

I completely agree that we have the right to fish no matter who is on the lake, it’s more of a moral conundrum for me personally.

What I didn’t realize is there’s only going to 40 MLF anglers per day fishing. So really my concern is moot, Fork will swallow those guys up, probably won’t see many if any at all. I’ll just stick to my plan of yielding anything the MLF guys want and go about my business.

Another thing that is different Matt. When the Elites are there. Some of the anglers have alot of "fan" boats or spectators following them around. Last time MLF was out there we were fishing a Media tournament. And you would have never even known there was a bigger pro tournament going on if you didnt see them in coves every now and then.

What days this week are their practice days?

Practice is thursday, 17th, and friday 18th.