Surprised there has not been more of these this year with the economy right now, I know Timmy Horton announced few months back also...

https://www.bassfan.com/docktalk_article/22458/morgenthaler-retires-from-elite-series

Going to get worse before it gets better.
Many of us local anglers are already trying to save money any way we can.
Be interesting to see how badly it effects tournament participation on a local level... Considering how far some of us have to travel.

It has effected us out here pretty bad. Last year we average 40 teams in Media now about 25 to 30.

He left a career to start this one and now he's leaving BASS to start another career. I do not think anything made him quit.

He sucked anyway. Not surprising. Best of luck to him in his new venture/academy. Smart move for him

Frank you're savage

well he’s way way way better than me, but clearly wasn’t on an elite level. I hope his new venture goes very well.

I think he fished for 20+ years as a pro

What other sport requires their "pros" to shell out upwards of $100,000 to compete? I'm talking about the tackle, truck, boat, maintenance, travel, etc etc. It's insane to me that this sport also REQUIRES people to pay entry fees for tournaments.

Sure, there's some guys in the top 1% who get free boats, etc. but the vast majority of people lose their [censored] on this. It's incredible.

Imagine if Lebron James had to pay $1500 every game just to compete.

He knew what a Carolina rig was.

Just wait until you see next years participation from bass clubs all the way up to the elites.

Elites are trying cut like 20 guys I’ve heard thru multiple people lately

But people pay to watch Lebron, nobody pays to watch fishing.

Morganthaler was irrelevant!

There’s about 30 more that should retire as well!

I don’t think your narrative is correct- the economy is still better than it’s been at many points in the past 20 years. This guy was a journeyman and was ready to move on.

I know of two that have dropped out this year then , Tecorante bailed for “family reasons”


Any others ?

Lebron James wipes his [censored] with $1500 lol

Fished as a Marshal with him at the Classic last year. He acted like I wasnt even there. Threw a tube 96% of the day and never caught a keeper on it. Picked up a chatterbait and caught 2 keepers in 10 minutes, put it down and threw the tube rest of the day. Never understood that.

With record inflation and record fuel prices a good economy is totally irrelevent for the guys out there that aren't wealthy in the Elites. The last time we had high fuel prices it got a lot of them but this time the high fuel prices are coupled with record inflation this round may put more of them on the sidelines than ever before. If you look at the economy through the eyes of the current administration the economy does look good but that is because everyone is paying record prices for everything. Is it good? Its according to who you ask. My back pocket; where it count for the majority of us, is telling me it isn't.

They did that last year. I think thats the plan cut the bottom performers every year and replace with invites from the Opens

Trying to cap field size smaller then take on more money coming in from adding 20 more to make the field 100 would be smarter. That way u have 6 guys instead of 4 trying fish beside you

They cut/replace 12 spots per year. Top 3 from each Opens division plus 3 from Overall Opens AOY list. Twelve total. I don't think they go down the list if an angler declines.


I prefer that system over protecting an angler's " brand and not replacing anyone for lack of performance over multiple seasons.

This might be the dumbest thing I’ve read in awhile 😂. High prices for everything and empty shelves. Electricity prices and starting to double. All this extra money people have for. Biden’s booming econo

I respectively disagree. The anglers who have good corporate sponsors will be okay, the corporate world has made record profits across the board for the past 2 years or so and there is a lot of money to go around.

Now the newer guys and the ones with hometown sponsorships will likely struggle.

Just because you and I may be struggling with this economy, there are many people and corporations who are killing it.

https://www.bassfan.com/docktalk_article/22458/morgenthaler-retires-from-elite-series[/quote]
I don’t think your narrative is correct- the economy is still better than it’s been at many points in the past 20 years. This guy was a journeyman and was ready to move on.[/quote]

I'm sorry...and what planet is this we're speaking of?

The smart ones have side businesses that run themselves. Many of the elites have a business other than fishing. It's really the only way to financially succeed at fishing outside the top 10 percent

Rodeo

Mr, I'm also starting and running a business right now and that is being hit as well. There's this thing called shipping cost and that is going to hit the sponsors at every point in there manufacturing process which may cause them to cut advertising/promtional cost.. Record profits, again that comes from who you ask or better than that who is telling it and why for political gain.The last time we had record inflation and high gas prices that nearly put FLW out of business because of sponsor loss.

The last time we had a recession it wasn't preceded by the most profitable 2 years in history for most corporations in America.

Like I said earlier it's hard for "us" to see the amount of money that has been made and is still being made by many people in this country.

The fishing industry is booming even with the worst inflation we have seen in 40+ years.

This is a bump in the road and we will all make it through it.


Oh, and you don't have to call me Mr, Mr the whole world calls me Hank

That is the silver lining in all of this, it will bounce back, if you invest just be ready. There's money to be made out of all of this.

The next two years will disprove that.

Hopefully after November some things will change and we can get this thing back between the ditches

For sure.....

Hopefully. Sad thing-- takes a lot longer right a ship than sink it.

maybe the heat had something to do with it

I suppose we could be in different realms financially, but I do not see the outlook as bleak as you.

I think the world and the fishing world will both be okay.

Aren't we special !

I suppose you could be

I was looking at the results from this weekend’s Toyota Series on James River. A guy from Texas finished like 10th out of 200 boats. He won $4k but entry alone is $2k? Now add in travel expenses (Virginia ain’t close) and this guy probably lost money. I understand various sponsors pay, to some degree, a little money but this is a minor league circuit. Are these just guys with rich parents and old retired guys playing pro Angler 5-10 weeks a year? Looking at the profit /loss, with these gas prices, what’s the end point here?

Most dudes who try to do this lose their [censored] financially. They either have rich parents/family or own their own successful business.

The easiest way to be a millionaire as a pro fisherman is to start with $3 million.

MOTO!

Trying to make a career out of anything that involves traveling is very difficult right now....

Solid chuckle

First of all that's not the way large corporations work. They don't say "Hey we had a good year a few years back so we are fine with losing money this year". That never happens. All these companies have investors that expect ANNUAL profits. If the profits aren't there changes will be made. There are HUGE challenges to making profits right now. Inflation at the manufacturing/ wholesale level is in the 20-30% range by most educated estimates. That's way higher than consumer inflation and also higher than many of these companies profit margin. So many of these corporations are losing money because they can't increase consumer costs fast enough to make money. Walmart, Target,etc,etc,etc all either lost money or fell way short of projections last month and last quarter. The big fishing sponsors will be in the same boat. Economic indicators are as bad or worse than anything we have seen since 2008. The companies that sponsor pro fishermen are almost all companies making a recreational product. They know their product is the first thing to go when the economy starts going south. I agree the top end anglers will have no issues keeping sponsors, but the guys in the middle or lower are in for some issues. I can assure you that the companies sponsoring pro fishermen don't make decisions on sponsorships based on profits from 2 years ago. That just isn't reality.

I just saw a top 20 angler recently (this week) signed a new sponsor deal with Walmart.

Same

Tourney fishing would be a tuff way to make a living.

The heat is on boys .even the sponsors will be cutting back with all of this going on. They will have to as more than a few people who were buying their stuff will be doing well to have food at home. I remember when Carter was in there and oil went up. Housing went to a crawl and so did everything else .It came to a point where the best place to invest if you had anything to invest was in C.D's at 8,9 or 10% interest and there were fuel lines a mile long. This thing is not over and will get worse before it gets better.

It took Reagon to get us out of the last mess back in the 70's & 80's. It will take a Republican to get us out of it this time. I will take several years to get us out this time just like it did back then and this time is much worse than then as this idiot has 2 more years to screw us up any way he wants to.

It would be awesome if you could make 8%+ on your money.