Ish to the BASS Opens! This needs its own thread, not sure why he’d leave with 820 hours per week of prime time TV at his finger tips. Let the MLF bashing begin.

He’s been pretty irrelevant in the MLF format?

Who? I watch the BPT and don’t know if I’ve ever heard of him.

Don't blame him. It will be interesting to see how long it takes these guys to requalify.

I think a lot more would like to jump to the opens but don’t quite have the backing from sponsors to take that gamble.

Ish and Bobby Lane will be the most followed anglers next year. I bet their sponsors will be fine with it.

Rumor on the street, in my hood…is that he wants back in BASS to give Poche another round of wrestling.

I hope they both earn their way back next year.

I remember an MLF tournament from years ago, back when the lakes were divided into 6 sections. Ish was on one that day. Going into the final round, Ish had a 12lb lead on the closest competitor. All of a sudden MLF did something that they never did before during an MLF tournament. They eliminated the section rule and opened up the whole lake to every competitor. Low and behold Edwin Evers went straight to a creek where bass were schooling and proceeded to catch almost 30lbs of bass in one period and win the tournament. You could easily see that Ish was shaken and extremely angry. I've never seen a tournament director change the format in the middle of a tournament ever.I'm quite sure I'm not the only one here who remembers that. I followed his career for a while and it took him quite a while to recover from that fiasco. I don't know if he protested Edwins win or not,never heard much about and MLF was very hush hush about the whole thing. I know he did win a bassmaster elite out west a few years later,and had a pretty good sponsor deal with Riverside lures,but haven't heard much about him on the circuit lately.

Lol. MLF wasn't hush about anything and it wasn't a fiasco. That's what MLF was. They threw them curve balls.

He did good in heavy hitters, that's the only BPT I can remember him doing really well in

I think Ish would have a different perspective of the way that whole deal went down.Never ever saw that happen in a tournament before or after that I've seen some of the ways MLF has tried to shake up the field,for instance, Sometimes they would/will wait until tournament morning to tell anglers what lake they would be fishing. No worries, don't have a problem with that,but once the tournament starts in the middle you change the format that's just wrong and unethical in my humble opinion. Dubee I wonder if that was you winning a Major televised tournament and they change the rules in the middle of a tournament that you're winning, I don't think you would refer to it as just a curve ball.
I think you would have a few more choice word to describe what just happened. Just saying, I don't know you so I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.

now that funny lol

The opens get more attention than MLF, plus BASS will cover those guys good if they are in the hunt and start giving them the articles and those things. Sponsors probably like the decision

They didn't just change the rules on whim. That's the way the cups were set up. They never knew what lake or section of lake they would be fishing. That was the format