Supposedly had their final tournament last weekend on Choke……still no results? Anybody have the scoop?

After Castledine had his 10 part series about owning Choke and figuring out the lake, I just knew he’d be there to take the win.

Angler of the year was on the line, so who won?

Did you see Bates post on FB, I would have been pissed, if that was me!

Post a link and update us please.

https://www.facebook.com/mike.bates.773

Looks like the tournament was cancelled due to lack of participation. He took the weeks off because of off-limits and lost guide trips that he could have banked.

Hate to see that but IMO we have more trails than we need right now.

A high dollar professional trail like this, should require guys to pay for every tournament, wether you show up or not. Many guys came down here pre-fishing, only to waste their money. Bates lost out on an easy $4k, assuming he’s getting at least 2 guide trips a week.


Thinking about it, I almost wonder if some of the anglers who are friends with a guide, who hasn’t fished here in months due to an injury. Maybe those guides friends didn’t fish, because they no longer have anyone feeding them info before the cut off date. Sure seems odd that during the off season, guys didn’t show up for the final tournament.

Just not enough participation to make sense for both the anglers or the organization. I would've went either way. There were about 15-20 that would have went. It's the guys not in the AOY money that mainly probably didn't want to make the trip. Like any new trail, it's a learning lesson and I think they'll choose better lakes more concentrated around higher entry lakes. In my opinion, it's the best trail out there. Yes it's high entry, but guys spend money on everything these days. Trucks, boats, etc. I'd be willing to pay a higher entry fee and keep it 40ish or so teams. In 2 years I don't think we finished higher than 4th in 6 total events, we cashed a check in 4 of 6 and made about 30k.

High money trail. No jackpotting. Bad economy. In competition with deer season, duck season, and the holidays. Doesn't surprise me in the least. I still like the concept of this trail but it obviously needs some adjustments. Hope it survives this.

I was wondering why Jarrett fished the last team standing last weekend. My little girl and I went to the auction at the stump and I saw your name. Thought you should be at choke. lol...Looks like yall did pretty good at Rayburn and made some money.

Got to require full pay at teh beginning. That way if guys want to back out they can and the pot would still be good and if 10 guys show up so be it

Not sure if it’s the best trail out there when they are cancelling championships? Basschamps never cancelled a championship, I understand their entry is not that high but gosh sure gives them a bad look IMO. I wouldn’t fish it knowing their liable to cancel the championship AGAIN! But that’s just me!

I was curious, so I looked at the TTO ProTeam FB page. They turned off commenting, that seems a bit odd to me.

I don't find it odd at all. They don't need a bunch of internet hacks bad mouthing their circuit. They have had some success with it and hopefully they can continue to grow on it and continue to be around.