How do you know they don’t pick up a big sponsor to cover it?? Finally a true professional sport!

In this current sponsorship environment? 3-4 milllion? Lol, ok man… Jesus Mary and Joseph that’s funny.

Dude your time on the forum has come and gone. Your credibility takes a [censored] every time Boyd Duckett opens his mouth.

Lol, my credibility is just fine and has nothing to do with MLF or a member of their staff. Don’t get mad at me for simply pointing out the obvious in their move. If you want to jump up and down about it, please feel free. But don’t let me spin you out and trigger you. Cheers.

Several guys have posted their pay for this year using next years structure, it doesn't look to good for them. Foutz finished 4th this year, and with everything being equal, only changing the no entry fees and different pay structure, he would have made almost $35k less than he did this year. There is going to be a bunch of guys hurting next year.

Uhhh, thats not good...

How many "pros" are really struggling financially?

How many of you earn significantly less but still claim these pros are starving?

Why have nearly all BASS anglers refrained from disclosing their income—specifically their actual earnings from the industry we support, not just their tournament winnings?

I’d bet that the number of anglers ending the year in the red is much lower than many believe.

These anglers have four options: accept the status quo without protest, question and challenge the organizations, leave to start their own leagues or step away from "pro" fishing altogether.

The way some of you criticize Mark Jones as if he’s clueless is quite amusing. He’s undoubtedly the most knowledgeable person on this forum regarding the fishing industry’s organizational, logistical, and operational aspects. If some of you self-proclaimed experts would listen for a change, you might learn something valuable.

I bet more than you think given the fact they dont make that much money and average sponsor money for most is pretty light (sub 50K). Just look at the above example and thats from someone who had a great year and he didnt even net 6 figures. Add sponsor money and personally I would call that stuggling and its def struggling with the even lower payouts.


I imagine just like the info rule the payouts will be changed soon with all the heat they have gotten from their "employees"

Let’s see how many drop there spots since it so bad and the are already broke?

I don’t know why you cry baby fishing forum MFR’S even follow the sport

I think its the people that are the ones competing that are doing the crying. I personally could care less

I think they will raise payouts but this is a conservative effort to get started so that it has a possibility of staying this way. They could have done like MLF and overpromised only to take it back. Its change so it will be met with negativity and i get it on the payout part. What guys need to realize is at some point to make this happen those sponsor dollars that pay entries have to switch to the company in order to make the payouts go up. That wont happen overnight and the guys that have bigger deals will complain because they are soaking up that money. In order for no entries the way sponsorship works will have to change atleast a little. MLF wasnt wrong in their approach to how it should work but they didnt allow time for that money to get switched from anglers to the league and broke themselves. Doing it this way allows the room to stay without entries and get the growth needed to improve the payouts. Theoretically any way. In the bass fishing community guys will complain anyway.
One main issue anglers have is this has always been a personal sales type structure, the league is the platform for yourself. That will HAVE to change if they want this to succeed. The saleman approach will still carry some weight but now the best fishermen will have the opportunity to rise to the top without the sponsor burden being so huge. What Foutz fails to recognize is the year before he was complaing and almost quitting due to entries and that burden wouldnt be there with the new system. So that 45k or whatever he was in the hole last year would still be in his pocket and that video wouldnt have ever been made. It will take more than a year for this to work right
Like i said, theoretically i can work it out in my head, what happens in reality will depend on many factors, including if the anglers can accept change and whether they like it or not, help the league gain the funding to increase payouts

I like foutz, I think he is an outstanding fisherman. The problem with him is he thinks you should just be able to fish for a living. I'm not sure that model works now or really ever has. It's like he is a great chef in the middle of nowhere and refuses to advertise so nobody eats at his place. He is just refusing to adapt to the reality of his chosen profession.

Foutz’s layout is eye opening for sure , in his case less is clearly not more.


Shell game comments seem spot on ….this clown concedes to bear [censored] and Jones

Another perspective. I like Foutz and Birge. Birge has expressed no loyalty to either major tourney organization historically and has called out MLF numerous times. He seems to gravitate toward what makes the most business sense (as he should). He understands the outdoors industry and realizes multiple streams of income from diverse sources both on the fishing side and hunting.