I know there are those who think it is give a ribbon to everyone but that is really not the case, There are a lot of good trails out there that are competeing for our tournament dollars. Top loading the top spots with the majority of the money is fine but Tournament business would seem to be driven by Numbers you can get to your event, in this case it is the numbers of fishermen a company gets for its events. You have to ask yourself,what do we have to do to be better, to get more guys and gals here, that answer is spreading the money, As a example, 5,000 for 1st, 3,000 for second and 2,000 for 3rd. You have your big bass money and that leaves you 5,000 to spread around through 4th to what ever you think will make people come, I just think in the long run the deeper you pay the more that will draw people to your event, The more people you get the more you can get from sponsors and so on. I know there are those who will say well fish to win it and dont fish and so on but this business seems to need the majority and those are being guys who work in the week and fish events on the weekends,there is a lot of us out here and far out number the few who want it all in the top few slots.

It seems like the BLT and Bass n Bucks are ran by good folks and I just like to see good folks have success and be rewarded for hard work and time put into there companys. I guess the question is to your market to 20% or do you market to 80%. Good luck and I look forward on fishing my first BLT in Jan.

I have fished BNB for the last 5 years but not fishing Rayburn series this year. I think their is some other thing they need to change with their tournament circuit beside payout. They need to put the lake off limits all week till tournament day . They also need to make it that the teams that qualify for the championship physically fish all the 5 tournaments not just pay their entry fee and qualify for the championship. I am a weekend warrior and will never get to do this for a living.

well its not basschamps, i think its good that they allow practice as do most trails.

Economy is a huge part. Lots are fishing less. Either having to work more or just do not have the funds. That does not appear to be changing soon. Likely its going to get worse with Obama care on the horizon and employers cutting employees back in hours. I suspect that will trickle down through the entire economy.

Its going to be hard for some trails to weather the storm.

RangerZ521,
I appreciate your thoughts and I wanted to provide some thoughts for you to consider about Championship qualifications.

* In the (distant) past boat sponsors for many of the larger trails provided free boats for the Championships. To my knowledge this is not being done anymore for any tournament program. When free boats were provided the tournament owner could hold a Championship tournament and not charge an entry fee and give away the boat. Only those who were in the top YTD standings could enter. Today these boats must be purchased and they are not cheap even when they are provided at at a discount as part of the sponsorship. If 100 teams enter a Championship at $200 that equals $20,000 to purchase the boat and that will not even come close to buying a 20' fully loaded bass boat, trailer, 200 motor, electronics, etc. Plus, who would pay $200 to enter a tournament, if only the winner gets the boat because all the entry fee would go to pay for the boat. There would be no money to pay out other places.

* Sponsors are a big part of todays tournament programs. Without their support, there would not be the generous Champiosnhip payouts that anglers enjoy today. The BLT / BNB program gave away 2 $45,000 boats to the winners of the Grand Championship this year on Texoma. Thats $90,000 paid out with only 80 or so teams paying $200 to enter the tournament. The entry fees provided approximately $16,000 to pay for the boat less 85% of this amount which was paid out to the other places. In other words, if it were not for all our sponsors, only a few thousand dollars would have been avaiable to pay the winning anglers.

* Our sponsors are comprised of local and national businesses that sell their products to the anglers. These businesses either sell their products directly to the anglers or they sell to the stores who sell directly to the anglers. If no one is allowed on the lake, due to an off limits rule, who is going to be buying gas, tackle, food, lodging and other items provided at these local businesses. In todays economy, tournament owners must consider, not only the angler, but the businesses that support the anglers in their tournaments.

* We do require that anglers at least enter 4 of our 5 tournaments or finish in the top 50% of ytd weight rankings in order to qualify for our 5 Regional Championships. In order to provide decent payouts we need angler entry fees in these Championships. We have reduced the qualifications from 5 to 4 tournaments so that some anglers who do miss an event can still make the championship(s). If it were not for the larger angler turnouts we have had at our Championships we would not be able to provide the additional $200,000 in sponsor prizes in those tournaments. Only by the combination of 100% of our sponsorships being passed on to our anglers, angler participation and the our tournament program allocating 10% of the entry fees for the Championship prizes, are we able to provide over $200,000 in additional prizes in these Championships. If we only had one Championship, that anglers in Texas and Louisiana could enter, we feel many anglers would not make the drive with gas prices at the current levels.

In summary, we value your thoughts and we are hopeful you will try and understand why we have set our program up this way. However, if the majority of our anglers want change, we are listening.

Thanks,
BLT/BNB staff

BLT/BNB, keep up the excellent work!

So sounds like guys who didn't weigh, didn't vote.
As everyone knows, there are some of the most competitive local fisherman on Rayburn who would vote for 100% going to first place. They don't fish for second. As they should, they always believe they are going to win every tournament. Nothing wrong with that:
BUT for numbers, instead of having a guaranteed first place in specific dollar amounts, e.g. $8,000 for 1st, etc. Would it be smarter to guaranteed a percentage of the pot... say 50% of the 80% payback for first.. The other 50% could be used to pay the 1 in 7 places. This would keep the TD's from losing money on a guaranteed payout if (when) they had a low turnout.

I have fished several BLT tournaments and they are one of the best at listening to their customers, so would like to see them make enough to stay in the business.

"* Our sponsors are comprised of local and national businesses that sell their products to the anglers. These businesses either sell their products directly to the anglers or they sell to the stores who sell directly to the anglers. If no one is allowed on the lake, due to an off limits rule, who is going to be buying gas, tackle, food, lodging and other items provided at these local businesses. In todays economy, tournament owners must consider, not only the angler, but the businesses that support the anglers in their tournaments. "


I am glad that BLT/BNB mentioned this aspect of tournaments. Many people do not realize what it takes to bring a tournament to a lake. The organizers are looking at ways to reduce their expenses and MAYBE even pass on the money. When a Chamber of Commerce or town or community PAY to have a tournament at their lake then they EXPECT some of the Anglers to return their investment back to the community. (Hotels, Meals, Gas, Tackle, etc...) And, If a Tournament Organization has to pay for those extra's like meals and rooms then that cuts into their bottom line. The concept of Off Limits is a very controversial one. On one hand EVERYBODY has the ability to pre-fish but the belief is that the Locals have an advantage. But EVERYBODY CAN prefish. This will help bring back money into the community and the communities tend to prefer NO Offlimits. On the other hand With no off limits it keeps everybody off the lake for a period of time. In this case it can still be to the Local's advantage since they HEAR stuff and probably know the lake more intimately so they are not really hindered and Offlimits would not "even out the playing field". Probably a compromise of practice for 2-3 days before the tournament WITH a paid entry would maybe be more acceptable. The old BassNBucks did it and that seemed to work. If you have a tournament trail with people fishing from far distances it would still allow them the opportunity to prefish some before the tournament. (AND bring in MORE money for the community!) But the Bad thing about prefishing is that you run the risk of HURTING your tournament fish!!!!

DHolding understands business! It's basically who cares if you make 2 people mad if you make 3 people happy. Of course, we'd like to make all 5 happy but that just isn't possible.

Let me point out another thing here...sponsors want to not only see numbers at a tournament, but they want to see the "right numbers". "Right numbers" referring to the guys that have a disposable income and will spend it . It basically does no good to have 500 anglers fishing your tournament if they are all either broke dick$ or tight a$$e$ that aren't going to splurge and spend money. Generally speaking, the locals are guys that don't have the high paying job and they are conservative with their money. They use their winnings to live on. Us weekend warriors pi$$ off every bit of winnings and then some on tackle, cool gear, sports drinks, high tech electronics, power poles, etc.

So not only do you want to cater to you the majority, you want the majority to be the guys that are going to support the sponsors and industry by spending money. If you give them money by letting them get a sniff of it every now and then they spend it all and more!

I know my concept of tournament return is different than most because I do consider a larger investment in the tournament. Sure I could factor in my boat note, truck note, and some of the other distant costs but I tend to stick to the tournament entry fee, gas for the tournament and hotel room and meals. If I am prefishing this can really run into some costs with the practice days for boat gas. I prefer the last place check to be double the entry at a minimum but would really like to see triple but that might be stretching it with the tournament payback nowdays. Sure we will NEVER get to the point where we are in the BLACK for each tournament but maybe at the end of the year it will be easier to justify to fish the next year if we make a little money but maybe not break even. There does have to be a factor of enjoyment or it just becomes a job and then it is no good!!! (Just don't figure gas into that!!! It will NEVER Balance out unless your're KVD or with a Gas Card Sponsor!!! )

Who WON the the tournament???

LOL!!! Good Point!!!
No Money Posted but on a previous post I think they paid 10 places and 10th got big bass and Sponsor Product. 81 teams fished.

http://www.bassnbucks.com/2013_Results/2013BnBRayburn1.pdf

1 SHELBY SHAW-LANCE HUGHES 22.71
2 RAY LIVINGSTON-BILL ROGERS 22.38
3 TROY REED-ALBERT COLLINS 21.30
4 KRIS WILSON-CHARLES BEBBER 19.89
5 JEFF WISE-DERRICK SHOFFITT 19.05
6 BILLY CLINE-RAYMOND BALCEROWICZ 18.96
7 CHRIS MCCALL-CLAYTON BOULWARE 18.03
7 CHARLES SHOFNER-CHRIS DELVALLE 18.03
9 MICHAEL LOWERY-LANCE LOWERY 17.78
10 JONATHAN GARRIE-CASEY SOBCZACH 11.17*BB 17.75
11 JORDON MCMORRIS-MITCHELL JERNIGAN 17.38

Look bass fisherman are never gonna be happy, myself included. They are all trying to improve, but I do believe it's the economy and the tournaments have overrun Rayburn with too many choices......Bass Champs is trying the 3 fish deal to give everyone better chances of gettin paid with the fish, I still belive at Rayburn 75% of the checks will go to the same guys every tournament, look at Johnathan and Casey in BASSNBUCKS, if it would have been champs the 11 pounder and two keepers probably would have won, then everyone would have complained they won because they caught an eleven. Anglers Quest is something we fish because they always have a decent payout, they get just enough teams to pay first well and still give ok money down the line. My deal with BASSNBUCKS, why I say get on the bangwagon is the more participants they get the more money they will pay, they have long term goals that they have shared with us at the Monkey and they have the resources and the backing to make it bigger and better. But we have to support them and give them a little time! They are trying to listen and thats important. The off-limits deal is all about money from the local towns, it's hard to sale your progarm if local businesses don't benefit throughout the week. My honest opinion is the guy or team that gets screwed the hardest is the one that places second. And I say that from FLW, Everstarts, Opens, Bass elite, to the local trails at Rayburn! When you beat all these sticks in a Champs with 200 boats, you get your feelings hurt by that second place check! Lol! It is what it is I hope it gets better, I'M sure Clayton and I will be there regardless.

Big Ron I am impressed. I agree with what you say, believe it or not. Yes, we were one of the teams that managed to get a $300 check and it was better than nothing. I personally voted for the non guarantee after they had it split and I looked at it on paper. The top 3 on the "Guarantee" are good paybacks, but if you happen to stump your toe and still catch a good sack and end up in the top 4-10, it would be nice to get a tad bit more back. Bottom line is this, the majority has spoken and I respect the decision. We all know what the format is going to be on both the payback and the trailering. (Lost my vote on that one too.... LOL) If a person does not like it he does not have to fish. As for me and my partner, we will be at most any "tournament" from a $10 fruit jar jack pot to the biggest that makes it to Rayburn, as will the normal 25-35 regular teams that always are. The guys at Bud Light are doing everything in their power to make this a circuit that is for the fisherman and not a "dicataorship" tha say here is how it is- like it or leave it. Mr. Davis, Bryan , and Chris are true business men that really trying to make this circuit work and all they need is some time, good feedback, and TEAMS to show up.. Oh and lastly Big Ron- just have to ask... DID Pro Ford tell you all this and you just not giving him credit? LOL...