MLF has bought FLW?

they are reporting this on another forum...some are disputing the rumor and/or predicting there will be some sort of announcement after the FLW Cup this weekend....

Long awaited rumor

People have been talking and saying this for a while now , I don't know but its a really good rumor right now.

Johnny buying ever thing

Rumor ? I suspect CNN has something to do with it.

I heard it was the other way around... I heard Erwin Jacob's daughter bought them out with her inheritance... Dan

MLF bought FLW? Who GAF?

I mean really. "Professional" bass fishing is going the way of NASCAR. Fading fast in popularity and with no way to stop the tailspin they are throwing out gimmicks and hoping to take one last breath before slipping back into obscurity.

Best of luck competing with the 500k you tube googans making videos.

In a few years the biggest stars in bass fishing will have never backed a boat down a ramp, worn a jersey or been to a weigh in.

Its over Johnny.

Could be a lot of truth in that statement. Division of fans did not do any of them any good.

Oh my..... I'm scared there might be some truth to this.

I kind of agree. I went to the drive through for the Conroe MLF, it was a non-event. You already knew what they had caught that day, most of it was the standard "I could not do it without my _____________________". I've pretty much lost interest in all of them and I was a huge fan before the changes. I'll probably follow the FWC this week on Hamilton, but other than that I'll watch Bill Dance!

Think about this email.....

"For a head start on all the festivities, be sure to join us for FLW Pro Day at Bass Pro Shops (Little Rock, Memphis, Bossier City) and Greeson Polaris (Hot Springs) on Saturday, Aug. 3 from noon to 2 p.m. This is your chance to meet the FLW Cup pros as they prepare to compete on Lake Hamilton."

FLW pro day at BPS?

You really believe professional bass fishing is fading in popularity? I've not seen any data to back that up. In fact everything I have seen says just the opposite. There are more people involved in competitive bass fishing today than at any point in the past. To me the issue of division of fans and the popularity of the sport are really two different discussions. Is it possible that there are not enough fans to support three different tours? Absolutely! We don't have three different professional football leagues, baseball leagues, or basketball leagues. At least not three that last any time at all. I have no doubt that there will be some consolidation of these tours, but I don't personally believe it is because the sport is "Fading fast in popularity with no way to stop the tailspin".

Let me think of a better way to word it. But for the short term conversation, yes I do believe that the fishing industry sponsorship money is being stretched so thin that many guys will not be able to fish “professionally” in the near future. I don’t mean the guys that have businesses and fish on the side, I’m talking about the guys that only fish for their income.

Listening to a podcast today and the FLW rookie angler of the year said that he had ZERO sponsorships, this wouldn’t have been the case in years past.

Fishing used to be a fun low stress pleasure. I don’t see the joy in making it a business with high speed fishing, jerking bass out of the water as fast as they can. I too will watch Bill Dance.

All indications are the media stream is growing and both Bassmaster and MLF are in a shootout. Depending on the source one seems to think they are winning the battle, while MLF is a long way from knowing if it’s a success. The true outcome won’t be known till they air the shows on Discovery, Outdoor Channel and WFN.

The only thing we have seen of MLF and the Bass Pro Tour has been streaming media. As an MLF sponsor, and the original (#1) sponsor of MLF, they have definitely made a rotation on their original platform. None of us know if that is a success until those television shows of the BPT, and the next season of Cup events air.

On streaming media and online numbers both circuits are pretty much dead locked in the race. And Bassmaster numbers are still growing from where they were on 2018. We also are impressed with what Bassmaster has done to build that brand. They are refocusing on the membership, realigning themselves with Life Members and it appears that they will have a solid platform at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center for the 2020 Bassmasters Classic. Guntersville will treat them well and the crowd from Katie at the Guntersville CVB to Birmingham itself will be ready to shine. Bassmaster is growing again beyond their 510,000 members and they have a renewed focus. They have BASS Times at 135,000 circulation (est.) and Bassmaster in that 510,000 membership and printing about 560,000 Bassmaster magazines.

The Major League Fishing BPT Red Crest is coming in a few weeks at LaCrosse, WI and we expect them to have a minimal crowd for this first Championship. It is an outdoors affair and we don’t know what that crowd will be. That’s all fine as MLF is about television and instant media streaming counts. There’s no membership, no print publications and they are totally dependent on views and a viewership or fan base.

Moving to FLW which is primarily a tournament organization with around 50,000 members (estimate). They have the FLW Cup here in Arkansas this week. The crowds will be significant and somewhere between Bassmaster and MLF, we feel more towards MLF as FLW allows only non conflicting sponsor booths and thus participation among boats, engines and other companies are limited, which limits some involvement. Hot Springs will be pleased, and host well, and FLW will find a new base in the mayhem of angler fallout. They still focus strongly on the BFL and Costa/Everstart anglers and their co-anglers. They are a core angler driven organization and they are strong in their base. There is no challenge here to the other two (2) though there’s still a place as they figure out the Post Irwin era.

Give it time guys as the cards are still being dealt and we don’t know who holds the aces.

Our bet’s on Bassmaster to get their core membership behind them and grow stronger as time goes by. As for MLF, they are an amazing media group (Winnercom) and they are very talented with a staff that’s driven from the media company, the anglers are the draw card for the work the media company puts in.

It will be 20 months before we know what the card game is building like.

BCB

BCB, not sure if you will answer this but I’ll ask anyways. What are your thoughts on the Whitewater only rigs during cups/championships, will that sway your business away from some of the anglers sponsorships?

Lol what a perspective. You’ve clearly spent too much time with Chicken Little...

Well said and great viewpoints!

He does have a point Mark. Especially in the last sentence.

One or both tours have always been brand biased at some point, FLW has been Ranger since the beginning and Bassmaster has been different brands over the years, the Classic used to be all Rangers, then in the top 150 days you had to run a Skeeter on the final day and the early days of the elites had to run Triton on day 4. MLF just replaces FLW and the pissing match will continue and the sport will lose out with the failure of one unified top league.

Thanks for laying it out!

I am certain that you listen to BTL, did you listened to the Ike interview yet? What would happen if the anglers wanted exactly what Ike would like happen to see? Remember, it’s an angler vote league.

Haven't heard that show, haven't listened for awhile.

I am just telling you what I know mate. No money in pro fishing for sponsors. They do better by giving away a few baits to a few thousand Instagram or YouTube influencers who have maybe only 3-6k followers a piece but 85% of those followers buy what their Instagram and YouTube heros tell them is good.

Thats MUCH cheaper and more effective than sponsoring guys on tour.

Look at NASCAR same thing. 7 time champ lost his sponsor. Most popular driver lost his sponsors. Dozens of big name sponsors gone for good...why? NO ROI. They were not in it for the love of the sport. They wanted to make money and they could not. BASS, FLW MLF whatever... same deal mate.

How does it play out when the primary tour sponsor owns the trail?

Same deal with NHRA. Army chose not to renew Tony Schumacher so one of the best top fuel drivers didnt drive this year. No team no racing. No matter what anyone else says I agree, it's coming. Dollars are wearing thin.

We'll just have to disagree. There's ROI here for both endemics and non-endemics and there's never been more sponsorship and influencer money in the space than now. Now for those who can't sell or don't have platforms, I'm sure it's tough. But for those who know what they're doing and understand the business development process, there's plenty of money to go around.

And to be clear, the YouTuber's are good for the sport as well and the competition for marketing dollars means that those who survive do so on meritocracy and that in my opinion is fantastic. If you're a professional angler with no brand, no platform and you're trying to make it in this sport it SHOULD be hard to find sponsorship dollars. That's why building brand and platforms and figuring how out to also win is such a rare deal. If you can do that, then you get paid in this sport. Period.

The sky ISN'T falling...

You could be right. I am just kind of playing devils advocate. The future might well be something in between what both of our views are.

If You Tube guys bring people into the sport thats great! If pros do that. Its great. I love fishing. Not just bass fishing. All kinds of fishing. I want kids and young people to get into it. Whatever it takes. Likely its a bit from column A and a bit from column B.

I'm just sitting here trying to figure out how this is all going to effect me.

Dan

Juts for discussion but whats the possibility of MLF or BASS bringing in or sponsoring the Googan guys for more exposure?
I for one don't much care for any of the Googans or professional fishing circuits cause when i watch them i get that feeling you get when someone knocks on your door trying to sell you something.
Still wouldn't mind trading paychecks with them though

Less than zero

reason?

Better recheck that number; the BPT is already doing things with the Googans and then you add on all the Googans that are in the FLW. Googans are big on YouTube though and Ducketts said he wasn’t doing YouTube because it conflicts with his sponsors, not sure. If that would mess up anything between them, doubtful it would.


I have not heard of any Googans fishing in BASS, but I could be wrong on that. Mark Jones would prob know.

A lot of the youtubers don't fish the tournament trails because they make a better living doing YouTube videos.

its sad to see lakes just be raped of the smaller fish .Hard to say how much damage its doing to the fish .take the size to 3 pounds ! These guys will have to target bigger fish there by not catching as many.Its not fun to watch guys catch fish after fish none weighting over 4 pounds and very few over 2

If 80 guys fishing a couple of days on a lake and are releasing them as soon as they catch them is destroying a lake then I'm betting that lake had serious issues already. I bet they catch less than 1% of the fish population over the course of an event.

You are correct on BPT but the Googan play there is around the Favorite Rods relationship with MLF not the Googans directly. To my knowledge there’s no BASS relationship and it’s doubtful the properties would lean into the Googans or pay them their asking price. The Googans have priced themselves out of the market for most endemics and or alienated themselves from them anyway.

You have a PETA sticker on your Prius don't you...

I don't know the name of a single "googan". Which ones fish Flw. I would like to look up their tournament finishes.

Scott Martin, finished 4th in AOY for FLW.
Jacob Wheeler, finished 4th in AOY for BPT.

question What is a googan?

Scott Martin has business interest with them but I don't think either of those are googan squad.

So you'd rather them go to a lake with bigger fish and rape them instead? Makes sense

Googan refers to a rogue fisherman: A fishing term for lowlife, shore fishermen who bait fish typically without a license, regard to regulations, and etiquette towards other people, especially other fishermen following the rules.

https://googansquad.com/

The name and the term is genius really given who the target market is for the YouTube influencers.

Monty Wright, what does how Scott and Jacob finished have to do with the googan kids? I thought the googans were just youtube dorks. I didn't know any of them fished FLW. That's why i asked there names. I would like to see if they actuall cash checks.

I thought they were the top Googans, head Googans if you will. My mistake

No, they are real tournament fisherman. Not some dbags with a go pro

I assumed they were affiliated with googan baits, poor name selection on their part I guess... haha

I don’t know Martins role, I think he is the bait designer (or the one to pull the strings anyways) I might be wrong; but I do know he has some kind of connection.

I think Brian Lattimer also has some kind of connection, could have sworn Wheeler also had something to do with them. I could be wrong, I don’t keep up with it too much.


I also had no clue that these kids were able to name their price, that is insanity to me!

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Affiliated with them and being part of them are 2 different things. Grout scout said some of the googans fished FLW. I'm waiting to hear who that is.

You said the googan squad fished FLW. Scott and BLat aren't part of them.

Jarrett you gotta understand what the guy meant in all seriousness. Clearly he is saying sore mouthing 30 - 50 fish a day is a bad thing and is more likely to happen when an angler can "weigh in" 1 pounders. There are not any lakes near you and I that the majority of the MLF tournament field can sore mouth as many 3+ pound fish for 4-6 days.

[quote=cbeathard]reason?[/quote


Because they are just kids with go pros. Not professional tournament anglers

I'm still waiting to hear from GS which of the "googan squad" fishes FLW

None and they won't fish tournaments because they make more money making YouTube videos.

The googans are entertainers that used clickbait titles to lure in viewers to watch their videos. Their videos are entertainment, just like television shows, that use all the tactics to capture an audience. Their main audience happened to be the young and impressionable. Dustin Connell, jacob wheeler, scott martin, brian latimer, and others, are professional bass anglers who have deals with Googan baits. The Googans were able to start their company from capturing one audience, and are sponsoring professional anglers to capture another audience.

Ummm, I think that is called building a business and then expanding it, at least that's what we call it where I come from.
Good on them

I will just continue fishing my pro circuit of one. I win every tournament I enter, my entry fee is gas and ice and I occasionally even catch a DD. My boat will run 70+ but seldom even gets over 55. I guess I'm getting old and just don't give a S%@T. I buy gear I like and that works for me not because some yahoo on tv says its the best or because he wouldn't have won without it. I don't chomp at the bit to buy the newest electronics or upgrades, I let other people guinnea pig it for me then buy what works the best. I couldn't name 10 people on the pro tour anymore because while everyone is watching I'm out fishing. Rant Over

Well I guess if being on the Googans prostaff, being a partner in their baits and promoting their rods doesn’t make you part of the Googans, then none of them do. To me, if you’re a partner, part owner or are using their products, you are a Googan. If you promote their videos or ride their coattails, you are a Googan. In my opinion, all the guys using favorite rods...are Googans.


Now, I’m going to be out of phone service for the next couple of days to argue with you, so I hope you can survive when I can’t respond to you as quickly as you’d like.


Edit: I was thinking about this whole thing and maybe I 100% completely misunderstand this whole Googan thing??? Do these Googan kids own the Googan baits & favorite rods Or was this just a case where they didn’t trademark the Googan name and everyone else is now using it because of their popularity? For example, is Scott Martin a partner with these guys or does he have the partnership with someone else and he just stole the name?

Mark Daniels Jr. and Dustin Connell also lmao. BUT they aren't googans i think they just all have common sponsors IE favorite.

I'm not sure who owns favorite rods or googan baits. Or what they have to do with it. But when the question of would the googan squad get an invite to fish BPT or Bass. I said less thsn zero because i think of the googans as just the group of jackwagons that make the videos. Not everyone who uses favorite rods or googan baits

This thread took a turn into the ditch, but reading the googan comments crack me up. The googans probably started as just some kids who liked to fish and made a few videos doing it. Turns out they found a huge market of younger fishermen who absolutely love their content. I say good for them turning that market into an amazing business. Let's be honest, making fishing videos with your buddies and getting paid for it isn't the worst way to make a living! I don't think any of the googans have a desire to be involved in professional bass fishing. Maybe at one time they did but the reality hit them very early on that they could make WAY more money making videos. I have two young boys that love bass fishing. They would watch then rewatch every googan squad video before they turn on a single MLF, BASS, or FLW tournament. There is a big market for what the googans do, and they laugh all the way to the bank knowing that all the old grumpy bass guys are pissed, bitter and confused as to how they became so popular. Think I' wrong? Go spend a few days at the Fun and Sun show they do every winter. Watch the crowds they have when the MLF and BASS pros come and speak....Then watch the crowd on the day that the Googans come. That will answer any question you have about their popularity.

Yes, ditched with both front fenders banged up...

On its side in the ditch, didn't it start out talking about FLW being bought?

got it thanks

there's professional fishing,....who woulda guessed ??

I didn't know scott martin was a googan but I'm sure his dad was.

From what I’ve heard Scott Martin bought into ownership with Googan. Some other guy owns Favorite rods. He just sponsors all of them.kinda teamed up.

None of the kids fish a circuit. But several pros are now sponsored by googan baits. I think this is the confusion.