BPT Championship day!

Will not be on fork but lake Athens will be 1st time this year that Championship day is on a different lake.
Probably don't want all the spectator boats following the top 10!

Your thoughts

Well that’s a novel idea and is probably believable to the less in tune anglers.

Truth is the finish isn’t on a weekend because the viewership is probably a whole lot higher on a weekday.

But keep that tin foil cap handy in case they admit it’s to keep people from finding out those pro’s “hot spots”

several years ago,there was a BASS open on lake lanier...the tournament leader going into the last day was a contributor to the old bass fishing home page and he told us later that so many spectator boats (with depthfinders on) crowded around him at his first stop that his depthfinder screen just turned black and he couldn't find the deep brushpiles he was trying to fish..he said he finally got enough of the boats to turn off their depth finders for him to catch enough fish to win but has soon as he would leave one spot,boats would move onto and start fishing it....I believe he said 15-20 boats and this was a BASS open,probably would have been a lot more boats if it had been an elite tournament....
got to believe that if any of us were fishing for $100,000.,we would appreciate not having to contend with spectator boats....

Oh, that could be interesting considering all the sharelunkers were turned in from that place last year (yes I'm considering the 8lbers too)

Ryan Coleman?

Pretty sure it was Coleman. I lived in ATL and fished Lanier with him many times. He was fishing with shaky heads (Spot Stickers) and Fish Head Spins way before they caught on here in TX. We used to fish the chatterbait over his deep brush piles way before anyone in TX knew what the chatterbait was. He had the deep (40ft+) brushpiles dialed in and it was fun learning a different way to fish.

I think it was ryan coleman….

OP I think you meant to say that Championship day is on a different "LAKE" not "Day" . They have done this a few times last year, they may be doing it speculating that it may be a bed fishing tournament and give the guys some fresh fish, and also to show off a small lake when they only have a 10 boat field.

Can someone post a link? I can’t find anything on this

Did you check the MLF website?

https://majorleaguefishing.com/feat...ange-for-stage-three-championship-round/

Man that’s bittersweet. I took vacation to site fish Athens that week. On one hand I’m excited to watch them, on the other hand I’m sure they’ll beat the hell out of the bed fish.

Well athens is fixing to get blasted

I'm not a fan of the changing lakes deal. Never have been for the tour events. Especially last minute like this. Just feels like a gimmick. Wish they would save the gimmicks for the cup events. To me, this discounts preparation and fish management which are huge parts of tournament bass fishing.

You mean like the old BASS mega bass event's

I mean like any event. No matter who puts it on. You know a person can have an opinion without it turning into a BASS vs MLF pissing match. It's ridiculous that you have to qualify every damn statement on here with a disclaimer that "I dont hate BASS" or 'I dont hate MLF".
Goodness

somebody will win it deeper on Athens

Or the bassmaster majors mid-2000's or for that matter the mystery lake deal BASS used to do, actually the first classic was mystery lake wasn't it

I wonder how they’ll navigate around the local pressure.. I think they underestimated the amount of boats on a normal day plus the traffic they’ll bring bring there.

Who said it was last minute when did they make this decision?
I know for a fact Marty Stone mentioned it during the Okeechobee coverage I don't remember which day it was he talked like it was well known and was determined some time ago.
So you might want to do some fact checking before saying it is a last minute gimmick. Also the lack of preparation It supposed to be more of a challenge that way.

That can be said for any lake they go to and most, if not all, of these guys have fished Fork on weekends at one time or another with BASS or TTBC. Nothing special about this week and they put less boats on the water anyway. Final days happen during the week, so that lightens traffic as well.

Amen Brother!

What does Big O think about this ?

You were so anxious to nit pick that you missed his point. He is not a fan of tournaments changing lakes for 1 day. Last Minute or not.

Who cares if they are challenged. I want to see big fish caught and plenty of them. These tournaments restricting practice or putting it 3 days before or changing lakes to one they don’t practice on is terrible for viewing. I don’t want to watch the angler struggle all day. I get a front row seat to that each weekend.

Who says you're not going to see them caught on Athens? The thing hasn't even happened yet and you're just as anxious as the person you're chastising above. Let the event play out and then you can come back here and voice your approval or lack thereof.

Who Said I missed his point I just commented on what he said I think you missed his point.
if his point was he is not a fan of tournaments changing lakes for 1 day last Minute or not. then why not simply say just that, but he chose not to instead he chose to call the move a gimmick. A obvious weak jab at The BPT so I chose to call him out you did not like that I take it. So you tried to make a week point about me missing his point.
So what is your next post oping to be about? Let me make this point if you dont like BPT just be a adult about at let us that do watch it in peace with out the weak jabs and snarky immature comments.

They will crush on both lakes the way it’s setting up...both lakes are getting right

Seriously, that really sucks that they are going to Athens. I fished Fork the last two days and am going to Athens tomorrow (before I heard) . Them being there on the finals will probably ruin that lake for a couple years. I will be good for TV though.

SE Kansas grass grower (retired)

Weather looks like it could be rainy and stormy some of the days too, maybe that will keep Athens from getting pantsed too bad

You can't kill Athens. It gets as much pressure as anywhere already

It will a cool experience for the kids who go see the guys at the fisheries center

Ummm you did miss my point M sherman. And I did say I'm not a fan of tournaments changing lakes. It's the first thing I said in my original post. You let your emotions get all worked up and ceased to even read what I said. I do think its a gimmick. I stand by that 100%, but I would think that if it was BASS, FLW, or Joe Blow hillbilly tournament trail making the decision. It takes the whole week of working a lake, learning the conditions, managing the fish and throws all that experience out the window. I find the notion that switching lakes in an event "shows who the most skilled anglers are" as comical. It shows who is lucky or who has prior experience on the lake. Nothing more. I'm not asking you to agree with my opinion. And ITS NOT A JAB AT MLF. It's a jab at the decision. It is ok to have an independent thought. You don't have to agree with 100% of what an organization does to watch their content. Just for your information I have watched most of the content MLF has ever put out. Both cup events and the BPT. So be careful what you read into things. Your supposition skills are pretty weak.

Its a game, traditionalist freak out when someone decides to change the rules, its still a game. Just like them changing to one center wheel nut in nascar next year from 5 lug nuts, if traditionalis had their way we would still be racing horse and chariot...

I personally like the Idea... you get to see more about how they breakdown the water and how they find fish instead of seeing them on fish they have already found. This starts them all off at a level playing field imo, they all start with no recent experience on the lake unless any of them decided to use a day of their prefishing to run over to athens instead of putting more time in on fork.

Athens gets better in the rain. Especially in the Spring...

My suspicions skills might be weak but my fact-checking skills are strong like the fact it was not a last minute decision even though you said it was now why would you blatantly lie like that surely not to take a week Jab at MLF Also way to gloss over that fact that you blatantly lied about it being a last minute decision in your last post and there's a ton more wrong with your last post but I'm not going to take the time to get into it. Also thank you for taking a week jab at my suspicions skills but if I had to choose I take fact-checking skills over suspicions skills any day of the week.

That’s going to be pretty interesting. I read somewhere that the single lug nut became a necessity because they were switching to an aluminum wheel but can’t remember the details so I could be incorrect about it. I will be curious to see a pit stop regardless.

They were discussing the single lug deal on the Dale Jr Download the other day. They were saying the single lug setup was stronger than the 5 lug setup because of the aluminum wheels but I don't recall the exactly how much stronger they said it was.

They also said it would be an 18" wheel now instead of the 15" that has been used forever.