Breaking News....Classic Moved to June

You heard it hear first!

going to be a lot of dead fish

Just as the temps get warmed up pretty good!

There is a reason all the Summer tourneys are up North!

Are a few floaters worth the spin and the fame?

How to kill a fishery by BASS....Host a 3 day tournament with post spawn fish right when the water hits the upper 80’s, then haul them 65 miles one way to weigh in and 65 miles back to the lake several hours later. I really wouldn’t care if they weren’t hauling them to Ft Worth and back.. as excited as I was for the classic to be here, I’d rather them go somewhere else now.

I was REALLY looking forward to spending my birthday at the classic expo. But I’m with you. They are going to decimate the fishery with fish kills.

My thoughts exactly

This is sad. They will kill the piss out of them. They need to do an onsite weigh in. Its going to take them 2 hours to get to weigh in once they have been riding in a little livewell half the day. The fishery is already struggling for big fish. Hate to see this but BASS doesnt care. Its just money.

Any chance of changing the weigh in location?
UNT Coliseum "The Super Pit" in Denton?
Comerica Center or The Star in Frisco?

Why not onsite weigh in.

My guess is that this is just the first of many many changes coming this year. We will have a whole new wave of federal lockdowns coming by the end of the month. Who knows where that will lead. I agree 100% that June is a really bad idea from a conservation standpoint. I understand why businesses don't want to commit big money to an EXPO that will likely have attendance restriction. Either leave it where it is and cancel the EXPO, move it up North, or just cancel it all together. It all sucks but that is just where we are as a world right now.

Even better.

Wonder if they could be talked into weighing the fish on the boat?

It will prob be moved again. COVID will be in full swing in June.

I'm not a fan of the offsite weigh in for fish care, but its a 54 boat field, if everyone caught a limit everyday you are talking 600 fish. I'm not a wildlife and fisheries biologists, but wouldn't it have to be a pretty drastic kill rate to decimate the fishery?

They need to do what MLF did with redcrest, move to another fishery, up north preferably if they are going to have it in JUNE. Let Ray Roberts host the 2022 Classic in the winter/spring. If not RIP all the RR big fish caught in this event.

You obviously don't fish Ray Roberts.

Terrible decision to have this even in Texas in June. Even early June.

You obviously do. How many dead fish would it take to decimate your fishery?

Not too many. It's already on a struggling downward cycle because of pressure and TPWD lack of concern to stock it. The big ones are easiest to catch in June. Its hard enough to keep em alive in team tournaments in June let alone a 2 hour drive through rush hour construction traffic to Ft worth then sit in another 2 hour line waiting to get weighed in on stage. Then another ride back to the lake. I wont beat a dead horse much more though. Money talks. It's not about the fishery. Hopefully they are smart and do an onsite weigh in.

I would think overall.it would have less impact than a Bass Champs or TTT tournament there. Full field of 50 fishes 2 days then cut in half for final day. Looking at less than half a Champs/TTT field total impact.

this is kinda what I was thinking also!

Buda, you need to lobby to have the fish at weigh in, released in Lake Worth:) That would dramatically reduce the stress and dead fish!

Some of y'all being way over dramatic. Even if every angler killed a limit everday that's 665 fish. It's not a 50 acre pond. It wouldn't decimate the lake

Bass Champs last June weighed 433 fish. Comparable? Absolutely numbers of fish wise to the classic. Difference is champs didn’t then have all 433 of those fish hauled around for an extra 2 hours before even weighing them. I do want to be clear I have zero issue with the tournament being held in June, my issue is with hauling them 65 miles one way to weigh em.

54 Elites aren't going to ruin the fishery in one weekend.

So you are comparing weekenders abilities to the pros Not to mention Ray Roberts fishes small ALL the time so a 200 plus boat field and a 50 boat field is night and day difference with your ability to move around and catch them ESP in June since Matt was talking about Champs.

We shall see but I doubt all 50 catch a limit each day nor do I think gobs and gobs of 6lb and larger fish will be caught. Not comparing abilities at all. Just looking at angler numbers. Those 200-300 boat team events can have up to 600 lines in the water in one day. This whole event will have 125 total lines in the water spread out over 3 days.

Its just my opinion. Nothing more. I just have my doubts the Classic kills Roberts.

BASS has a first rate live release boat that will be able to carry the 50 limits, if there is that many, with no problem. If you get to one of their elite events take a few minutes to view that boat. 4 pontoons to carry the weight over the road. And they will only be going one way. Back to the lake because going to the weigh in will be in their live wells.

Seems like it might be a good idea to see if this tease is factual, and if it is, what else they might announce.

Ridiculous, the Covid cases aren’t going away for years, might as well cancel the event now. I guess they will attempt to have it outdoors, yeah that won’t work being 103 degrees.


And as far as fish kills, mention BASS @ Falcon a few year’s back. Fish floating all over the place.

It won't kill it because you can't kill something that is already mostly dead...It was tough last year, too many people off work and too much pressure!

Its on www.bassmaster.com so I bet its factual.

You people are insane if you think one tournament is going to “decimate” the fish population. Way too many over dramatic Karen’s on here. SMH.

* here

I tend to disagree with this and agree with Barrett and others this is a dumb idea and was not thought out well at all from a conservation stand point. I also don't think it's comparable to a Champs event.

The last Champs event on Ray Roberts in June was 2019. Their stats showed 191 teams weighed in 435 fish. I would guess they lost around 20 fish but it could be more. For the Classic it would be 2 days of 50 limits or around 500 fish that are going to spend a bare minimum of 3 hours in live wells once they leave the lake. I would guess we are talking about at least a 35% mortality rate or 150 or more dead fish and most likely a LOT higher if the temps are warm enough. Will 150 fish kill a fishery that is 27,000 acres, nope. But, it sure as hell won't help and it's not like these guys are going to be weighing in a bunch of 2# younger class fish. They will average 3-4# per fish just like the top 20 or so did for Champs in that last event. So, we will lose 150 of our prime age adult fish in the lake and that is a BIG deal. Hopefully someone comes to their senses on this and they modify the weigh in some way.

You are saying all 50 competitors will weigh at least 15-20lbs daily all 3 days? Based on a 3-4lb average size weighed in you mentioned that would be the weights. I don't see that happening at all nor do I see everyone catching a limit each day.

Champs should have had about 950 fish weighed in if all teams had a limit. They didn't reach half of that. I don't think its gonna be an epic fish kill. I just don't.

As a higher up of tpwd said earlier to me on the phone "No matter what the long term effect this event has on the fishery the schematics of this is down right dumb when it comes to protecting our State resource." Its really not that complicated that driving 2 hours and then waiting another 1-1.5 hours to weigh in then driving back is stupid in texas summer heat.

I will leave it for you guys to debate though. I'm no fisheries biologist. I am just a dumb old fireman that likes to fish. I will get back in my own lane now.

agree......you're only talking about 5 fish per boat and B.A.S.S. has an over 90% survival rate........and if it's a hot day you can bet all those livewells will have ice to cool them down and the fish hauled back to the lake in a hatchery truck with oxgenated water...

Guys, the concerns are already reaching the proper people. I received a message from someone directly involved with the event that advised me fish care is their primary focus now that the date has been locked in. They are exploring many options with TPWD and some local fishermen involved. I feel a ton better about it after hearing that but would still really like to see them weigh at the lake and use video footage at the stadium. I’ve had my rant and put in my .10 worth. Lol. guess all that can be done now is sit back and see how it shakes out.

Maybe I am giving these pro's more credit than I should by saying they will all have limits for both days. But it is June and I would think the best 54 guys in the world would most likely have limits every day. Like you, I am not in this for some crazy debate, I just think this wasn't thought out very well.

I guess to hot for Texas motor speedway.

They used to have the classic in Late summer I think they will be ok and they know how to take care of fish.

No joke

Seems to me a good venue for the weigh in would be at Winstar. It is 34 miles to the Marina at RR from Winstar and there shouldn't be any traffic concerns. There would be plenty of rooms available plus they could do an outdoor weigh in where they normally set up the bull riding and the outdoor summer concerts. Would be able to do some sort of social distancing there plus you probably would not have to worry about it being shut down due to Covid. Just my 2 cents!!

Could be worse

I wonder if they'll have fish n chips at the arena???... Dan

Good luck on “federal lock downs” that won’t float here and won’t float with allot of other states governor’s as well.

Its all about money. Looks like Ft worth outbid them. Also Im not sure what the rules are for taking fish to another state and then back. Could def have something to do with it. Not sure.

If you want to see a big kill rate, just go to the fish cleaning station at Amistad after an Oilmans tournament. I personally observed multiple 72 qt coolers of bass being cleaned after the weigh-in. The fish were donated but those people running that tournament had it running like a canning factory.

I heard they debated about scheduling for August because they are all about the conservation not the money...whatever. They don’t care it’s not their resource they just need to cash their check.

So when was the last Elite tourney every fisherman (or at least the Top 50) weighed in a limit each day?

they should take pics of their biggest release them back into lake and walk on stage with card board cutouts have some water drip off the card board and Boom will look just like real fish-they did that at all sporting events and looked pretty cool lot better then empty seats!

TMS!, they are doing the weigh in at TMS?

It's a mudhole anyway

Your talking as if its a guarantee the fish will die. BASS has been doing this for a long time. To think thry don't know what there doing is a stretch. Talk about striking a match and hollering forest fire.

It's Roberts. Half of them are going to 0 anyway...

What BASS needs to do to satisfy all the Karen’s is make a large donation to restock the lake with Florida strain

Well, somebody needs to; how about 800,000 fingerling?

Yes but TPWD would never sign off on it.

Lol Karen's. This is about as bad as the political threads in the OT.

So holding a limit for a weigh in hot weather is a problem all of a sudden? next thing they'll talk us into catch an release.

I think I'm gonna join PETA and protest about all you macho dudes banging bass around in your livewells...

The weigh in bit should go. It is not conservation. With todays tech to photo a wieght?

This has been argued in our club for over 10 yrs now but the majority still want to weigh fish.

Not me tho

The problem is that they’ll be holding the weigh in too far from the lake during June temps, according to the consensus here. Not the weigh in itself.

While it may be a 2hr drive for us normal folk, it wont be for them. They will have a police escort from the ramp to the weight-in, no stop lights and cleared lanes of travel on the highways. The fish will also be escorted by police back to the lake. When the classic was on Grand and they weighted in at the BOK in Tulsa it took them right at an hour to make the 90 mile drive that normally would take 1h 30mins.

So the police escorted them at 90 MPH to the weigh in?


Now if you had said the "90 Minute normal drive" that could be understandable.

Grand Lake classic haul to Tulsa was in Feb, too. In June, there's no way that half the fish caught will survive down here in Texas summer heat after being hauled so far and water temps fluctuating back and forth for officials trying to keep the livewell water at a constant temp. I'd say mortality rate will be higher than 50% if they continue with this plan. With Covid, they may decide on a virtual Classic where video bass fishing will occur, and everybody ends up with participation trophies. They're saying that if Ike hollers "GIANT" more than 3 times during the tournament, that he will receive a medal, too, or at least a chest to pin it on.

I only helped at the BOK during the weight-in process, so what do I know........

They're saying that if Ike hollers "GIANT" more than 3 times during the tournament, that he will receive a medal, too, or a chest to pin it on.[/quote]


That's funny! if only he were fishing it

They should just donate the fish, all three days, to a food pantry. Multiple problems solved.

Same weekend as Skeeters owners?

skeeter owners is june 3rd-6th

#RIG