MLF/BPT taking votes......biggest 5 fish or every fish counts?

https://majorleaguefishing.com/bass...ld-you-prefer-for-the-mlf-bass-pro-tour/

You just have to laugh at that

I wonder if the housewives will vote???

Several BPT pro's had polls on their Instagram stories recently. Watson & Dunkin briefly discussed it on Dunkin's podcast. Watson seemed to think they'll be going back to the 5-fish format before it's all over with.

Honest question, has MLF had the same format/rules/qualifications/anything for 2 consecutive years since forming in '19?

Hey at least it appears they are trying to make their content what the fans want.....MLF haters going to dislike it no matter what lol.

i could care less if its every fish or best 5 as long as its live scoring where there is suspense right at the end which is why I prefer the format over this "guessing" weights then going to a weigh in. It will be very interesting to see where it goes.

The every little fish format has been a failure. Problem with 5 fish for them will be the highly inaccurate scales and just five fish. Who knows who the real winner should be.

Could be the “olds” over there knowing that they can’t take on the young whipper snappers. “We’ll do it for the fans”…

Those young'uns have been putting a whooping on them

to me it's a lot more entertaining (and educational) to watch several guys fishing for two hours than seeing a couple of minutes of fish catching and rest of time seeing guys haul fish across the stage and dump them into the scales....another thing that isn't mentioned is that MLF doesn't have 50 spectator boats crowding around the competitors during the tournament like BASS has especially during the classic.....you can bet the outcome of every BASS classic for past 20 years or more has been affected by spectator boats....

I think the best of both worlds would be great.
1- Catch the fish and weigh it, put it on score-tracker, but it will automatically keep your 5 biggest fish.
2- You have the catch and release a lot of people want
3- You have the 5 biggest fish weighs some people like

Too me this format is a win/win

The weigh in portion of any tournament show is usually less than 20% of that show. Probably closer to 10%. With either trail right now you get hours and hours of actual fishing footage via live coverage. Both TV shows have some non fishing content whether it be a weigh in or Marty Stone talking for 10mi uses before any action is shown.

Much more suspense in the current format. Iwatch every one because of that. Five fish format would lose me completely.

The original MLF format was the best:
Anglers apparently not knowing the body of water they were about to fish
Day of fishing divided into three time periods
Big cut at the end of the day with less than half the field advancing

Difficult to adapt the original format to a large scale; but the original format, especially not knowing the body of water beforehand, was interesting.

So far the biggest 5 format is winning the poll

Guess im old school. I really like the Big 5 format. Would add to the drama without having a up to date weighing as well. Go back to coming across the scales blind with no idea how anyone else did.

If the viewership and product aren't broken, why make a major change?

"So hypothetically if you were to start a business what do you think the best way to run it would be?" - MLF

I think the 5 fish format will win due to that being what the majority of viewers do themselves.

I think the winning formula from the start would have been best 5 fish catch weigh release for the BPT events and use those events to qualify anglers for the old MLF cups where its no info every fish counts and make those cups the highest $$$ events, essentially majors. They mentioned the idea on bass talk live that you have a cup after every 2 tour events and you stream those live as well. But they went all in on the every fish format and it alienated the grass roots fans.

Either use the points from those previous 2 tour events qualify angler for the cup event or figure some sort of world ranking/points system the way the PGA tour does to qualify golfers for the Masters/USopen/Britishopen/PGA championship.

Nailed it. I think they will do away with every scorable fish counts and go to 5. Too many people whining...

That's because the old schoolers are too set in their ways to advance and do something different. Especially when they are getting their teeth beat in. Can't compete in the current format with FFS and it is obvious

catch, weigh, release. biggest 5 count- lake fork elite series style

Better

What does that have to do with the fan voting?

MLF changes things so often that I'm not sure if I should admire their willingness to try and make things better OR question if there is a single sane person in that organization that has a clue about anything. I truly don't know which scenario fits that organization.

I like both formats and probably follow and watch the BASS events more than I watch MLF, but that is mainly because BASS plays on Fox sports on Saturday mornings. I'm never really sure when the MLF events air, but I do enjoy watching them. As a fisherman, I prefer the biggest 5 format, but for viewing I'm good with either and I'm glad that we have multiple options to choose from.

…..it’s a fluid situation….

Still don’t give a dam about MLF

Could they be changing the rules and goalposts so that some anglers are not relegated and given another pass?

What’s next? A weigh-in? The FLW tour coming full circle.

How about both? 2 periods

1st period - best 5 only

2nd period - every fish counts

Gives the guys a chance to get ahead in period one but everyone can come back in period 2 with most fish. The viewer gets to see a potential change in strategy and the suspense of the ending.

Everything actually. The fans are in the drivers seat at MLF. If they are leaning that way (I can bet 75 percent of those voting for 5 fish are older) and it is consistent, MLF will go that route to make them happy. If they do not like the current format, they wont watch. Sponsors and MLF have to have the fans engaged in viewing so the sponsors have people watching their product placement and MLF has fans buying into their subscriptions (I forget what they call it). So bottom line, fans (older) want to see their favorite pro's (probably older) be able to compete with the FFS sonar guys, they have to vote to go back to 5 fish because they can't complete in the current format. It's pretty simple really, even for a crappie guy like me

So far the numbers are closer than I thought they'd be. The all fish get weighed crowd is leading right now. Though I voted, I don't really have a preference. They have also used a cut off weight as well as a method of elimination. I don't see any reason why they couldn't use both plus the cut off weight. If they were to wind up with the all fish count, I'd like to see them still do the 2 pound minimum on the better lakes.

Wrong





Also wrong.

I like watching both but prefer the 5 fish format.

New Balancers are voting heavy

Wow that jumped quick!

I think there is a trail out west that does something like that already.

What if you did the two qualifying rounds every fish counts.
Do the elimination round a sudden death round (like the cups).
Then championship round best 5.

I would watch that for sure!

BTW, I love the MLF format. It got me back into fishing after a 20 year hiatus.

Gus

Another BTW...

Why do we have to choose between MLF and BASS? I love both and watch/support both. No need to hate...enjoy the fruit of competition!

Gus

I don't think a change will affect the outcome not one bit. It's not like they are all running around throwing a Ned Rig to catch one or two pounders. They use the exact same techniques as the 5 biggest crowd. The FFS guys will still dominate because they are getting good enough to cast to the biggest fish. Without doing the research to confirm, my guess is that if you look at every final round, the winners probably also had the 5 biggest. Just my 2 cents...

This made me chuckle

Since they added the variable weight minimum I agree, most rounds the minimum weight is 2 lbs now, I like those heavy hitters shows where the make it a 3lb min, I might like that more than 5 fish even. That first year when 1 lbers counted was terrible and the guy with biggest 5 would not have been the winner most of the time that year.

I believe going to best 5 catch/weigh/release will slow the pace down and obviously result in less fish catching. I think that’s their point for some reason. A best 5 format will also see guys like Randall Tharp, Chris Lane, Ish Monroe excel. Bring it on.

Jacob Wheeler had a video about it yesterday, but he just kept rambling on, so I’m not sure if he ever said which he preferred.

There’s a poll on another fishing site and I’m not sure it matters what the BPT does, they burned bridges with many potential fans from their early on antics/comments.

Wait a minute now. I thought mlf was expanding the fan base and getting soccer moms into streaming tournament bass fishing waiting in line to pick up kids from school????

So what they’re saying is the stay at home MOM isn’t pulling her end of the deal, now we’re going to maybe use them live wells and G juice and hopefully bring back some of the hard core guy’s. I think they have sh@t the bed and looking for a way to save face. Think about it they allow a guy to stay on that got way points and snagged fish. No punishment no ban just let it slide. Guessing all them big internet numbers were not that big and the advertising of how great it is maybe not so much. Finally the lying is catching up to them and hopefully they get what they deserve.

Don't know if someone else posted this and I missed it, but...

From what I gathered, it would still be catch-weigh-release, but only the 5 biggest fish would be scored. ScoreTracker would still be used and there would not be a live weigh-in. No fish would go in the live well.

This would eliminate the boredom (ho-hum, another one-pounder) of a 70 fish "dink fest"

I still think it should be heaviest 13 fish per day, and third period on each day nothing under 3lbs counts.

That would be MILF

I'm good either way, but would like to see them put a goPro on the FF sonar so we could watch the video game too. They are always saying 'Look, here it comes', then 5 seconds later a hookset, and all we saw was the rear end of the fisherman looking down at the scope. Especially d/s fishing. I've quit watching actually. Even when someone is tossing a frog, I want to see the explosion, but 1/2 the cameramen just show the fisherman fishing the bait- we don't see a thing then!




They record the whole tourney and post it on THEIR site, for viewing at your leisure. That's how I watch, and then you can skip the ads (which don't get recorded, just a message saying there is a break, usually 5 minutes or so).

I wasn't a big MLF fan initially simply because of the 1 lb dink fests.

But you have to give them credit, they have constantly made changes in an effort to improve the league.


Nobody is going to have a perfect plan and get everything right the first time. I respect an organization that is willing to listen, adapt and make changes to improve their product.

I was never an MLF or BASS guy, while I prefer one format over the other, I watch both. Seems like the additional league is a win-win for everyone. More Anglers are getting opportunities and fans have more options to watch.

Nope, we don’t have to give them credit for pulling an almost 180 on everything they shoved in our faces. They made a big deal attacking the 5 fish format, bragging about no entry fees, and preaching from their made up pulpit about this new style of fishing that’s changing the game.

Now none of those will be true.

I know this isn't a BASS post, but I wish they would change their basstracker to add suspense at the weigh-in.

For example:
I wish they would hide the biggest fish's weight from each angler on basstracker.

If you catch one keeper, basstracker says 1 fish zero weight. You catch a second, it would say 2 fish and the weight of only the smallest. When you are culling, keep the biggest ones out of the number.

I don't think they were attacking the 5 fish format, they were attacking the keeping fish in the livewell. The revolutionary aspect was the weigh/release format that will remain regardless.

I believe anglers voted on adding entry fees.

You believe wrong.

Just like I said, fans voted the other way and they agreed. Fans run MLF. Can’t deal with young guys running away from the field with the every fish counts format

https://majorleaguefishing.com/bass...mymAeFyrvtzzFMgw4vLE&mibextid=4Qrqjk

You were wrong on the “olds” part and it wasn’t fans that swayed that vote, it was the non-fan that swayed it.

They did vote on entry fees

They voted on going away from entry fees and having smaller payouts. Then the following year or two, whenever it was, Boyd said they had to charge entry fees again. They didn’t vote to have/pay entry fees, Boyd said it all on BTL.

Bassfans article about it must be wrong then

What a fuster cluck

They voted on entry fees because they were not able to get enough sponsor money to continue the no entry fee format. The Bassfan article mentions it and Duckett goes into more detail on a BTL interview from roughly same time frame this article dropped on Bassfan.


https://www.bassfan.com/news_article/9969/bpt-anglers-likely-to-pay-entry-fees-in-21

Will be interesting to see if the person always quick to tell others they are wrong, will admit he is wrong…….

I’m being totally serious ....they need hot women in tight clothing and bikinis weighing those fish.Sex sells!

But I’m not wrong, read the article above and actually read it. Voting by the anglers to pay entry fees was not done, Duckett even says in the article “it was something that had to be done”. I know understanding what you’re reading is a bit challenging for you; but maybe if you read it real slow, you can see where Duckett said it.

Let me know if I need to circle it for you or you can hunt down the BTL episode and listen to it. This wasn’t something they wanted, but were made to do. Although I’m sure many of the older anglers didn’t care either way, their sponsors are the ones that pay most of the entry fees anyways.

From the article, not something that was wanted to be done…

"(Paying entry fees is) what we've done our whole lives and it certainly contributes to making big prize money," said MLF co-founder and competitor Boyd Duckett. "This is a short-term economic challenge for MLF and these participation fees are necessary in this environment.
"When we all voted on it, my vote was to continue entry fees because I think our sport needs better payout. Our league is growing and emerging and we've been successful, but we're a long way from million-dollar payouts. When we reach the point where we can have (a vote on fees) again, we'll have to have a lot of dialog to determine if it's really the right direction.

The final verdict on any changes will be determined via angler vote to be conducted in the coming weeks, with results to be announced in October.

That came straight from the article.

That would definitely help.

You’re right, that is there in the bottom. Sure sounds like a forced vote vs a free will vote, but maybe not. I’m sure the owner had no pull at all. “Guys, if we want to continue having a job, we have to have entry fees”….

So it started out that there wasn’t a vote. Then no one could read or understand what they’re reading. Now it’s oh yeah there is that at the bottom. At least you’re consistent

You make a valid point

The truth is there was never this mythical person that had no interest whatsoever in bass fishing that just all of the sudden started watching bass fishing because of the new format called MLF. Like many things MLF claimed in the beginning, that was a myth. Anyone with half a brain knew it. The truth of the matter is they finally figured out that in order for this experiment called the BPT to survive, they actually need a format that gets the most actual bass fishermen to watch. This is their attempt to do that.

The other thing this does is allows MLF to have somewhat of a consistent format (best 5 fish) from the top to bottom of their organization. The reality is that the MLF weigh everything format was NEVER going to work it's way down to the grass roots level in any meaningful way, like the MLF machine said in the beginning. The technology and manpower cost were to high for local tournaments to implement on a large scale. In addition, most people, including myself, would never trust the results from a weigh everything grass roots tournament with big money involved. The format is ripe for cheating without an official in the boat, which we all know will never happen. Heck even MLF has learned they cannot afford to have an official in the boat. So this change was probably needed and probably the format they should have chosen from the beginning.

Show me the article where it shows the actual vote, that article says they will enact a entry fee before any vote took place. “There at the bottom”, was exactly what it was, just written, doesn’t mean it’s true. The decision was already made. I guess you’re right though, I reckon it was the same thing as the forced vaccination. You don’t have to get the vaccine, but you will get fired if you don’t. Someone telling you what’s going to happen, sounds exactly like a vote.

You guys are comical acting like anglers actually have a say in what happens over there. You can listen to all the guys that left and they tell how it really went or you can listen to the Boyd interview.

Boom!!! Post of the Week... Dan

If you want to go that route listening to the guys that left then why did they leave BASS in the first place? It obviously wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows over there or you couldn’t have blown their [censored] out of there with dynamite. Everyone knows how hard they had to work to make it into the elite series so I can’t imagine all those guys walked away from that for no reason.

I think they were promised the moon and got a rock instead. Several were pissed at BASS, Hackney was DQ’d and was fairly verbal about it. He sure didn’t hang around the BPT long though. Has also been said that the new owner made changes.

Don’t really know, a few that left and came back, have been thankful to be back at BASS. I’m sure a few that are whooping azz on the BPT are grateful to be there as well. Too many egos, they couldn’t even get along with the PAA and they were running it.