They release the bassmaster opens roster yet?

Curious who jumped from MLF, when will they publish this???

It could be late February or just before the first event in March before its released. I read elsewhere where they possibly already have about 150 signed up for all 9.

After listening to Luke Dunken's podcast with Gerald Spohrer it sounds like half of the BPT threatened to leave if a bunch of changes were not made. I'll be curious to see how many are still jumping ship now.

There was only a couple , if MLF had not changed to the heaviest five there was going to be a lot .

Podcasts are saying that 175+ have signed up for the opens 9 tournament EQ Blaukat was wrong, going with a full schedule to qualify for the Elites was the right move by BASS

Randy just likes to hear himself gripe

Yea. I have to admit i wondered about that decision but BASS is making some great calls and taking advantage of the failures at MLF. Im wondering if BASS tries to take on the bfls next and bring back the weekend series.

ABA's still exist, it would be great to see them bassmaster sanctioned again, the boat count was strong 10-15 years ago when they were.

As of today, 175 have signed up for all 9 opens. Word is it could end up being close to 250....

Gonna be pretty entertaining, be neat to see the viewership stats on live throughout the events

They should do live on at least Friday and Saturdays of all Opens!

That’s no lie, they have enough “stars”, maybe I should say “fishing stars” competing, that I think they’d pull decent ratings.

That would be impossible considering they cap the field at 225 per event. They should have a fair good idea of the roster by now, Nov. 22 was the final group they opened up registrations for. https://www.bassmaster.com/latest-i...23-bassmaster-opens-starts-november-8th/

I could go for this or at lease every Open Saturday, drop the live on the first day of Elite series events and move those to the Opens. Friday would be difficult becaue remember they still have co-angler in the boat that day. I will be honest I had more interest in the Opens results than the Elite series since the split, especially the last event of each division.

Doesn't sound like McClelland will ve in the Opens


https://www.bassfan.com/news_article/10637/mcclelland-ready-to-get-back-to-his-old-ways

Little birdie told me Bassmaster is creating a pro qualifier league in 2024, it will have the same # of anglers as the Elites and those invitations will come from this years opens AOY standing for those fishing all 9 opens. No co-anglers and pro qualifer will mimic the Elite series in event numbers and some live coverage. Explains why near 200 have signed up for all Opens next year. Opens will go back to more of regional trail and co-anglers all 3 days, live coverage here will go away as it would be 3rd tier on the ladder system. Where Classic spots will come from TBD but likely they will move away from the Opens over time much as the Nation has lost Classic spots over the years.

Hard for me to understand why a single person would fish the opens if there isn't at least a classic spot on the line. Sounds even more worthless than the MLF Invitationals. I didn't think creating a more [censored] tour than that was possible, but maybe it is.

I don’t quite get this invitational posted above, but apparently people will fish anything they are given the chance too.

I think there will still be Classic spots available via the opens just fewer than the 9 there are now. It wouldn't be immediate either spots would go away slowly over several seasons just as they have done to the BASS Nation classic spots.


You can qualify for Redcrest and BPT through the MLF invitationals so how are they worthless?

I suspect they are creating a mattress for the pros that don’t requalify from the elites to fall on. Those elite guys are probably moaning about having to possibly fish with those 200 dirty open anglers that beat a lake up every day for a month right up to the day of the tournament and repeated over 9 tournaments. I would be. Wonder where they got the idea for step up trail with a limited field?

Not to mention they are selling the sponsorship of another tournament trail and keeping the money. I mean really...how long has the first place in the elites been the same? Other sports seems the purse goes up as the league makes money and sells sponsorship, but not Bass.

Maybe they aren’t actually making money and trying to hang on..and the only way to not shut the doors was one last grasp by adding a trail and hope keeping all the sponsor dollars helps keep the lights on. Time will tell.

They now have an off limits. And having an off limits seems to be very popular on why so many people have committed to fishing all 9.

Wrong. Off limits 30 days prior to tournament

I know it’s hypothetical at this point, but let’s discuss it, since there’s nothing else to do.


1. We have the elites, OK makes sense. A guy gets kicked off and goes to the invitationals.

2. The invitationals, same number as the elites have??? Why, they will only let a few go up every year, let’s use the number 5.

3. We have the opens, you have to be top 10 in the AOY to be allowed into the Invitationals. How many move up, 10, 5, 3?



That’s about the best I can figure it will be. If guys were already crying that the “piece of the pie”, is too small, it just got smaller. We now have 200 guys fishing the Opens, 100 guys fishing the invitationals and 100 in the Elites. Then add the couple hundred from the BPT and 80-100 from TNPFL. Who’s going to sponsor all of these clowns? The only ones that move the sales needle will be the BPT guys and Elite guys.

I would say top 20 from opens go to the in between league and the bottom 20 from that league drop back to opens. 10 from elites drop to middle league and top 10 from that league move to elites. What i invision is the current opens moving to a toyotas type league and the new opens would be beefed up just a little in payouts. Of course they wouldnt be opens any more. Make the new series a 8 or 9 tournament schedule just like fishing all 9 opens all over the US so the best talent moves to the top. Make the toyota type trail with divisions and all that. That sounds a lot like what MLF has done though.

Seems like there are plenty of folks ready to pay and play.

Is bassmaster going to call their B league the invitationals too, I sure hope not. BPT does not have a couple hundred, they have 80, the MLF invitationals have 150 so yes 230 if you add those together. We get a 2008 like economic crisis and you are going to see the house of cards fall hard for everyone.

MLF had the qualification system all figured out, how did that work out? https://anglerschannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/FLW-Angler-Presentation-FINAL-10.21.19.pdf

At first blush, I’d suggest the Elites and Elite Qualifiers (new level) be limited to 100 anglers with a 20% drop rate for the Elites and 40% drop rate for the Elite Qualifiers based on a 3 year AOY rolling average. The 20 Elites sent down are provided registration preference for the Elite Qualifiers. The Opens provide registration preference to the 40 Elite Qualifiers sent down. This provides a professional ladder supporting ascending and descending anglers.

As an organization, I’d want to field relatively competitive anglers to lure, retain and profit from multi-level endemic and non-endemic sponsors.

As a professional angler, I’d want a static qualification process affording me the opportunities to professionally and promotionally advance.

As a sponsor, I’d want long-term performance based opportunities and value for my investment in the organization and/or it’s anglers.

As a fan, I simply want to be entertained…

Meet The Open Elite Qualifiers, BASS LINK

I count 179. Why post a pic of guy 123 with no description but no Jason Lambert or even Mulligan who are both well known in the industry? Only real big names I see are Bobby Lane, and Ish. Not as many BPT guys, Forrest Wood Cup champs or even former FLW guys as I expected. I think a bunch of the FLWers may end up on NPFL or are just plain hanging it up.

I'm thinking they were able to just pull pics from their own files/events. Lambert or Milliken might not have fished a recent BASS event.

I would say Mike McClelland is a real big name.

I don’t see him on the list, mixing him up with McMillan? I think Mike is fishing MLF invitationals with his son, plus he’s one of the MLF owners., but I guess Ike is or was too.

He was on there when I looked through them yesterday. Had his picture and little paragraph about his BASS career. But I 100% don't see it now.

you sure?

100% positive as I was going to quote Mark Perry's remark in the other thread but decided not to.

Hmmm, don't see his son anymore on the MLF invitationals roster, I swear that was on there too but maybe mixing that up with the Lanes or the Howells who are father/son fishing those, no Hibdon's this year though...

Makes one wonder, are these guys flip flopping on a daily basis.

Heard the invitationals roster will change tournament by tournament, that list they put out is just for the first event not the entire season.

Good BTL show today with James Niggemeyer, him and 27 other former MLFLW guys are all in on the opens next year.
https://youtu.be/VuhrWGwJUAY?t=263