TTO Pro Team

Supposedly had their final tournament last weekend on Choke……still no results? Anybody have the scoop?

After Castledine had his 10 part series about owning Choke and figuring out the lake, I just knew he’d be there to take the win.

Angler of the year was on the line, so who won?

Did you see Bates post on FB, I would have been pissed, if that was me!

Post a link and update us please.

https://www.facebook.com/mike.bates.773

Looks like the tournament was cancelled due to lack of participation. He took the weeks off because of off-limits and lost guide trips that he could have banked.

Hate to see that but IMO we have more trails than we need right now.

A high dollar professional trail like this, should require guys to pay for every tournament, wether you show up or not. Many guys came down here pre-fishing, only to waste their money. Bates lost out on an easy $4k, assuming he’s getting at least 2 guide trips a week.


Thinking about it, I almost wonder if some of the anglers who are friends with a guide, who hasn’t fished here in months due to an injury. Maybe those guides friends didn’t fish, because they no longer have anyone feeding them info before the cut off date. Sure seems odd that during the off season, guys didn’t show up for the final tournament.

Just not enough participation to make sense for both the anglers or the organization. I would've went either way. There were about 15-20 that would have went. It's the guys not in the AOY money that mainly probably didn't want to make the trip. Like any new trail, it's a learning lesson and I think they'll choose better lakes more concentrated around higher entry lakes. In my opinion, it's the best trail out there. Yes it's high entry, but guys spend money on everything these days. Trucks, boats, etc. I'd be willing to pay a higher entry fee and keep it 40ish or so teams. In 2 years I don't think we finished higher than 4th in 6 total events, we cashed a check in 4 of 6 and made about 30k.

High money trail. No jackpotting. Bad economy. In competition with deer season, duck season, and the holidays. Doesn't surprise me in the least. I still like the concept of this trail but it obviously needs some adjustments. Hope it survives this.

I was wondering why Jarrett fished the last team standing last weekend. My little girl and I went to the auction at the stump and I saw your name. Thought you should be at choke. lol...Looks like yall did pretty good at Rayburn and made some money.

Got to require full pay at teh beginning. That way if guys want to back out they can and the pot would still be good and if 10 guys show up so be it

Not sure if it’s the best trail out there when they are cancelling championships? Basschamps never cancelled a championship, I understand their entry is not that high but gosh sure gives them a bad look IMO. I wouldn’t fish it knowing their liable to cancel the championship AGAIN! But that’s just me!

I was curious, so I looked at the TTO ProTeam FB page. They turned off commenting, that seems a bit odd to me.

I don't find it odd at all. They don't need a bunch of internet hacks bad mouthing their circuit. They have had some success with it and hopefully they can continue to grow on it and continue to be around.

It wasn't the championship. It was just the final event. They had 3 tournaments last year, went to 4 this year. Most of us on the trail agree that 3 is a better number. Keeping it more localized where most of the guys fish. It's not for everyone that's for sure. But I 100 percent would rather put up 2k an event to actually win some money against 35-45 teams than $300-$400 to win 2k for 3rd against 200+ teams. I'm not knocking these larger trails, I still jackpot them occasionally. But the payout is literally for first place really. Your chances of a 2nd or 3rd aren't that great against a big field. I like TTO's 2 days of practice and 2 days of fishing. It suits our style of fishing. I think they'll figure it out. I do agree it sucks for the few that paid deposits for the full year just to fish choke. But on the other hand there were just as many teams that paid deposits just to jackpot whatever lake they wanted. That's why you see entries fall off. Guys paid an extra $750 just to fish Whitney or Texoma. You really just can't compare basschamps to this format. Lots of guys are ok winning $600-$1000 and breaking even for a weekend. That's not this group

Hopefully, this is the start of no tournaments down South for a few years. Very odd that nobody minded coming down when the fishing was decent, all of a sudden, it’s too far.

You can't continue to grow and continue to be around if you have to cancel an event due to low participation haha

Im not sure if anybody in that "group" doesn't fish champs, TTT or regular TTO .... Its all the same names minus the few that actually professionally fish for a living. The only way to make it work is to have everybody pay in full for the entire season up front. The problem is some names from that "group" cant afford to do that or wouldn't for unknown reasons. When trails have tried this format in the past it always comes down to failure because of folks wanting to jackpot and not finish out the season. I do like the idea though. Def agree with no money to be made outside of 2nd place in the other trails... at least not a reasonable amount of money for your time after expenses.

Just get it over with and keep all the events on Rayburn like everyone else.

Love the idea and think there is a need for it. Probably the reality is you have to collect 100 percent of money up front or this will happen. Similar went on in Platinum.

The only other one I know of like the TTO Pro was the Bud Lite Platinum. These will always fail due to the no jackpotting rule.
Almost every event out there relies on about 30% jackpotters. Do they usually dominate? No they don’t in my opinion. But like Platinum TTO Pro can’t survive on 30 to 40 entries.
Without the jackpotting rule they would draw double at Rayburn alone. A lot of anglers simply don’t want to drive to Rayburn or Choke when they live west or north of Dallas. But those same guys would probably fish Texoma, PK or Whitney and donate their money just to fish a big event or two.

in the better money tournaments jackpotting always is the demise the jackpotters will only fish when they are on enough fish to win an after the first few places you cant cover expenses anyway.

How do they know if there is a week or two off limits? I know a bunch of guys that jackpot every event on their home lake and I would say they might break even at best.

An interesting idea would be to have 4 events. 1 on sam because we'll that's what you have to do. 2 middle of state, one north ish or west ish. Require 3 events with 2 being the middle 2. Collect all the money up front for the 3 plus the championship that you don't announce. Basically you almost have 2 divisions but not really. If the east texas guys can't find a map out of town they should be able to get directions at a gas station in llufkin. They north/west Texas guys don't have to be subjected to a flea dip after going to sam rayburn. I think it could work lol.

Donnie and Darryl are pretty damn good TDs and if it can be made to work those guys can pull it off.

That would work. Or you could make the guys that only want to fish one or two lakes pay in full a month ahead of the tournament. That would make sure eliminate the last second jackpotters that only enter if they are on fish.

What if they let you register for one tournament as long as you enter before the season starts?

now they have to complete with the brandon belt trail with similar entry fees, i dont think both will make it

There are other lakes than ray bob... you should try some lol

I would probably try to fish the north Texas ones but Rayburn and Choke are 6 to 8 hour drives.

I agree. As of now 1 trail cant make it a full season. Its a good idea but getting full commitment seems to be the issue. Unless there are some guarantees going in to next season the future wont lool good for TTO pro team. With limited numbers willing to put up the funds, plus skipping one event, it will be hard to get people to trust in them to put their money up.

Gotta get all money up front. That's the only way

Between year 1 and year 2 the economy had a lot of changes and disruptions. Even something as small as a workingmans the effect was felt. TTO numbers where down, Champs was down. Its felt across the board and amplified by the higher entries. It is simple economics.

Be interesting to see how the Brandon Belt series does, after 2 years. I have struggled to find anyone willing to put up the money for it.

Be interesting to see how the Brandon Belt series does, after 2 years. I have struggled to find anyone willing to put up the money for it.

I really dont mean this in a negative way but it just is what it is. People are only willing to donate so much at least around rayburn. People just know the core group there has the time and experience so odds are when the big money is on the line that they have the advantage. The other problem is those guys dont want to fish a trail that doesnt have rayburn on it. Its a tough situation to manage for trails and simply may not work. Its a great idea but im also not putting my money up. I know i dont have the time to put towards being competitive and without having that time the most im putting in the pot would be some small club stuff. I would rather fun fish than throw money in a pot just wishing for something to happen

I suspect that lots of folks are in the same boat as me. I would love to fish these events, but with kids, family, and business it's impossible to find the time to prep for these tournaments. Even with the very well thought out off limits periods that both Belt and TTO Pro have, it's still alot of time away. Probably minimum of 12-15 days away for the season if you do it right. Personally I just don't have the time right now to do it. For me, I just consider it burning money if you can't take advantage of all the official practice days available.

The kids stuff really causes a problem, seems like if they are sports age there is something non stop and I hate missing that. One of the reasons I try and fish stuff with a friday practice cause otherwise it messes up 2 weekends.