Why Professional Fishing New Qualifications is Not Targeting You

Check it out. New untamed shaky head right there. Shakin' ace. Got a boy. It's got the BFF on there, black and tan. It's not a bad September bass. Yep. How do you feel about the new qualification requirements for the Elite? Okay, so this has been a hot topic for a little while, actually. So, people that don't know, don't really follow the Opens that closely. Basically what happened was, forever, I can't say forever, I don't really know. I ain't been around that long. But, for as long as I can remember, there's been three to however many circuits of the Opens, and they have taken three to five people from every circuit of the Opens. So, you could fish three tournaments, come in the top three or five or whatever of AOI, and qualify for the Elites. So I did. Fished four, qualified for the Elites. Now, now they have changed it to where the overall standings from people that fish the entire Opens is how you qualify for the Elites. So you have to fish all nine tournaments and be in the top nine in AOI after nine tournaments to qualify for the Elites. Does two things. Number one, it's gonna get you a better, more rounded angler that qualifies for the Elites, because a lot of times, you know, there'll be an Eastern circuit or whatever of the Opens, and they might go to Harris Chain, James River, and then Oneida every single year. So after you've been doing it for four years or so, you know, you keep going to the same schedule all the time. Seems like kind of used to those lakes. But whenever there's nine tournaments in a row, or nine tournaments you have to do well in, you don't have to have quite as good of an average finish. Like you don't have to come in the top 20 in every single tournament to qualify for the Elites anymore or you're not going to have to, but you're not gonna be able to have a bad one still. So it's probably gonna take around a 40th AOI average to qualify for the Elites, whereas now it probably takes around a 20th or maybe a 17th or something AOI average to qualify for the Elites. So you're gonna get a more rounded angler. You're probably gonna have less people come in that are specialists. Seems like people who are really specialists, like big time flippers or whatever, they're probably gonna have a little bit more trouble with qualifying through nine tournaments than they would three but I think you're gonna get a better crop of well-rounded anglers. Now what that's gonna also do is some people that maybe don't have the money to spend, I guess it's $1,800 entry fee, nine times a year plus expenses and all that, those people probably are not gonna be able to even attempt to qualify for the Elites anymore. The people that are gonna qualify though are going to be the people who are the most committed. And I understand people are gonna say, well, if you've got a family, if you've got a business, if you've got a job, you can't be that committed. I understand, but you've already kind of picked your profession. People who are really committed to it and trying to make it happen, those are gonna be the ones that qualify for the Elites. So I think now the people who qualify, nobody at all will turn down the invite because they're already fishing nine events. You're not gonna fish that many events and then qualify for the Elites and then not take your invite. So I think everybody from here on out will take the Elite invite. Everybody's gonna be already kind of used to those types of tournaments, but I get it from both sides. If you just wanna go fish three tournaments and try to make it to the top, you can't do that anymore. And I mean, some people's argument is that three tournaments shouldn't get you to the top. Maybe that's true, maybe it's not, I don't know. But I just know that the difference is gonna be more well-rounded anglers, more committed anglers that are already used to taking on that type of travel, that type of expense. Entry fees will be a little more in the Elites, but the expenses will be relatively the same, honestly. So, you know, but then the guys who are working, kind of the working man, they're not really gonna have the opportunities anymore. So is that right? Is that wrong? I'm not sure. But Bass felt like that was the best way to move forward and keep getting the best anglers that they can get to qualify for the Elites. And that's what they seem to want. They seem to want the best anglers to be fishing their tour. So if they think that's the best move, we'll just have to see how it plays out in a few years. I know a lot of people are upset about it. I've seen a lot of people online, not very happy. I had some of my friends that have been fishing Opens for a long time reach out to me and tell me, hey, they screwed me. And it's like, I mean, they did from what you've been doing, but if you fish all nine, you probably have a better chance of qualifying now because you don't have to have two top tens and a 30th. Now you just need to get a lot of checks. You know, you get seven checks probably and miss two checks, you'll probably qualify for the Elites. So, I mean, yeah, it did, it did hurt the people that only want to fish three tournaments, but you know, we'll just see how it works out. The guys who though, who qualify though through all nine tournaments, they're going to be tough to beat because they're going to be well-rounded. They're going to be used to traveling. They're going to be, they're going to be ready when they come into the Elite. So, I mean, that's a lot of money though. Nine tournaments. The expenses would be exactly the same. Entry fees more. So, I mean, the expenses to fish the Opens are probably within 20 or 25,000 of the expenses to fish the Elites, you know? So, I mean, if they qualify, they're pretty much ready, you know? Like they're, they're good to go. They're coming in. So, I get it. There was also a big change recently on the FLW side of things or MLF side of things, whatever you want to call it. They just did away with the Pro Circuit, rebranded, did away, changed, whatever you want to call it. Basically- Is that the Big Five? Is it going away? I ain't really sure what counts as the Big Five. I think the Big Five might be everything but the BPT. I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I know it was the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit. And now they have changed that to the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals. Supposed to be a smaller field, no championship, you know, all these types of things that, again, everybody's saying, hey, they're going against the people that are trying to make it. Bass is going against people that are trying to make it. MLF is going against people that are trying to make it. People are, I've seen some people calling on the NPFL to slip up right now and kind of take the reins. And I mean, the money's got to come from somewhere. If the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit was making millions of dollars a year, it wouldn't have been changed. That's just the fact of the matter. MLF is a business. If they're not making money, they can't pay all their employees. They have a lot of employees. You know, if they're not making money, they can't have these big payouts. You know, you got to make changes if you're not making a ton of money. So that's what I would say. If they were making a ton of money, there wouldn't be a bunch of changes. So- So invitations, all that, they're going to- They have a system made of how they're going to invite people. I think it was from the Pro Circuit, Toyotas, and the BPT is going to be where most people come from, but it's going to be a smaller field than normal. I'm not a hundred percent sure on the qualifications. I'm really not. I don't really know who all gets to qualify first or anything like that, but it definitely is, you know, going to be different. It's going to be more of like a pot tournament, actually. It's going to be more of like a, you know, less overlay, no championship, no points to fish for, but that is going to be how you qualify for the BPT from here on out. Is what- That's what it looks like anyway. It's going to be how you qualify to get up there and fish with the big dogs, you know, on that side. The Toyotas are not going away. You know, the Toyotas are very successful. They have a ton of boats. BFLs are very successful. They have a ton of boats. So, and I can't really go out on a limb and say the Pro Circuit was not successful because I don't know. I'm not in the meetings. I really don't know, you know, but I would just say if the Pro Circuit was killing it, probably wouldn't have been changed. But, and maybe I shouldn't even say that. I mean, you know, there's just, there's a lot of changes. Things move so rapidly, you know, especially like technology. Now, I've got a trolling motor right there. I can press a button and it will, my boat won't move for eight hours. I mean, it'll just stay exactly where it's at. 10 years ago, if you told somebody that, they'd look at you like you was crazy. It would have been another Salem Witch Trials out here. They thought you was doing magic or something. All this sonar, you can see out in front of the boat. This stuff's changing so fast. The way that people are buying tackles changing so fast. You know, the way that people are watching videos and they're watching, you know, TV and stuff. It's all changing so fast. That all these companies and all these things, they have to make changes all the time to stay up with the curve. Like now, I mean, 10 years ago, you would think nobody wants to watch one minute videos all day. But now it's like, yeah, people seem to want to watch 300 one minute videos. Like instead of watching a movie, they'd rather watch a bunch of little videos. That's just what's happening. So these companies are changing and it's not always that they're changing to try to hurt somebody or try to, you know, put somebody down or they're trying to make more money. A lot of times they're just trying to stay ahead of the curve, you know, and that really is a big truth of this whole deal. I said ahead of the curve right there, I threw in a tree. But one of the biggest truths of all these deals is like Bass and MLF are kind of competing with each other. So they're both trying to stay ahead of the curve as much as possible on social media and on, you know, TV and all that type of stuff. They're all trying to figure out the next big thing. So a lot of these moves, you know, there's more behind the scenes and could they have a plan for years down the road than anything else, you know? So a lot of that stuff, you really don't know. It's not really as black and white, but I will say that the industry is changing so rapidly that everything is moving in different directions. You're starting to see a lot of stuff change. So I wouldn't be too hard on either organization. I'd really genuinely think that Bass and the BPT or Bass and MLF are really trying to do everything they can to grow the sport. You know, I've been to meetings for Bass and I've talked to a bunch of anglers from Bass and I know kind of the plans that are in place for some things, not everything, obviously, but for some things, you know, and I've seen some of the stuff the MLF has done. I really think that both of them are trying to do what's best for the sport. And, you know, sometimes it's better not to say, hey, they're doing worse than us and say, hey, we could do better like this. Well, they could do better like that. And let's both try to get better and grow up because it's, you know, it's not that big of a sport. You know, there's a lot of people that watch both. There's a lot of people, there's some people that prefer one or the other, but really we need to work together and all try to get it bigger and bigger and bigger because, you know, fishing is something that everybody loves to do. So that's just kind of what I would say on that is they're not trying to hurt anybody. I'll tell you that. If you are an Alabama angler and your goal is not really the elites, like you just want to be able to fish some tournaments here and there, what would you suggest? Like the ABT, Opens? We're really lucky in my area that basically, in my opinion, if you're not trying to qualify for the elites, the Opens are probably, you know, a lot of time and a lot of money investment. You know, your time investment's a big deal too. Time away from home, time away from the family, time away from work, time away from whatever you're normally doing. So, you know, if you're not trying to make the elites, maybe it doesn't make that much sense to fish the Opens. You know, if you're not trying to qualify for, you know, the higher up MLF stuff, maybe it doesn't make sense to fish the Toyotas. I would say what makes the most sense to me is fish the biggest weekend tournaments you can find. You know, whether it be BFLs, ABAs, ABT, ABT 100, anything that requires less time invested. You know, that's the kind of stuff that I would focus on. And then also you want to fish as much stuff as you possibly can and as many different types of bodies of water as you possibly can. You know, like I fish on Lake Eufaula in Alabama. Well, if I go from Lake Eufaula in Alabama to Ross Barnett, I'm probably not going to learn as much going to them two lakes, because they fish similarly than I would if I went to Eufaula and then Lake Martin. So it's not, and they're only, you know, two hours apart. So it's not about really traveling around the country and seeing different types of fisheries or stuff like that. I mean, and seeing different regions of fisheries, because a lot of it is similar. The biggest thing is going to more diverse types of lakes, like Lake Martin's deep and clear rocks, Lake Eufaula's shallow and a lot of grass and some offshore ledges and stuff like that. So you'd be better off fishing two completely different Alabama lakes than two similar lakes that are states apart. You know, because it's more about the diversity of the fishery, not about the location of the fishery, if that makes sense. So traveling around and fishing different lakes is very important. If you're trying to become a better angler, you get used to fishing different types of water and all that stuff, but it doesn't have to be halfway across the country. You can sometimes do it right down the road and you can sometimes do it on the same exact lake, like on, you know, Lake Martin. Within a 20 minute boat ride, you can be at two completely different looking types of water, you know? So that type of stuff is what I would pay attention to more is the least amount of time you have to invest in the tournaments, try to get them done in one weekend and then try to fish as many different lakes as possible that are as close by as possible. Cause you're going to be, it's going to be the cheapest way to get a lot more experience on different lakes if that makes any sense at all. And don't forget to shake your head. It catches them. I have fun like that, Hunter. I like to throw a Spro popping frog and I like to flip a 13 fishing invader on a half ounce untamed tackle tungsten. That is literally all I want to do, but... There'll be two bass up shallow in college. And if I catch them both by 11, I'll do something else at 12. That's how I feel. I do like it. I do enjoy it. I'll be honest with you. I'm not planning on fishing the opens and I'm not planning on fishing the pro circuit. So I'm not super in tune with exactly what's going on. I'm very happy fishing the elites. I'm very happy putting a lot of my time into YouTube cause I enjoy it. I enjoy the feedback I get with, you know, people that also watch and comment. So I really like it. So, I mean, I haven't really went through it with a fine tooth comb and really seen the ins and outs of all of it. But my opinion would be, just don't have that emotional reaction that they're doing this to target me. Cause they're in reality, they're not. They think that they have, you know, a plan that's better than their old plan. So just my opinion.