More On This MLF Deal

Maybe because of its top secret nature, the Major League Fishing announcement hasn’t gotten a ton of coverage so far. But there is some stuff out there that BassFan didn’t cover (let me know if you’ve found something I haven’t seen yet). So a few more items to discuss.

One thing was an article in the Tulsa World paper that had a few tidbits the BassFan piece didn’t have:

Tommy Biffle: “I think it’s something we’ve been needing. Hopefully it will make fishing a lot more exciting.” A part of the format he finds most appealing is that fishing locations – aside from the first tournament set at Lake Amistad in Texas later this year – will be secret. There will be no practice days and anglers will not be allowed to use GPS with pre-marked fishing locations. “I really like that part of it,” he said.

[Edwin] Evers said all anglers will have a judge on their boat. They will weigh each of their fish as they are caught and enforce any rules infractions. Anglers also will have a live leaderboard on their boats to show where everyone stands. “It will give you the knowledge to make adjustments,” he said. “I think it’s great to know the score. Some guys…it will make them melt.”

Dark tournaments a la the early Classics plus no practice plus no pre-marked GPSs should equal more of an emphasis on skill than info, which is cool. Having said that, the first tournament is at Amistad, which all of these guys have fished multiple times. If the rest of the lakes are common tour-level stops, then not sure how much the dark stuff will matter.

But if they fish lakes that aren’t on the top circuits’ beaten path – and they should be able to because it’s just 24 guys – that would be more interesting.

The MLF league commissioner is Don Rucks, who you will remember is the former Citgo employee who ran BASS (no periods) for a while under ESPN before Tom Ricks, the last ESPN/BASS GM, took over. Rucks said in the Tulsa World piece:

“I don’t see it as a conflict with BASS or FLW. Those organizations provide things for the everyday angler on up to being a pro that we have no intention of providing. Hopefully [MLF] will benefit everyone.”

He’s right about that, and on the money side of things B.A.S.S. and FLW have their exclusive category sponsors and I assume MLF will also have its own. But more tournaments and more angler travel days I have to think do conflict with B.A.S.S. in particular, since only one FLW guy is part of the 24.

Note that it’s already too crowded tourney-wise for pros to fish both B.A.S.S. and FLW.

Obviously the 24 anglers involved feel they can find the time, but will that be true if B.A.S.S. in particular adds more events or the pros’ sponsors want them to fish more B.A.S.S. events?

Moving on, the MLF website also says this, which some of you already know:

> No limits on the number of fish weighed
> Time-based deadlines and weight-based cut lines

Not sure what that second bullet means. Here’s more from the website:

“The second phase of the [MLF founding] anglers’ vision was focused [on] the way fans would view the competition. The group was looking for less emphasis on the fish caught, with more emphasis on personalities, the struggles, the strategies, the conflicts and the emotions of the anglers.

“In short, the anglers decided they want to take fans inside competitor boats for an up-close examination of how a professional bass tournament truly looks and feels.”

Fishing tournaments with “less emphasis on the fish caught,” etc. – sounds like reality TV. No secret that reality TV has been uber-popular for a while, so that could work.

And maybe I’m dense, but MLF first says it’s a tournament but not like any other tournament, then it says it’s not going to be televised as a tournament but more like a reality TV show, and then says the show is going to be “how a professional bass tournament truly looks and feels.”

No clue how to resolve all of that, but I guess that’s the point. We’ll have to wait and see.