Stats: So You Want to be a Tour Pro?

I’ve been following all the anglers at the first two FLW Tour stops this year (1 Open, 1 Major). The first 2 days are when everybody gets to compete before the field gets cut to the top 20 anglers for Day 3. It would be pretty easy to get all wrapped up in the big 20 and 30 pound sacks caught amongst the Top 10 anglers, but once you start tearing into the numbers and breaking them down over the entire field, bassin’ life becomes a little more sane. Now, you won’t get rich if you don’t win a tourney or two along the way in many cases, but you can certainly make a nice steady living by cashing a lot of those $10,000 checks and garnering some sponsor support.

Here’s the breakdown on the numbers over the first two days for each event.

Day 1 Stats (Okeechobee Open):

The 160 anglers weighed 724 bass
Total weight was 1,813-12
Average bass weighed 2.51 lbs.
There were 121 5-fish limits of bass 12 inches or larger (75.6% of field)
76 of the 160 anglers weighed less than 10 lbs.
There was 1 blank

Day 2 Stats (Okeechobee Open):

The 160 anglers weighed 729 bass
Total weight was 1,804-14
Average bass weighed 2.48 lbs.
There were 133 5-fish limits of bass 12 inches or larger (83.1% of field)
62 of the 160 anglers weighed less than 10 lbs.
There were 6 blanks

As for the most recent event on Hartwell that just wrapped up yesterday, with Brent Ehrler capturing yet another Tour title;

Day 1 Stats (Hartwell Major):

The 163 anglers weighed 724 bass
Total weight was 1,694-01
Average bass weighed 2.33 lbs.
There were 123 5-fish limits of bass 12 inches or larger (75.5% of field)
82 of the 163 anglers weighed less than 10 lbs.
There were 4 blanks

Day 2 Stats (Hartwell Major):

The 163 anglers weighed 717 bass
Total weight was 1,678-02
Average bass weighed 2.34 lbs.
There were 125 5-fish limits of bass 12 inches or larger (77.9% of field)
72 of the 163 anglers weighed less than 10 lbs.
There were 6 blanks

We can tear into the numbers even further, in this case the Okeechobee event, to come up with these other interesting stats:

• A comparison between angler weights on Day 2 vs. Day 1 found that 82 anglers weights went up on the 2nd day, while 77 went down. Only 1 angler caught the exact same weight both days.
• If you simply weighed a 5 fish bag of the average fish for each day, you would have amassed just shy of 25 pounds, would have finished in 54th place, beat approx. 65% of the field, and cashed a $4,000 check.
• If only one of your 10 average bass either day weighed 3 pounds or better, you would have finished in the top 50 and cashed a $10,000 check.
• You needed to average 11-6.5 lbs per day to cash a check, and 12-11 each day to snatch up one of the $10,000 checks – this on one of the best big bass fisheries in the country, where just 2 of the right bites could easly get that weight.

While we all like to win, when you change your focus off the massive sacks of the winners and instead, focus that attention on what it takes to just get a nice fat $10,000 check, competing at the Tour level seems a little more realistic.