THE BUSINESS NEWS OF FISHING.
Issue #191
1. Stat of the Day
PRESENTED BY: Sunline
2. Money Matters
PRESENTED BY: Big Bite Baits
Save Over 30% On Swimbait Head Kit
Fall is the perfect time of year to throw your favorite soft plastic swimbait on a jighead. Save over 30% on these 4 different styles with the Big Bite Baits Swimbait Head Kit. Check it out here.
3. Behind the Scenes
Fixer Upper On The Water
Bass Pro Tour angler Alton Jones recently rubbed elbows with co-star of the popular tv show Fixer Upper Chip Gaines. Jones fished a small local event with a great group, which included not only Gaines but country music star Eric Church. Alton was boat captain for Chip Gaines and Baylor basketball coach Scott Drew, while fellow Texan Kelly Jordan was the captain for Eric Church and Ben Weprin. Check out all of the photos from the event here.
4. Anglers Tribune
Masayuki's Ultimate Truck Camping Setup
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Masayui Matsushita had to call an audible on his housing arrangements after the first Elite Series event of the 2022 season on the St.Johns River. Matsushita had been using a pop-up camper, that was damaged when the top ripped off as he was heading to his next event after a great third place finish. With supply chain issues still making it difficult to get parts and supplies, Masa was forced to abandon his pop-up camper plan and make due otherwise. The solution was creating a great setup in the bed of his Toyota Tundra. Building a small plywood bed and equipping his space with a few necessities served Matsushita well throughout the entire season. A small solar panel power system on his camper top provides him with all of the energy he needs to power a microwave, and a small AC and air purifier. While this setup doesn't offer all of the comforts of home it was more than enough for Matsushita to compete all across the U.S.
5. Baits Not Being Talked About
Designed by BASS Elite series angler Morizo Shimizu with the goal of creating a high-level tournament-caliber crankbait, the Evergreen XV5 Shad Crankbait delivers hard-hunting action in a wide shad body profile that tapers down to a thin tail section. Perfect for a wide variety of retrieve techniques, this unique hybrid crankbait features slow-floating action that allows it to recover easily on a straight retrieve, but still rise slowly enough where it can be twitched erratically like a jerkbait. Equipped with three razor-sharp Japanese treble hooks, the XV5 crankbait has a concave V-shaped belly that allows the hooks to rest cleanly along the bottom of the bait, so they are always in the ideal position for hooking. Available in a range of realistic shad and panfish color schemes, the Evergreen XV5 Shad Crankbaits are the ultimate search bait by allowing for speedy tournament fishing with a retrieve, twitch, and pause style of cadence to cover water with incredible efficiency. Check out the full lineup here,
6. What We're Watching & Listening To
PRESENTED BY: Gamakatsu
Where Bass Go After Catch And Release Tournaments
In this episode of Blue Fish Radio, producer/host Lawrence Gunther, talks to Dr. Steven Cooke , a Carleton University biologist, avid angler and prominent researcher in fish ecology, physiology and conservation. A frequent guest on Blue Fish Radio, Dr. Cooke returns to share his latest fascinating research about smallmouth and largemouth bass. In particular, where they go and what they do after being caught and released, best practices for hook removal and more.Check out the podcast here.
7. Jersey Watch
PRESENTED BY: Denali
Keith Combs
Photo Courtesy Of Bassmaster
Recent Bassmaster Central Open champion Keith Comb's sponsorship lineup includes BLV Enterprises, BLV Vegetables & Vineyards, Chasin' Limits Apparel, Humminbird, KV Power, Loving Toyota, Minn Kota, Owner Hooks, Pipe & Steel Industrial, Ranger Boats, Seaguar, Shimano, Strike King Lure Company, T-H Marine, Tackle Addict, and Yamaha just to name a few.
8. Recommendations
Beat The Elements
Beat the elements this fall and winter with two new gloves from AFTCO. The Windblok Glove is the perfect garment for the early morning runs on tournament day. A tacky palm gives these gloves great traction on a reel or the steering wheel of the boat. The outside features a thermal lined fleece that blocks the wind and cold with ease. These gloves fit snugly around the hand to combat issues getting them on and off. With an added zippered cuff to get around the large part of your palm easily and a zipper that has a little "garage" it tucks away into to avoid it becoming undone while fishing. The fingertips are cut on the Windblok gloves to give you better dexterity when tying fishing knots and better sensitivity when trying to feel those sensitive bites. For those of you that prefer a full fingered glove, the AFTCO Element Fishing Glove was designed to increase warmth while increasing dexterity and feel. No longer do you have to choose between being comfortable and feeling the fish bite. You can have both! The Element Glove boasts cold weather features such as a neoprene cuff with TPR coating so it cinches tight on your wrist not letting out any warmth. A fleece lined poly thermal outer layer keeps the warmth in. The thumb, index and middle fingers have a fleece layer removed so there is extra sensitivity. A thin synthetic leather layer is found in the palm allowing more movement in the hand.
9. Best for Last
PRESENTED BY: AFTCO
Scoring Changes Announced For 2023 BPT
Major League Fishing (MLF), the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, announced today a scoring change for the 2023 Bass Pro Tour. The extremely popular catch, weigh, immediate-release format will remain, however scoring will change from every scorable fish counts to scoring each angler’s five (5) heaviest bass per day. The “every fish counts” format will remain for both the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and the General Tire Team Series.
The scoring change will slightly alter how anglers advance in each Bass Pro Tour event. The 40 anglers in Group A will compete on Days 1 & 3 and the 40 anglers in Group B will compete on Days 2 & 4. The top 20 from each group, based on the two-day, heaviest cumulative weight of five bass per day will advance to the Knockout Round (Day 5). Anglers who win the Qualifying Round will no longer receive an automatic Championship Round berth. Weights are zeroed for the Knockout Round, and 10 anglers will advance to the Championship Round (Day 6). Weights from the Knockout Round will carry over into the Championship Round, and the winner of the event will be decided by the heaviest Knockout and Championship Round two-day cumulative weight. 
“Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour was built to deliver a new level of excitement, to grow the sport and expand our fanbase,” said Kathy Fennel, Executive Vice President & General Manager of MLF. “Our fans love the drama and excitement that the Bass Pro Tour every fish counts format provides, but they also want to see the best anglers in the world fish for their best five, like those fans do every weekend. Major League Fishing is so fortunate to have the logistical capabilities, and the flexibility of our anglers, to be able offer both scoring formats in our tournaments – the best of both worlds.
“This scoring change on the Bass Pro Tour next year is not a departure from our brand,” Fennel continued. “We are simply looking to make improvements requested by our fans and pros alike while remaining true to the two most important tenets of the Bass Pro Tour – our SCORETRACKER® live-scoring leaderboard, and our conservation-focused catch, weigh, immediately-release format.”
After connecting with and hearing the same feedback from numerous different fans throughout the year, a group of Bass Pro Tour anglers approached the league with the suggestion to change the scoring format from every fish counts to the five heaviest bass. After discussions with multiple stakeholders, BPT anglers were polled on the possible scoring change. By an overwhelming majority, the anglers voted with their fans for the change.
“I’m really excited about this change, and I think it will really resonate with our hardcore tournament audience,” said Berkley pro Jordan Lee, the 2020 Bally Bet Angler of the Year. “As exciting as ‘every fish counts’ is, the five-fish scoring just really hits home with our fans. The sport of tournament bass fishing is used to competing in that scoring format, and I believe some of the hardcore tournament anglers that may not have followed us as much as they used to will like this scoring change. I think Major League Fishing did a great job in handling this – this is a piece of the puzzle that will make it the best viewership experience for the fans as well.”
“The majority of tournament anglers fish under the five-fish scoring format, so this shift will make it more relatable to them,” added Kevin VanDam, who has more than $7.1 million in career earnings. “This also forces us to totally focus on big fish. It’ll vary from body of water to body of water, but this (five-fish) format requires a different mentality. It’s what I’ve done my whole career up until we started the Bass Pro Tour, so I don’t think this will be a big transition for me, at all.”
The fifth season of the Bass Pro Tour, professional bass fishing’s most prestigious circuit, will showcase the top 80 bass anglers in the world competing in seven regular-season tournaments for millions of dollars – including $100,000 winner payouts at each event, valuable points in the Bally Bet Angler of the Year race, and to qualify for REDCREST V, the Bass Pro Tour championship, and the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event. The 2023 season kicks off with Stage One on the Kissimmee Chain, in Kissimmee, Florida, Feb. 13-18.
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Issue #191
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