I asked some people i know why they dont want to fish the Pro team events , and what they basically told me was they are tired of donating their money to a select few teams most of the time , so they fish the WRL and FPT , 5 or 6 teams that consistently win.
So i asked , what because these few teams put in the time on the water to be good your not going to fish against them ? And the reply was , that is it . They are not going to work all week long then show up Saturday and donate their money to someone that has been on the lake all week long .
So from what i can gather it is not so much the cost of the tourneys , it is they feel that while they are at work 5 days a week others get to pre-fish and that is an unfair advantage , so right off the bat they feel they are fishing for 5th , 6th place or further down , which is usually just out of the money .
I know i have felt this way before going into a tournament when im at work all week long and i pass guys coming back from the lake while i have been at work all day , i see it alot and those are the guys who are at the top . Do i blame them for being able to take off ? Heck no that is great they have jobs that allow that , so i can imagine how some teams feel showing up to compete when they see the same thing .
I dont know what the answers are , i have wanted offlimits before and suggested it once at a Nor-Cal TOC meeting and got shot down real fast , no one would even listen to what i had to say .
I guess you can adjust how many teams are paid back and lower the entry fees to make it not feel as bad when you donate your money , but this isnt the real answer to the problem either . When i show up im there to win , and win big for 1st place , im not there to make the rest of the field feel good because they got part of the money that was spread down the field with a 1 in 3 payback .
I would like to see some of the Delta guys who are great fishermen come over to the Motherload circuits and see just how good they really are , maybe team up and fish the ABA or Nor-Cal Bass circuit . Maybe that would bring up the numbers in our area . I have seen Jim Davis , and Sean Stafford fish some Motherload events but where are the rest of the guys who are on the top 40 angler list ? Set an example and maybe others will follow your lead .
Im not sure what the answer is to fixing it all , but i do know separating anglers into different leagues is not the answer , or lowering the fees , or paying down the field more , it just makes some feel a little better for a short time .