FIRST CAST : JOEL SHANGLE
change for the sake of improvement
I
’ m hesitant to start the first Editor ’ s Note of 2023 – happy belated New Year , by the way – with a quote , but there ’ s an oldie ( but goodie ) from Henry Ford that pretty accurately sums up the feeling around the Major League Fishing offices as we pick up speed in the current tournament year – certainly among the group of hardworking men and women who make their living administering the six different levels of tournaments in the MLF solar system .
So I ’ ll paraphrase Mr . Ford : Change for the sake of change is never a good idea , but change for the sake of improvement is brilliant .
If you ’ ve been with us for awhile ( most of you have been ), you understand that we ’ re not afraid to change things up at MLF . Over the past four years alone , we ’ ve evolved from a television show with a unique , exciting competition format to an 80-angler live tournament circuit where the greats of the game compete ; we ’ ve welcomed the world ’ s largest , most diverse roster of bass anglers and tournament purveyors into the fold when we joined forces with FLW ; we ’ ve changed some names , changed some trophies and made some alterations that better fit the MLF brand as a whole . If we believe that something will work better , we ’ re willing to give it a hearty try .
That said , some of the changes announced in late fall / winter of 2022 and currently playing out early in the 2023 season were some of the smartest course adjustments we ’ ve ever made , in my opinion .
LITTLE CHANGES INSIDE THE BIG CHANGE
By the time you read this , you will have likely witnessed the first Bass Pro Tour tournament played in the “ best five fish ” format ( at Lake Toho , of all places , where the BPT held its inaugural event in 2019 ). After 27 regular-season tournaments , three championships and two special events played under the “ every scorable bass counts ” scoring structure , the 2023 change to a five-fish daily limit was a hotly debated topic back in October , when the change was announced .
Rightly so . It represents a monumental ( and I believe healthy ) change to the basic structure of the Bass Pro Tour game , but the kind of change that I believe a majority of you dyed-in-the-wool tournament anglers can get behind . You ’ ll relate better to the scoring standard – everybody reading this knows that a 25-pound bag of five smallmouth is tremendous ; a 92-13 day of 25 smallmouth sounds excellent , too , but is it as impressive ? It ’ s hard to attach clear context to numbers you ’ ve never seen before . Nearly 93 pounds of smallmouth is good , for sure … but how good ?
A slightly more nuanced change to the BPT tournament week is the dismissal of the automatic Championship Round berth for the Group A and Group B qualifying round winners . Digging deeper into the six-day Bass Pro Tour tournament schedule , the championship is no longer decided by a one-day sprint , where weights were zeroed after the Knockout Round and the heaviest weight on Day 6 was the winner . This year , BPT championships will be decided by the two-day cumulative weights of an angler ’ s five best fish in the Knockout and Championship Rounds .
To me , that ’ s a compelling change . You ’ ll still see the dominators of recent years hovering near the top of SCORETRACKER ®, but they ’ ll be there thanks to slightly different strategies than in the previous format .
There ’ s a bustling tournament season ahead , readers ! I ’ d be interested to hear your thoughts on these changes : Am I right ? Am I out in left field ? My line is always open at joel . shangle @ majorleaguefishing . com .
joel shangle , editor-in-chief
6 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023