Outdoors

A few weeks ago, FLW Outdoor announced their six-event Tour schedule for 2009. The first stop for the pros to kick off the season is on Lake Guntersville. Last week, BASS announced their Elite Tour schedule for 2009 and 2010. This is the first time BASS has announced the schedule for more than one season in advance.

BASS did not leave out Alabama for either of the two next years; actually it seems as though they want to camp out here. The had already announced last year at the Bassmaster Classic in Greensboro, N.C., the Classic locations for the next three years and Birmingham got the nod for the 2010 Classic. Now, Alabama gets a few more dates for next year's tour.

Last week, BASS choose Wheeler Lake for an early April stop. Then, after a trip up to Virginia, the Elite pros return for back-to-back tournaments in May on Lake Guntersville and Pickwick Lake. Some might speculate that Guntersville would really show off with a tournament in April, and I would agree based on previous events there.

Then in 2010, the BASS Elite anglers will drop anchor again on Pickwick in late April and then head over to Guntersville the following week. They will start the season out in California with back-to-back tournaments after the Classic in Birmingham. By the way, the lake for the Classic in Birmingham has not yet been released by BASS.

So let's see, that is three Elite events in 2009, and then the Classic and two Elites in 2010. That says a lot about the fisheries and our state. A majority of the pro anglers love to fish the lakes of Alabama and also enjoy the friendliness of the locals.

If I didn't mention any tournaments in Florida it was intentional. That is because there are no BASS events in Florida in 2009 or 2010. Go figure. ESPN moved the BASS headquarters to Mickey's home in Orlando a few years back, and now that dirty rat won't even have a Tour event in his home state.

Several changes were made with the Elite Tour beginning next year. There is a format change in which there would be no co-anglers fishing with the pros on the Elite circuit. This was seen as a positive move by the pros to make the Elite Tour a true professional circuit. Also, it does even out the field somewhat, as there are not any co-anglers helping the pros.

Also, some co-anglers might not fish that much or that hard and spend most of their day watching the pro, while other co-anglers might be very competitive and try to catch as many fish as they can. Also, in the early spring a lot of pros would "sight fish" for bass and that left the co-angler with nothing but a high-priced boat ride.

On the Elite Tour there will be one observer in the boat with the pro, but observers cannot fish. BASS did create a new Northern Open Division and co-anglers are allowed and encouraged to fish in all of the open events on the BASS circuit. BASS said they would release more information on the observers and on the Open schedules soon.