What happened to the bassmaster classic

Just seen the 54 who made the classis. Its not the same to me any more. No Ashley, Christie, Evers, no Lane brothers, no Lee brothers, no Hackney, Wheeler, Swindle, Martens, and Iaconelli or Van Dam and no last year winner Defoe and the list goes on. The classis is the best of the best win it your the man. Was thinking about going to the classic this year but its not the same without these guys we been watching for years. I hope major league fishing will come up with some kind of classic we are used to. I just cant get excited about the classic this year I don't know who to pull for. What are your thoughts about the classic now that all the big names are not in it.

I was skeptical on what the 2019 Elite series would look like with all the household names gone but I was pleasantly surprised after keeping up with it all season. The people who participated in the 2019 season will make up the 2020 Classic so I see no reason why it will disappoint me based on what I saw in the 2019 season. When you say BASS is not the same I totally understand but there were multiple people who rose to the occasion and made the season very entertaining to watch. For me personally it was one of the most interesting seasons I can remember for quite sometime even though I knew very little about some of the anglers.

Although he did not qualify for the 2020 Classic Rick Clunn came straight out of the gate in 2019 and notched another Elite win. There were anglers eliminated in that event that were not even born when Clunn won his 4th Classic in 1990 and they stayed just to watch a living legend hoist the blue trophy. Yes Rick Clunn is a household name and the OP was talking about how the field looked different but Rick has been in the shadows for the last decade or more (other than his 2016 season) so unless your very young or just don't pay attention to professional bass angling you may not recognize that name.

Anyways...Yes there was new or relatively unknown names who rose to the spotlight. You have the Johnston brothers from Canada and Carl Jocumsen from Australia who made a big showing. Then there was people like Jamie Hartman, Seth Feider and Brandon Cobb who stepped up and had a big year. Scott Canterbury won what was probably one of the closest AOY races that involved multiple people going into the last event. Then there was Chris Zaldain who seemed like he was in contention to win 3-4 events but came up short. Although these names may not be traditional household names we are use to seeing in BASS I can assure you it was entertaining to watch these people step up and carry the torch.

As for your statement "I hope major league fishing will come up with some kind of classic we are used to"... this will never happen based on their format. MLF does not have any fan interaction when it comes to weighing fish. Most fans attend a traditional style weigh in to see the anglers and see them weigh fish. This will never happen in MLF with their format. Plus MLF has removed the suspense of not knowing who is going to win. I will use the Redcrest as an example. The MLF BPT Redcrest is their "Major". It's MLF's equilivent of the Bassmaster Classic or the FLW CUP. When Edwin Evers won the event the only people present were the few boats that were around. The clock ended and he had no family or fans to share the experience with. There was no suspense of who will win because score tracker reveals the weights so nothing is hidden, therefore removing any suspense of who will win. Now granted there can be suspense if it is close but Edwin was on the motherload. There was no one even close so you knew he had it won well before the clock struck zero. To me it was like watching a basketball game and one team was up 32 points with 8 minutes left to go in the game but there was no crowd in the stadium to see the game. So why continue watching it when you already know who is going to win and there is no fans there to celebrate with the team. That may be a poor analogy but it is what it felt like to me.

Now don't let my last paragraph make you think I am anti MLF. I do watch it and I do find the every fish counts format somewhat entertaining. I just wish there was a way they could have more fan interaction and also have some more suspense as to who will win but with their format that is just simply not feasible. I will always be more attracted to the 5 fish format but I will continue to watch MLF even though I dislike their format...my point is I am a fan of bass fishing and I like watch professional bass anglers.

Another thing I want to clarify is I am not 100% pro BASS. Reason being BASS created the situation that led to to mass exodus. I would be blind if I did not see that. Had BASS decreased the entry fee instead of increased the entry fee it would have helped. Plus when they put together schedules that include South Dakota, Florida and New York all in the same season this creates a big traveling expense on the anglers. Had BASS made it more profitable for the angler there would have never been a reason to start MLF. I suppose I may have gotten this thread a little off track from what the OP was trying to discuss so to keep it in line with what his discussion was started about...BASS put on a great show in 2019. I see no reason why 2020 will be any different. Regarding the 2020 classic it will be the 50th so I see it being an even bigger event than in the past.

Evidently bass wouldn't address the needs & wants of the anglers (their bread & butter) so they went to MLF. I wish they were still at bass too. I'm also not watching MLF to see them either unless it changes a lot because i can't stand the format. The putting down of the evil livewells that they never had a problem hauling fish around in while trying to become a big name in the sport is just being a bunch of hypocrites . I really like watching Christie, Wheeler, Defoe & KVD but i haven't saw them since they left. Thankfully Paulanik is back with Bass. I'd say you're going to see a bunch more try to come back to Bass in the future unless something changes because most of the bigger names have pretty much became irrelivant. I mean how often do you hear about KVD since leaving Bass & he's the top money winner of all time? They also claim a lot of anglers are having it a little rough financially because a lot of sponsor money has been lost because they were told they'd have to kick in more & instead some of them bailed. Gene we were typing our somewhat different opinions at the same time evidently. lol