2010 BASS/ESPN Elite Series FBF Now Open

Sign up for ESPN Fantasy Fishing Here...

Well ESPN has changed their game once again this year; They have totally scrapped angler values and salary caps. Now there are 3 "Buckets" of anglers. The 1st Bucket has the Top 15 Anglers from last years AOY standings and you get to choose 2 from this Bucket. The 2nd Bucket has the next 15 anglers according to last years AOY race and you get to choose 2 from this Bucket. The 3rd Bucket has 21 anglers in it and you get to choose 1.

It seems to me that going to the Bucket system might not change the make up of fantasy line ups very much because the Bucket's conform similarly to what was offered in the angler point value system; Under that system you could field 2 top tier guys, but not really 3 and if you had 2 top tier guys you had to have a minimum of 1 guy at the very bottom of the totem pole of angler value, which would leave you with a choice of 2 mid to low angler value guys to fill out your roster.

Prizes this year go down 10 places for the Classic, 8 places for Elite Series Tournaments, and 10 places for the end of the year. No surprise that the ESPN prizes are not nearly as good as FLW Fantasy Fishing but all things considered the ESPN prizes are pretty good.
Full Prizes listing here...

For the Bassmasters Classic at Lay Lake rosters Lock: Feb 19 8:00AM ET.

2010 FLW Fantasy Fishing Open For Registration

FLW FantasyFishing.com is now open for business and the details of the game for 2010 are now out in full.

For familiarities sake I wish they would have kept the website layout the same, but honestly I can't say that I think the change of layout is worse than what was there last year. Heck it might be an improvement.

Scoring:
I think I like the new scoring system a whole lot better than what they did during the big money years. The emphasis is still all about picking anglers that make the Top 10 but now instead of those fluky exacta's (ie, picking a top 10 angler in his specific place of finish), you are instead heavily rewarded now for how high of a finish your selected anglers end up with. Now the game for all practical purposes is about picking multiple anglers that finish high in the Top 10, which means the winners will be the people with the best rosters, instead of the luckiest rosters due to exacta's.

Prizes:
This year things go back to the Fantasy Bass Fishing norm where only the very best of the best rosters win prizes. For both regular tournaments and the end of the year they are only going down a total of 15 places. I think if something is a bit of a disappointment to me this would be it. I would prefer they cut $35,000 out of the Top 2 end of the year prizes and spread the love out to the top 50 finishers of each tournament and in the end of the year. I think not spreading the love is a mistake and I suspect the number of people who play next year is going to be down significantly because of it.

Here are the Prizes:
FLW Tour Events - 6 Events
1st $5,000
2nd $500
3rd $100
4th-10th $50
11th-15th $25

Cumulative End of Season Prizes
1st $50,000
2nd $25,000
3rd A $5,000 Cabela’s gift card plus a 5-day guided fishing trip for two to Lake El Salto, Mexico $12,000
4th A BRP Can-Am Outlander 400 All-Terrain Vehicle. $9,699
5th $5,000
6th-10th $1,000
11th-15th $500

FLW Fantasy Fishing Launches 2010 Season

Hooray Hooray FLW Fantasy Bass Fishing is not going away.

I had my doubts that FLW Fantasy Bass Fishing was going to be a million dollar endeavor for more than the 1st year. I was shocked when they kept offering an insane level of prizes last year. It comes as less than no shock that the prizes come crashing back much closer to earth this year. However, I am happy to say that the prizes offered are still downright pretty amazing.

This is what FLW Outdoors has to say so far (click link for full article):

Fantasy Fishing is free to play, and participants will compete for a first-place prize of $50,000. Second place will take home $25,000, while the third-place finisher will walk away with Cabela’s Ultimate Fishing Trip, which includes a trip to Lake El Salto in Mexico and a $5,000 Cabela’s gift card. The fourth-place finisher will win a Can-Am ATV valued at $9,699. All the prizes for 2010 are guaranteed and include $5,000 to the winning player for each of the six FLW Tour qualifying events, as well as cash and prizes to the top finishing participants overall and in each respective qualifying tournaments.

Apparently the game is going to be scored a little differently this year. It looks like they are getting rid of the "exacta bonus" except for one on the tournament winner. I did not care for the luck factor involved with the exacta bonuses, so this change sits very well with me.

More details to be released soon.

BASS/ESPN Elite Series FBF 2009

Registration is now open and they have changed the layout of the game from years past. Selecting a team is definitely more time consuming and tricky to navigate than in years past. They have changed the anglers point system to monitary values and you get $100 to work with rather than the 60pts of years past, so for your five man roster you need an average of $20 per angler or less.

So far it looks to me like the $100 team limit loosens up angler picks a bit more than in years past. KVD is worth $25 and the lowest anglers are worth $12. 16 anglers are worth more than $20.

Upon first glance it looks like they got rid of Limit, Lunker, and Big Bag Bonus Points. It looks like the Fantasy points will strictly be place of standing in a tournament according to the Elite Series Angler of the Year point system. This is kind of a bummer I thought the bonus points were a good feature. I think going by AOY poins means there is a 5 point bonus for the angler in 1st Place each day of the tournament.

It looks like they got rid of Super 6 Pick 'em and "Tiebreakers" (Good Riddence)

The prizes are a step up from the last several years. Still for the Classic there are just 9 places, in the tour tournaments the prizes go down to 8 places, and the end of the year prizes go down 10 places, so basically winning a prize in this game will take an extremely good roster, even great rosters will not be good enough.

ESPN/BASS Elite Series FBF

Today is the day registration is suppose to open up for the Elite Series Fantasy Bass Fishing. I can't wait. I don't have a roster fully figued out yet for the Bass Masters Classic because I won't know the angler values until the new rankings come out. I may well NOT put Kevin Van Dam on the team for the Classic but you can bet he will be anchoring the BP boys the rest of the season.

Elite Series Fantasy Bass Fishing registration now open...

FLW 2009 is now open for registration.

If you are gonna play and get Players Advantage than you might as well use Dave "BP" Maas as the one who referred you which you can do by registering here.

FYI- If you played FBF with FLW last year, all you have to do to register is hit the "Log-In" tab and enter your email and password from last year and then you have to approve the rules and terms of use and your in. You will be automatically entered into the leagues you participated in last year and will even be given a team of anglers for the first event, of coarse you can edit that team to get the anglers ou want.

BP Commentary-They are going down 430 places with prizes this year as opposed to 639 last year and the scoring is the same lame system from last year with those bonus points for Top 10 picks and super bonus points for a Top 10 pick exacta. I suppose the change in prizes and the lack of change in the scoring are hardly surprising. I can't say I am that disappointed with the change in the amount of prizes because this game is so exceedingly generous it's almost preposterous even with the changes. $100,000 for 1st place and they could stop with the prizes right there and I would think they were nuts.

I am not really happy that they kept the same exact scoring system from last year because I think it just brings luck into the equation more than it has to be. I can see giving a big exacta bonus for getting the winning angler right but to have smaller but crucial exacta bonuses in the 9 remaining spaces of the Top 10 rewards blind luck over the skillful picks of a strong team inside and outside of the Top 10 where I think the Fantasy Bass Fishing points should rightfully be decided.

2008 FLW Fantasy Perfect Scores and More

Base Score
1-10= 1955
11-20= 1855

Tour Bonus Points: Toho, Lewis Smith, Loudoun-Tellico
Top 10=500x10= 5,000
Exacta#1= 2,000
Ex 2-10=750x9= 6,750
1-10= 1,955
Total 15,705

Open Bonus Points: Norman, Beaver, Detriot River
Top 10=1000x10= 10,000
Exacta#1= 4,000
Ex2-10=1500x9= 13,500
1-10= 1,955
Total= 29,455

Bonus Points: Forrest Wood Cup
Top 10=1500x10= 15,000
Exacta#1= 6,000
Ex.2-10=2250x9= 20,250
1-10= 1,955
Total= 43,205

Analysis: A perfect line up, besides being worth millions of dollars in the 7-up game would probably be enough to carry any team to the million in year end prizes. However the odds of putting together a perfect line up must make powerball odds wince.

Being Realistic:
A very solid base score is 1500
Getting 2 anglers in the Top 10 is doing really well.
Don't pin your hopes on ever getting an Exacta

Tour Events=1500+1000=2500
Open Events=1500+2000=3500
FW Cup=1500+3000=4500

I feel like these scores will be good to get a person into the Top 250 in prizes. I'll make an adjustment if needed after the Toho scores are released.

So 22,500 Would be a very strong showing for End of the Year Prizes. (Actually I think the million dollar winner will probably need something less than this)

FBF News 2008

I am a little slow on the draw, but the BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing and Super 6 pick'em are now open for registrations. Better hurry cause the classic starts Feb. 22.

The prizes this year seem to be a small step up from last year maybe. For the Classic they are going down 10 places and for regular Elite Series events they go down 6 places. I can't say that I am very impressed with the #1 prize for the classic: One (1) 100,000 Trip Reward Points from Ramada Inn ($500 ARV) for First Place.

Right now my leagues are: (This is subject to change if no one else sign's up)
Minnesocold Fantasy Bassmaster
Minnesocold Super 6

Hulkster Hawks FLW Fantasy Fishing: "Sign up or to the turn-buckle you go!"

Apparently he is going to have a Fantasy Fishing Blog.

I'm just glad they didn't go with Jesse "Govenor Turn-buckle" Ventura.