Fantasy Bass Fishing Hot Tip

You want to up your odds of winning a prize in Fantasy Bass Fishing this year? Of Coarse, who doesn't, right? If so then I highly recommend you get yourself into the Tackle Warehouse League in FLW Fantasy Fishing and into the Tackle Warehouse Group for BASS/ESPN Fantasy Fishing. The ESPN Group is public so you do not need a password. The FLW sign up info is here...

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.