FLW Outdoors communicated what it said was an error concerning its East/West Fishoff. The previously published date of Jan. 17–19 was incorrect, said FLW Outdoors VP of communications Dave Washburn. The Fishoff, he noted, was rescheduled "some months ago" to Feb. 14–16, but the original date was "inadvertently" printed in recent news releases.
The Fishoff pits the Top 30 pros from the Eastern FLW Series against the Top 30 from the Western Series, with the 30 winners of each bracket advancing to the 2008 Forrest Wood Cup.
The good news for most pros is the new date moves the event away from the Okeechobee FLW Series. Originally, some Fishoff competitors might have missed a portion of the Okeechobee practice. The bad (actually horrible) news for a few pros is the new Fishoff date falls right on top of official practice for the 2008 Bassmaster Classic.
And even if Classic qualifiers wanted to miss Classic practice for the Fishoff, they perhaps couldn't. The Elite Series participation agreement mandates that Classic qualifiers participate in the Junior Bassmaster World Championship, which takes place during the Fishoff. There is a clause in the participation agreement that might allow anglers to miss the "Junior Classic," but pros in general don't like to disappoint kids.
Two pros this new date immediately affects are Steve Kennedy and Tommy Biffle, who are presently qualified for both the Classic and the Fishoff. When BassFan called them for comments, they both said they were surprised to learn of the new date, and the conflict.
Kennedy said: "I just heard about it (from BassFan). I don't know what I'm going to do."
Biffle said: "I'll wait and see what happens and what the dates are (when they're published). Surely they wouldn't put (the Fishoff) on top of the dates for Classic practice."
