Former Bassmaster Elite Series angler Marty Stone is coming out of retirement to not only participate in Major League Fishing (MLF), but he also plans to fish as many tour-level events with FLW Outdoors as he can in 2012. He said he's spoken with Operations Division president Kathy Fennel and was told that he should be able to get into each of the four Opens, and he was given guidelines for applying to compete in the six Majors.
"What a lot of people don't realize is that my career started at FLW, and now I'm going back to familiar ground," he said. "I've always looked at it as a purely fishing tournament trail. They do a great job of putting on quality events and the (entry fees) are a fair price for what the payout is.
"I've had a year to sit back and re-evaluate some things. I really thought that I was done and that all I wanted to do was be home with my family. But the way FLW has things set up, my family can be with me a lot more. (FLW doesn't) have back-to-back events and the season's spread out over the full year."
He said he has some unique sponsorship proposals in the works that won't conflict with FLW's restrictions, but he can't reveal their nature at this point. "It's going to be heavily interactive with a lot of digital data," he said.
Meanwhile, he's extremely excited about MLF's potential.
"Never before have the anglers had an ownership stake in the product – we've always fished for the entry fees that we paid ourselves. With this, we've got a 50% ownership with the Outdoor Channel.
"Plus, I'm just thrilled that we'll have (MLF commissioner) Don Rucks and (MLF GM) Jim Wilburn on our side of the table, negotiating for us. (Rucks) was one of the best sponsors I ever had when I was with Citgo. If he told me there was a tournament tomorrow on the moon, I'd pack my bags and not ask any questions."
