Registration for the 2012 FLW Tour begins today.
The 2012 Tour Angler of the Year will again win $100,000 and will again earn a berth in the following year's Forrest Wood Cup (as will the Cup champion).
The start of registration also means the 2012 Tour rules have been published. There's one obvious change – the addition of another Scott Martin rule.
Martin used his personal Garmin electronics during finals competition to win this year's Forrest Wood Cup. Martin simply carried the electronics onto the FLW Outdoors-supplied boat and ignored the onboard electronics.
A new addition to FLW Tour Rule 19 reads: "No additional marine electronics, marine/automotive batteries or generators may be installed or used in FLW Outdoors supplied boats."
Interestingly, this is the second FLW Tour rule directly attributed to Martin. In 2004 he used a jet-drive on day 2 of the Logan Martin FLW Tour Championship and went on to finish 2nd. FLW Outdoors barred the use of jet-drives the following season.
It runs in the family. There's an ongoing joke in the sport, reportedly based on substantial truth, that most of the sport's rules were written directly for Martin's father Roland.
"I'll probably never get dad on wins or Angler of the Year, but maybe I can surpass him on rules changes," the younger Martin quipped when informed of the new rule.
BassFan is awaiting clarification from FLW Outdoors to determine whether the new rule also prohibits the use of HydroWave units.
