By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
(Editor’s note: In observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, a new First Cast story will not appear until Tuesday, Jan. 16.)
It’s a clean slate. A fresh start. A new beginning.
The 2018 season is nearly upon us and there’s plenty to chew on in terms of new stuff – new competitors, old competitors in new boats, new venues, new rules, new sponsors. All that’s missing is that new fish smell.
Barring any unforeseen withdrawals, 298 anglers will compete as pros in 2018 – 187 on the FLW Tour and 111 on the Elite Series.
The season will officially get going in two weeks at Lake Okeechobee, which will host the FLW Tour season opener. Expect a somber tone as the organization and sport, for that matter, continue to process and grieve the loss of Nicolas Kayler, the Florida man who died at Okeechobee after he was ejected from a boat on day 1 of the FLW Series tournament last week.
The fallout, in terms of what new safety rules and regulations could be instituted, will be possibly the biggest story of the year – and rightly so. Among the other compelling storylines to follow this season are:
> How will longtime FLW Tour studs Wesley Strader and Shin Fukae fare in making the transition to the Elite Series?
> Will the field close the gap on Casey Ashley at Lake Hartwell in March?
> What does reigning Forrest Wood Cup champ Justin Atkins have in store for his sophomore season on the FLW Tour?
> How, if at all, will being the reigning B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year change how Brandon Palaniuk fishes?
> Will Kevin VanDam run his career B.A.S.S. win total to 25?
> Will anyone get lost trying to find Pierre, S.D., and Lake Oahe?
> Can Bryan Thrift, whose wife is expecting the couple's second child in June, pick up where he left off in 2017?
> Can David Dudley notch at least one top-10 finish for the 13th straight season?
You New Here?
Each new season brings a little bit of turnover to each circuit’s angler roster. Some of it is performance-based. Some of it is attrition. Some, unfortunately, comes down to finances. At the same time, new opportunities arise and new faces are given a chance to launch a career while others get a different taste of the big time.
Bassmaster TV analyst Mark Zona called 2017 the year of the rookie on the Elite Series based on the success enjoyed by the likes of Dustin Connell, Jamie Hartman, Mark Daniels, Jr and Jesse Wiggins, but this year’s crop is just as capable of matching wits with last year’s newbies.
Same goes for the FLW Tour, which has seen rookies win six times since the start of the 2012 season, including Bradley Dortch last year at the Harris Chain of Lakes.
Here’s a rundown of who left each circuit following 2017 and who’s arriving on the scene:
Elite Series
> Out: Clent Davis, Chad Grigsby, John Hunter, Koby Kreiger, Shane Lineberger, Chad Morgenthaler, Britt Myers, James Niggemeyer, Brett Preuett.
> In: Rookies – Chris Groh (Northern Opens), Ray Hanselman Jr. (Central Opens), Roy Hawk (Central Opens), Kyle Monti (Southern Opens), Hunter Shryock (Southern Opens), Randy Sullivan (Central Opens), Caleb Sumrall (B.A.S.S. Nation), Bill Weidler (Southern Opens), Jake Whitaker (Northern Opens). Newcomers – Shinichi Fukae (Southern Opens/FLW Tour), Wesley Strader (Northern Opens/FLW Tour).
FLW Tour
> Out: Tracy Adams, Cody Bird, Jamey Caldwell, Jeff Cannon, Peter Cherkas, Marshall Deakins, Jim Dillard, Ron Farrow, Jonathan Henry, Joe Holland, Powell Kemp, Mike Kernan, Daniel Kweekul, Michael McCoy, Brandon Medlock, Drew Montgomery, Dan Morehead, Blake Nick, Stephen Patek, Alvin Shaw, Bill Smith Jr., Austin Terry, Rodney Thomason, Chad Warren.
> In: Rookies – Taylor Ashley, Matt Becker, Clint Brown, Tim Cales, William Campbell, Todd Castledine, Russell Cecil, Sheldon Collings, Matt Garner, Cameron Gautney, Cody Hahner, Steven Hatala, Miles Howe, Freddy Hurley, Rob Jordan, David Larson, Wes Logan, Greg Mansfield, David Nichol, Craig Rozema, Tyler Stewart, Furman (Joe) Thompson, Andy Wicker, David Wootton, Ronald Young. Newcomers – J. Todd Tucker, Preuett, Niggemeyer, Myers, Hunter.
Also, the following anglers are making a return to the FLW Tour after an absence: Glenn Browne, Ryan Chandler, Glenn Chappelear, Clent Davis, Darrell Davis, Scott Dobson, Tony Dumitras, Richie Eaves, Grigsby, Randy Haynes, Kreiger and Morgenthaler.
Drive Time
Some pros like to tell the joke that they’re full-time truck drivers who stop to fish for a few days every now and then. There might be some truth to that, especially when tallying the number of miles each angler has to travel to get to each tournament before heading back home or driving to the next event.
With the help of Google Maps, I plotted the waypoints for each launch ramp that’s expected to be used this season for each FLW Tour and Elite Series tournament. I then calculated the driving distance between each tournament for both circuits.
With nine regular-season tournaments, plus the Angler of the Year Championship, the Elite Series schedule has 10 stops on it while FLW has eight, counting the Forrest Wood Cup.
Starting at Lake Martin in Alexander City, Ala., and winding over to Texas twice before heading to Minnesota and South Dakota prior to visiting the New York-Ontario border, Elite Series anglers would log 7,113 miles if they drove from one ramp to the next for the entire schedule.
Obviously, the mileage total will be much greater than that, but that’s the bare minimum they’ll drive during the 2018 season.
Two of the trips are longer than 1,100 miles – Lake Travis to the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis., is a 1,193-mile trip and Lake Oahe (Pierre, S.D.) is 1,478 miles away from the Upper Chesapeake Bay.
Below is the layout of the Elite Series schedule:
Drive times for FLW Tour anglers will be less grueling, but still checks in at 3,123 miles. There are three trips shorter than 300 miles each and the longest jaunt would be from Lake St. Clair in Detroit, Mich., where the season finale will be held, to Lake Ouachita in Arkansas.
Here’s the layout of the FLW Tour schedule:
Can’t Geaux There
When the Elite Series last visited the Sabine River in 2015, the tournament was overshadowed by a protest, a disqualification, an appeal and the eventual overturning of said disqualification, all stemming from a dispute over what was considered public or private waters in the state of Louisiana.
To read more about the 2015 ordeal that involved now former Elite Series competitors Mike Kernan and Dennis Tietje, click here.
This year, in an effort to avoid any controversy when it comes to where competitors can and can’t fish, B.A.S.S. has made Louisiana waters off limits for the entirety of the tournament. The announcement came last August and could change how anglers game plan for the event.
Louisiana laws differ from other states when it comes to public access to waterways and that creates gray areas for anglers as to where they can legally fish. That fact has led to headaches for B.A.S.S. and subsequently may force the organization to avoid the state altogether when compiling future schedules.
Boat Moves
With the White River Marine Group’s acquisition of Legend Boats last August, the decision was made to reassign members of the Legend pro staff to other brands under the White River umbrella. While FLW Tour angler Chris McCall has opted to compete out of his 2017 Legend this season, here’s where everyone else landed for 2018:
> Triton: Fred Roumbanis, Jacob Wheeler
> Ranger: Jordan Lee, Matt Lee, Scott Ashmore
> Nitro: Stetson Blaylock, Chris Lane, Fletcher Shryock
No More Holes
The 2018 season will be the first year Elite Series anglers are no longer allowed to use penetrating cull clips. The rule change was made following last season and competitors are now required to use a non-penetrating version of the clips that are used to keep track of how many fish are in the livewell and sort them by size.
The FLW Tour continues to recommend use of non-penetrating clips, but has yet to make them mandatory.
Something’s Missing
One thing the 2018 season won’t include is an FLW Tour event at Beaver Lake, marking the second time since 2004 the circuit has not visited northwest Arkansas.
