Since the Bassmaster Elite Series was launched in 2006, each year's schedule has included a few back-to-back events (two tournaments held on consecutive weeks). The shortening of this year's slate from 11 events to eight due to the sluggish economy eliminated two of the four double-dips that were booked for 2009, but there's still one more to go.
It'll start next week with the stop at Kentucky Lake, which will lead into the event at the Mississippi River in Iowa. The other back-to-back scenario took place in late March and early April (Dardanelle and Wheeler).
Kentucky Lake will be a Wednesday-through-Saturday event (June 3-6), whereas the Mississippi River will follow the traditional Thursday-through-Sunday format (June 11-14). There's 440 miles of highway between the launch sites in Paris, Tenn. and Fort Madison, Iowa, so the setup will give the entire field a full travel day on June 7 before practice at the Mississippi River gets under way the following day.
BassFan surveyed some veteran Elite Series pros to find out their opinions of back-to-back tournaments. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive, from both economic and performance perspectives.
Here's a sampling:
Denny Brauer
"They just make sense from an economic standpoint when you have two tournaments that are fairly close together (geographically). That way you don't have to drag (your boat) all the way home and then a week later drag it back again. And generally the more time you're on the water, the better you fish.
"Now that being said, I had to get an elbow injection after the tournament at Guntersville from setting the hook so much. I needed the break after that one."
Greg Hackney
"I fish for a living and I wish we fished every day during the season. I like to take time off when the end of the year comes, and we've just got way too much time off this year.
"I think these back-to-back deals help you stay a little more tuned in to the fish. Regardless of the body of water, you usually have a little better feel for what's going on. And if the first tournament's a good one, you want to take that momentum right into the next one. If it's a bad one, then you're hungry to get back out there and redeem yourself."
Shaw Grigsby
"I love 'em. Anytime we can do two of them in a row and then take a couple of weeks off, that's good. It's more economical and it allows you to get a lot of your other business done in between.
Shaw Grigsby says that putting a couple of tournaments together on consecutive weeks
"Everything works better when we have tournaments back to back, and I really wish BASS would take that to heart. If they want to have two tournaments in the same area, then let's go spend a couple of weeks there and then get out of that area."
Tommy Biffle
"The longer I'm fishing, the better I fish. What I don't like is having one tournament, and then a week in between before having another one.
"I'd be fine even with having three in a row, but two of them back-to-back is my preference."
Zell Rowland
"It really cuts our expenses back and we save a lot of money. The hardest thing to overcome is if you have a really bad tournament in the first one, it can be tough to get it turned around in the next 2 days.
"I probably wouldn't mind doing three in a row and then having about a 21-day layoff. But that would mean you're gone from home a month at a time, and that can be tough on us and tough on our families. When you're away from your family obligations for that long, it can be pretty grueling."
Davy Hite
"I like two in a row just fine when they're close together travel-wise. You can get two of them knocked out and then be home for awhile before you have to leave again and it cuts down on the time you spend on the road.
"And if your first tournament isn't good, you don't have to lick your wounds for long before you get a chance to go out and redeem yourself. But the sad part is if you have two bad ones in a row, you might have to live with it for a month."
Alton Jones
"One of the main reasons I like it so much is travel logistics – I can make very efficient use of my expenses. And there's something to be said about fishing every day. Even if it's on different bodies of water, it keeps you in tune with the fish.
"During the time off I'm doing (public relations) stuff and interviews and that kind of thing, and flipping the switch back to the fishing mode can be a challenge. Flipping that switch so many times isn't as easy as it might look to some people."
Rick Clunn
"I've always liked them because they're convenient for the anglers travel-wise, as long as the second one isn't more than half a day away from the first – 6 or 7 hours at the most.
Rick Clunn says it can be difficult for an angler to get back into the fishing mode after an extended layoff.
"Breaks can cost an angler a lot more than most people realize. It's good to be able to stay in the tournament mode, both physically and mentally. You can have good carryover from one to the next, even if they're entirely different (fisheries)."
Gary Klein
"I enjoy it. When I get in that groove and into the fishing mode, I'd much prefer to keep it going and not break the rhythm.
"More than anything else, I just like to have a day to recoup and get my tackle organized for the next event. To me, that's the way to do it."
Dean Rojas
"It makes it nice when you can spend 2 straight weeks in the fishing mode and you don't have to worry about other distractions. Back when I was fishing both tours (Bassmaster and FLW), I'd go from one tournament to the next and there would be periods when I'd fish 4 weeks in a row with a day off here or there for travel.
"Usually when I'd get in that mode, I'd be fishing really well. It can get tiring, but the flow is really nice."
Tim Horton
"I'm a fan of it, especially if the lakes are located near each other. It saves some time and expense. This scenario we've got coming up (with the first tournament concluding on a Saturday) is the way it needs to be.
"The tournaments can be quite a bit different – for instance, Kentucky Lake will probably be a deep, offshore event and Iowa will be more target fishing. You have to pack more tackle and more clothing, and you might have to be prepared to do laundry real quick."
John Murray
"I've always liked it, especially being from the West. I don't have to worry as much about things like finding a place to store my boat while I fly home. But it seems that I always do pretty good in both of them, or pretty bad.
"I'll probably have to empty my boat out after Kentucky Lake because I'll need a lot of new stuff for Iowa. It's like the back-to-back tournaments we've had in New York in the past – Erie and Oneida are such different fisheries."
Notable
> Brauer said he'd be in favor of having the campaign transformed into three mini-seasons – perhaps four consecutive events in the West, followed by four in the Southeast and four in the Midwest/Northeast, with a break of at least a couple of weeks between each segment.
