I've fished a bunch of Top Bass tournaments and found Ted to be a pretty nice and friendly guy. I've fished a few of Andy's too and ditto.

You have to finish high to know about payouts, and I don't know much about that:?

But I do like that I can pit myself against a few dozen good angling teams for a chance to double or even triple my money (or better) for only half of $220. With the big fish pool there's two ways to cash a cheque. I like my chances competeing at bass fishing better than buying 100 lottery tickets, or giving my money to a casino...and I have way more fun and meet a lot of cool, like-minded people.

The more people fishing these events, the better the payout. I would encourage anyone who is interested to try tournament fishing for the experience, to spread the concept of catch-and-release and to help draw more practitioners to the sport...and more boats into every field...resulting in more bigger cheques at these tournaments.

Then we'll all be happy.