Go back to previous topic
Forum nameFreshwater Fishing in California
Topic subjectMajor League Fishing - Episode 1 - Reviewed
Topic URLhttp://www.calfishing.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=3&topic_id=18367
18367, Major League Fishing - Episode 1 - Reviewed
Posted by swimbait, Tue Feb-14-12 07:42 PM
Admittedly curious, I decided to sample Major League Fishing (MLF) last night to see what the hoopla was about.

Lacking cable TV, I hooked the iPad to the TV and tested out the sample clip. Looked good! No different than plugging in with the NBC app to watch The Office.

Whipped out the credit card and dropped the $17 for the full season. Logged back in on the iPad and found that the actual episode was in Flash and not compatible. Bleh!

So back to the computer I went. 2 hours and a slightly stiff neck later I would say yes, it's worth the price :)

There's a slightly raw feel to the production. They're shooting fish eye lenses on the water and the three pounders all look like 5's. It's not polished like an episode of the Bassmasters.

The tradeoff is the amount of pure "catch and catch" footage you get. It's off the charts compared to most shows. And it's awesome. When you see a guy catch two fish it gives a rough sense of what is going on. When you see him catch 12 fish you can get inside his head a little bit.

Van Dam is out there firing the 6XD from minute 1 and putting fish in the boat an outrageous pace. Aaron plays KVD for a bit but settles in to a drop shot bite in 35 feet, making mince meat out of 2 and 3lbers.

Ehler is hunting it down, ripping, texas rigging a senko and drop shotting robo. His adjustments on the water are impressive. Then there's Quinn the only guy going for it full bore with the A-rig and he's just having a party on some schooling fish.

Amistad fishes kinda weak in the show. There's school fish that are 1 and 3/4 to 2 and 2 and 3/4. The bigger grade of fish are mostly skinny rails but there's enough of them to make it interesting. The battle between Ehler and Martens for the cut spot is fun and you can see the guys getting legitimately fired up toward the end.

Gripes? It's hard to see what the guys are using and they don't do any tackle shots. Because you're wondering if Brent is throwing shad pattern robos or greens with brown right? And you're wondering what jerkbait Kevin is throwing when it slicks off mid-day. But you only get a flavor.

There's the aspect where all the boats are the same and that brings a level of fairness to the competition that's cool but when you see these 18 foot Nitros listing to one side and kinda puttin along as the guys run to their spots with 3 guys in front of a 150, it feels a little weak. Maybe in a subsequent season they'll put them in some 20 footers with 250's on the back.

Maybe they'll take away their graphs too :) It's eye opening to see how these guys electronics and how dependent they are on it. One of the cool moments for me was when Ehler sees a fish on the meter, winds up his other bait at high speed and puts a drop shot on that fish in a split second. It eats and it's a 5lber. That was sick.

At 2+ hours per episode with only one day per episode I can't wait to see the next one. I hope they're successful with this thing. It's a lot more interesting than the typical fishing tournament.
18368, RE: Major League Fishing - Episode 1 - Reviewed
Posted by Nico, Fri Feb-17-12 11:19 AM
Good stuff. I was impressed how well that lake let every fisherman catch fish doing whatever they wanted to do. Clearly there was one winning technique, but people were in the running doing all sorts of weird stuff.

It looked like Kevin was throwing an Ito Vision or copy of it.

Also, those guys love them some braided line.
18369, RE: Major League Fishing - Episode 1 - Reviewed
Posted by swimbait, Sun Feb-19-12 11:26 PM
Episode 2 was fun. Bless you Iaconelli for catching a fish while half your tacklebox was snagged to your ass :D :D :D I mean don't just get the junk snagged to you, keep fishing with it attached. Terrific stuff! I was laughing pretty hard.

Amazed no one was throwing the triple trout at this place. Crazy fast topwater burning action with skinny bass in clear water? Oi.