The upside is that from the sound of it there will be more events. So if some of the big names in trophy bass didn't come to this one, they will have more opportunities in the future.

In thinking about it more, I'm sure some guys just don't feel compelled to fish with an observer in the boat (and potentially with a camera rolling). I can understand that. Not everyone is all about winning money in fishing.

I also think that if I lived across the street from a great trophy lake like Casitas and knew it inside and out, I'd be reluctant to really get after it in some 10k tournament in front of someone. For 100k if I was on them, yea... I'd be tempted to do whatever it took. But for 10k, maybe not so much.

Going to Casitas is easy for me because I don't really know the lake very well, and in January I'm not going to do anything fancy trying to catch fish. In the end, I'll probably rig 5 rods and just go fish.

My money is on Rod Thigpin to win.