Story by Pete Robbins -  Posted - January 15th - 1:49pm CST  

Norman, OK. – Six days after shocking the Elite Series pros with a revised Elite Series format that significantly reduced payouts while marginally decreasing entry fees, on January 15th, BASS responded to the Elite anglers’ concerns by adjusting both figures to marks closer to their 2008 levels. While it was never certain whether the anglers would mutiny en masse, in all likelihood these measures could placate the pros and allow the season to go on without major dissension among the players.

Most notably, BASS restored the $10,000 checks for 26th to 50th place finishes, an amount that had been halved in exchange for reducing entry fees from over $5,000 down to $4,000. While the $100,000 top prize from last year has remained the same, every place between 12th and 25th will receive less money, arguably to make up for the reduction of total entry fee dollars. The payouts are based on a field of 102 anglers -- should participation fall below that level, payouts will be adjusted. Entry fees will now total $41,600 for the 8 events ($5,200 each) instead of $32,000 ($4,000 each).

BASS will also pull $225,000 from the Angler of the Year payouts. The AOY will now receive $200,000 instead of the original $250,000.

The schedule was largely left intact from what was announced last week – it will be pared down to eight events and then two no-entry fee tournaments for the top twelve in the AOY standings – with one meaningful change: The Champion’s Choice on Lake Oneida will be moved back to its original dates of August 13-16, thereby allowing Greg Hackney, Tommy Biffle, Mike Iaconelli and Takahiro Omori to fish both that event and the FLW Championship.

Elite Series pros still have the ability to opt out of the 2009 season by notifying BASS of that intention no later than January 27th.

Here is what several Elite Series anglers told The BZ about the new changes:

Clark Reehm
Second-year pro
“The new schedule is acceptable. My biggest concern is what is going to happen in 2010. We're paying money now to survive this year with the hope that things will go back to normal next year. Personally, I think it could hurt me on some of the deals I'm looking at. If a non-endemic looks and sees a lack of stability, that doesn't help.

“I know that everyone has ideas about how to change things, but it's probably not as easy as we all think. You have to take into account the anglers, BASS/ESPN and the TV guys from JM. And companies like Toyota, too. I'm sure they had to agree to take money out of the Angler of the Year program. If they were willing to do that, I'd commend them for stepping up and helping.

“I'm not wild about the two tournament playoff. I can see where some of the higher-echelon guys wouldn't be wild about it either, guys like VanDam, who won two tournaments last year. You can be way ahead in the points and then lose out. But with eight versus eleven it's likely to be closer. With only one year of experience under my belt, I'm not as consistently up there with those guys, I still have a lot to learn, but I just don't like the feel of it.”

Ish Monroe
Veteran California Pro
"I'm in and I'm fishing. That's all I have to worry about now. BASS is going to do what they're going to do and I'm committed to being there now. I knew that they were going to come out with another announcement, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I'm committed to fishing and I know that I have other avenues of making money.”

Edwin Evers
Veteran Oklahoma Pro
“I’m just glad that I have a place to fish where I can make a living and support my family.” 

Shaw Grigsby 
Veteran Florida Pro 
“Only having the top 12 anglers in the AOY race competing in the last two tournaments is really bad for all these competitors especially the guy sitting in 13th place to not get a shot with two tournaments left. The AOY should be awarded at the end of those eight tournaments and everybody should have the opportunity to be able to compete for Angler Of the Year. 

“You just can’t do things like this and demand that everyone walk a certain way. It’s not right. When you talk about taking the top 12 anglers and doing everything for them - they already get AOY money, they already get to go to the Classic. You ought to have 13th through the rest of the field fish to keep going and get their shot angler of the year and not shut the rest of the field out. It needs everybody there participating.” 

The NEW 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule