No More Co-Anglers on the FLW Tour

So last week the news came out that there will be no more Co-Anglers on the FLW Tour. I knew the decision was probably going to happen as I heard about it during the pre-tournament meeting for the COSTA event that I fished on Kentucky Lake about a month ago. I think getting rid of the Co-Angler was something that FLW needed to do to make it so the Pros had an even playing field. Also I think their are a handful of Pros that didn't want to fish the Tour because of their being Co-Anglers. Co-Anglers were really influencing the outcome of the tournament. Some of the Co-Anglers on Tour were just as good as the Pros. While a lot of people will argue that your taking away the stepping stones to fish the FLW Tour by eliminating the Co-Angler I would tend to disagree. As long as opportunity remains for Co_Anglers in the BFL and on the Costa trail there are still plenty of opportunities to fish as a Co-Angler.

It will be all up to the Pro's now to make their own on the water decisions during the event. They will not be able to be tipped off by a Co-Angler figuring out the presentation. I know that from my experience in just fishing BFL's that I have figured out what the fish are doing sometimes and my Pro has capitalized on that before to have a better finish. Pro's will also be losing someone to net their fish for them. That being said you never knew what kind of experience a Co-Angler could have and how good they could be at netting fish. Some guys are great with the net while other guys you really have to wonder what they are doing. I think a lot of the Pro's will probably miss some of the Co-Anglers that they traveled with over the course of the year. Pros will benefit from not having to defend their spots against Co-Anglers so they will be able to make their fish last a lot longer than in the past when a good Co-Angler could really beat up a spot. I think only time will really tell if the decision is going to last. We might in a couple of years see Co-Anglers back on the Tour. I just think a lot is going to matter how FLW goes about things.