Thanks for the clarification - I had some bad info.

Just happened to see it in the magazine.

A lot of them die that have been released . I assure you they can't handle the stress

There's likely much more mortality in the summer than in winter, but there is no 100 percent "alive" rate for any tournament. Any tournament organization that says that is spewing bullshit. Even FLW with its water-tank weigh-in system will still have some mortality.

The post-release mortality figures are unknown, and no tournament organization wants to know. All they know is a gill flap moved - it's alive! - at the check station before the bag of fish struggling for air is weighed and then they're put in a tank to be released.

BASS has looked at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. Size was reportedly an issue when BASS looked in the mid/late 2000s but I agree with B'hamBuck that the Expo Hall could support it. Roads to Guntersville (and/or Wheeler) would be easier-faster-safer, too.

FLW has looked at the VBC for the Forrest Wood Cup and held a tournament there back in 2008, I believe, or 2009, with a huge final day crowd in the Expo hall. I asked whether they had scouted the Arena and if it could hold the Cup, and was told definitely - even with fewer seats than the BJCC or other larger coliseums, the slam-full smaller venue would be louder-cooler-great for TV.

Just a matter of the Huntsville-MadCo tourism leaders making the push to get it and getting money approved, along with working with others in the county-city in partnership. Both of those are stumbling blocks, for various reasons, one major one being they'd rather have multiple youth sporting events -- soccer, softball, hoops, etc. - here during the summer and "heads in beds" than one big event like a bass tournament. Other cities get it, though, which is why Florence and Guntersville and Decatur host tournaments and welcome them, and build big marinas and work with hotels/city-county officials.

No sour taste for this local! Im excited for it!!!!!

Well it's not like Guntersville is a big secret anybody that follows bass fishing know the kind of fish that live in Guntersville. As far as the weigh-in it probably has more to do with having room for the Outdoor Expo than really number of seats at a venue.

Guntersville already is known throughout the country. These guys aren't going to be "exposing" anything anglers don't already know.

I've traveled and fished from California to New York and Texas to Minnesota. Everywhere I go, I'm asked about one or more of these things when someone learns I'm from Alabama: Guntersville Lake, Robert Trent Jones golf trail, Auburn and Alabama football, and the Space and Rocket Center.

Not food, not racism, not tourism or the beaches or anything else. Usually it's one of those five, without fail, and if I'm on a fishing-related trip I usually am asked about Guntersville.

That lake hasn't been 'secret' for 40-plus years.

I'd trade jobs with them and not complain one bit!

Looks like fun, and it can be, but it's a rough life with no retirement plan and a lot of cutthroat behind-the-scenes stuff people don't know about along with organizational politics. A lot of those guys work at least one job outside of tournament season, if not two, and a wife working.

Only a few are truly making money and banking money. The majority are struggling or in the hole.

Sorry, but I know a few of those guys and never once have I heard them complain about their job. Looks like we are out of luck

Its all about the money thats why its at the bjcc.