Thinking about fishing ABA in 2019....
So I'm thinking about fishing the central Florida Division of ABA in 2019. I've never fished ABA before but I have fished BFLs before my question is for guys who have fished ABA do you like it? Aand how does it compare to the BFL better, same, nott as good? Also will I need to have a link with ABA or am I guaranteed to be able to use my boat no matter what I'm not real sure based on the website. Anything else I should be aware of? Thanks for the input
They are basically the same except not as many boats and the payouts aren’t as good but guaranteed. The biggest thing is you have to be at the meeting the night before or pay money to be able to get a pass. Blast off is rolling boat checks like in the elites or opens not pre-check like Flw. You don’t have to have a link but helpful. I don’t think they do boat on boat draws anymore. The last one I fished I got to fish by myself which was pretty nice. I may fish a couple of them next year.
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I fish the north Florida ABA division. Ours is kinda open I guess. If you have a boat then you can use yours, you can also fish as a nonboater. The nonboaters are drawn the morning of the tournament with a boater. Most of the time I fish by myself. If you have a non boater you are not a team but rather still competing against one another. Most of the non boaters are there to learn. Ours is a small club, usually no more than 20 boats and a couple non boaters. It’s good club and the payouts are fair. You can qualify for the national event which I hear is a blast, depending upon the location.
Sounds pretty good I honestly have no problem at all with a co-angler but if given the choice I would rather fish by myself anyway. I'll probably wind up fishing the Central Division since most of them are on Kissimmee more than likely.
Not trying to confuse anyone but there’s two different Aba trails.
Aba Ram open series fish like the BFLs with 4 one day tourneys and a 2 day championship. They meet the Friday night before the tourney and you get paired with a Co angler. Boater vs boater and Co vs Co. They don’t get the boat numbers like BFLs and if there’s less Co anglers then boaters then some boaters go solo. The ones that I have fished seems like it’s always the same boaters that don’t get paired. I personally like the BFLs
Aba divisional fishing tour where you fish every month. Everyone fishes against everyone oand if you don’t have a boat, you will get paired with someone and each person gets the front of the boat for 4 hours. Sorry but my boat and my insurance I ain’t splitting seat time.
The open series is the one I was planning to fish. the main reason I was going to fish it over the bfl's is I can fish the central Florida Division and stay a lot closer to home fishing Kissimmee and Harris rather than making the trip to Okeechobee for all the bfl's.
I stopped fishing the BFL. Got tired of just fishing the Big 0.l like fishing the Ram Open better.
Ranger, my experience when I was a co, was that the Co got to fish his water (SPOTS) for half the day....they do not get front of the boat, unless Boater gives it to them. I have fished a couple divisions and it seems to be a flexible rule...lol
I dont know much about the open series. But for the ABA Divisional, yes you give the co-angler the opportunity to fish their areas(if they choose too), but they do not get to run or fish from the front of the boat. At least not from my experience.
That's the reason I'm switching, 4 or 5 Big O tourneys is more time on that lake than I really wanna spend....Originally Posted by GamblerAl
I only fished one Aba divisonal and that was about 6 years ago so maybe they’ve been more flexible on that part. I was told that morning of the tourney that we had to split the trolling motor time but luckily my Co just stayed in the back. Since then I had no interest in fishing them again lol.
Ranger
There are two different types of ABA division the one you refer to is the AFT division. The other is the RAM Opens There is no splitting trolling motor at all, or splitting spots unless the boater chooses to go to a co anglers spot. I believe 514 is asking about the RAM opens, which are ran exactly the same as the BFLs. With the main difference being if there are not enough co anglers to boaters then some boaters may fish alone. If the Ram Open series would get full fields it would blow the BFL payments out of the water. The payouts are lower due to participation being lower. The money is there for some great payouts if folks would fish them (ABA Ram Open).
Jaylaw, yes I understand the two different divisions, I’ve fished both. I only explained them because both were brought up and I was just clarifying the differences
yeh but nothing you said is in the rules.
2 type of tours, but neither allows CO's to run boat or chose where to go ( edit stand corrected on the where to go part)
If a local Director is saying that I would tell him to get bent and show me the rule book before letting HQ know.
I used to fish MBA and now ABA and see in my area we still have same director, rules are the same as well. Not sure whats going on in your area.
Last edited by Joe4d; 09-18-2018 at 01:21 PM.
Rule 15:
Partners must discuss sharing time for his/her selected waters prior to ooze-off. Each partner is entitled to an equal number of hours to fish his/her selected waters during divisional and national qualifying events.
Im with you here Mick! I just show up and fish and enjoy the smaller club competition.
but I still dont see anything about the Co running the boat ?
Yes, JayLaw, it's the opens that I'm asking about...
2019 Ram will be fishing Harris Toho and 2 on Kiss. The 2 day will be the Big O. .
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