Pro Web Live, an Inside View

No doubt you've heard the buzz about Pro Web Live, which delivers live seminars by top pros like Aaron Martens, Jason Christie and Edwin Evers into your living room, and maybe you've visited the site and seen the list of pros and schedule of seminars.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a closer look that gave me a sense of just how cool and personal these sessions will be. I sat in on an early testing and training session that was designed to help the pros learn how the whole thing will work and to gain feedback from visitors using various types of browsers and computers and with internet connections of all speeds. Several similar sessions are planned because site administrators are determined to work out any bugs and to make certain presenters have a full understanding of all they are able to do before any sessions begin.

Martens, Christie, Dave Lefebre, Shaw Grigsby and Ott Defoe were all "in the room" during that session, and it was pretty cool how much it felt like we were all sitting together because of functions like a chat room, attendee list and question-and-answer area. I mostly stayed in the shadows, just watching to see how everything worked so that I could offer feedback, but I did chime in briefly after Lefebre noted that I was signed in.

The session I attended included no seminar. Instead, they were talking about all the options the pros would have for putting illustrations on the screen, sharing documents, linking to products they discussed and interacting with attendees, and it looks to me like each seminar will be a seriously cool experience. Seems ideal for a handful of friends to sign up for together and put on a big screen, timed perfectly, of course, for the session to begin shortly after the steaks come off the grill.

Below is a cool little teaser. Visit the Pro Web Live website to learn more about how it all works and too see the list of speakers, topics and dates.

Closer-to-Home Eufaula

Until I was asked which Lake Eufaula I was headed toward this week I hadn't stopped to think about the odd fact that while I've spent several days fishing on Oklahoma's Lake Eufaula, which is 825 miles from my North Georgia home, I've never fished a day on the nearer Lake Eufaula, which straddles the Georgia/Alabama border and is only 250 miles from here. Making it even more unusual that I've never fished the nearer Eufaula, it's one of the South's true classic bass fishing lakes and in fact is commonly called "the bass fishing capital of the world."

I've been there once to do a brief photo shoot and attend a tournament weigh-in, but I didn't fish at all and didn't actually even go out on the lake. So it's almost like I've never even been there.

I'm fixing that this week. I leave this afternoon, in fact, to drive four hours to Lakepoint State Park in Eufaula, Alabama. Today's plan includes arrival and settling in and then meeting and eating dinner with with other folks who are part of the trip, which is being hosted by the Alabama Bass Trail. Fishing begins tomorrow morning.

My understanding is that Eufaula is largely a structure lake, but I don't know a tremendous amount about how it fishes. With two and half days of fishing time planned this week, I look forward to learning much more about the fishing. I'm also looking forward to spending a bit of time in a boat with Aaron Martens and Russ Lane, neither of whom I've ever fished with before. Hopefully I will have some good fish stories to tell by Wednesday afternoon when I point the truck north again.

Sorting Out All Star Week

B.A.S.S. Photo Seigo Saito

Twenty-two anglers are fishing two separate events on three largely unknown Michigan waterways this weekend, with the competition beginning this morning. Fourteen B.A.S.S. All Stars are competing for total purse of $100,000 ($50,000 for first place). Eight top collegiate anglers are competing for a spot in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Guntersville. The tournaments themselves, which are concurrent, both follow unique formats.

The All Star event begins with all 14 anglers fishing two days on Muskegon Lake. The top four from Friday's and Saturday's fishing will move onto the final round, with weights zeroed, and fish a single day on Sunday at nearby White Lake for the championship. All fourteen anglers got practice time on both lakes this week.

The All Star field includes the top eight anglers in this season's Angler of the Year Standings (Aaron Martens, Edwin Evers, Kevin VanDam, Bobby Lane, Keith Combs, Alton Jones, John Crews, Chris Zaldain); rookie of the year (Hank Cherry); 2013 Bassmaster Classic Champion (Cliff Pace) and four anglers chosen through fan voting (Brandon Palaniuk, Mike Iaconelli, Gerald Swindle, Skeet Reece).

The College Series Classic Bracket, which will take place on the Grand River, just south of Muskegon, includes the four two-man teams that finished highest in the College Championship on Lake Chatuge earlier this summer. The anglers won't competing as teams, though. Instead they'll fish as eight individuals in an elimination-style event that will finish with two anglers fishing head-to-head on Sunday for the chance to be the college representative in the Bassmaster Classic.

Learn more about how to follow both events at the unfold at www.bassmaster.com.

Three Days, Three Leaders at West Point

Tommy Biffle led at West Point after the Day 3 weigh-in. Day 4 competition is going on now. B.A.S.S. photo by James Overstreet.

Only the Top 12 anglers remain in the hunt for title at West Point Lake, where the B.A.S.S. Elite Series has been competing this weekend. Each of the first three days has ended with a different angler atop the leaderboard, and based on BASSTrakk, which keeps a live tally of estimated weights, none of those three is in the lead early this morning (although one is in second place).

All three anglers who have led -- Greg Vinson, Aaron Martens and Tommy Biffle -- made the Top 12, so one of those three certainly could emerge as the West Point Champion. More so than is the case in many tournaments, all the anglers who are fishing today are in legitimate contention. Only four pounds and one ounce separate first and twelfth place, and while West Point has been extremely stingy this week, it has some very large bass in it that could be real game changers.

The top of the leaderboard isn't all that has changed during this tournament, though. The weather has been sporadic, and the pros don't seem to locked onto patterns or fish. Most have been searching anew each day, and the same thing is likely to be going on today, as yesterday's all-day rain almost certainly poured a bunch of new mud into the lake and changed things even more. They have found a few. BASSTrakk shows half the remaining field with at least one fish caught as of 8:05 eastern.

The pros will weigh in this afternoon at 3:15 eastern, and you can watch the weigh-in live on Bassmaster.com

Martens & Rose Win

Congratulations to Aaron Martens, B.A.S.S. All Star Week winner and to Mark Rose, FLW Tour Open winner. B.A.S.S. Photo by Seigo Saito.

Final All-Star Match-Up Set

All Star finalists Aaron Martens and Edwin Evers. B.A.S.S. Photo by Seigo Saito.

Aaron Martens and Edwin Evers both won their brackets comfortably yesterday and are set to go head to head today on Illinois' Lake Decatur. Martens and Evers had similar catches in the semi-final round on the same waters, with Martens weighing 8-13 and Evers weighing 8-6. Evers does not think he will be able to get back into the area he fished yesterday because the water level dropped significantly. Martens, on the other hand, intentionally left fish a couple of times yesterday. Both have figured out way to catch some of these fish in a lake that is fishing very tough, so it seems like execution will be critical and that any given fish on the line could make or break the final round.

And Then There Were Four

Edwin Evers was the top finisher in the first round of All Star Week. B.A.S.S. photo by Seigo Saito.

Edwin Evers and Ott DeFoe continued to roll on day two of  B.A.S.S. All Star week and easily took the top two spots in the first round of the event. Third and fourth places went to Aaron Martens and Gerald Swindle. The other eight All Stars are finished.

Except for determining match-ups, the order of the top four doesn't matter today. They begin with a clean slate as Evers goes against Swindle and DeFoe goes against Martens in an elimination round. Tomorrow the two winners will compete head to head in the championship round. Patterns and spots the pros have had working also don't matter because they are fishing a different lake for the remainder of the competition.

The Bassmaster Blog is a great place to log the action as it unfolds today and tomorrow.