Just to clarify once more. I am talking about the new 6 tournament weekend tournaments that BASS has put out targeted at the weekend tournament angler. Similar to the BFL.
i’m not just talking about minnesota or wisconsin. there is nothing in illinois, indiana, ohio, michigan, iowa. Nothing. Even with the no culling rule. BFL still fishing in wisconsin. It just comes across as disrespect to me. Only my opinion.
i would be willing to bet the turnouts for the ABA tournaments would be better on pool 19 than any of the districts up north. I say that for one reason. On any given weekend up north i can choose to fish at least one tournament on saturday and one on sunday. However, there are very few throughout the year on pool 19 even though there are a lot of bass anglers in the area. i am not saying there will be 50 boats, but i can imagine 25 fairly easily. there are numerous bass clubs in the area and i would imagine many of the fisherman would fish them.
The charity tournament was a great success. There was a total of 143 boats and the winning team weighed five fish for 14.05 lbs. It is really a well run tournament and my favorite that i fish each year. There was a big banquet the night before at Grace Marine with a free grillout and guest speakers. Then on saturday there were litterally dozens of volunteers at the town of albany telling you exactly were to go and what to do. they have it set up in an assembly line fashion starting about a mile away from the launch. it includes, registration checkers, live well checkers, boat plug checkers, launch helpers, and free tackle bags with soda. Plus the weighin is a drive up which helps the weigh in be very organized and smooth running.
As far as the fishing goes. Well from what i heard the better fishing was up on pool 13 again and the usual techniques were working. anything from frogs in the pads to tubes and crankbaits in the current.
Basstracker,
Wait until the winter and hit the fishing shows. those are a go to crankbait for me and i was very upset when they were discontinued. however, over the past two winters i have been able to stock up on roughly 35 by going to the fishing shows. They are usually very easy to find.
So if i am looking to lock through on a saturday or sunday monring at 6 in the morning do you think they would be open.
Ray, I am not quite sure how you can say it is going to hurt your business. I grew up fishing in the Sauk area and am a little confused. First of all the rvier were you are located has absolutely no pressure from tournament anglers. If you feel the fishing below the dam in town is on the decline it is from over harvest and not people culling their fish. I don’t think i have ever run into someone down there that had their limit of walleyes and then started culling fish. If anything this law will help the whole town of sauk and bring in some well needed economy. I say this because lake wisconsin is a premier bass body of water with plenty of water to hold large tournaments. These are the kinda of economical factors that the state needs and they have finally understood that. Maybe you would rather pay more taxes to help the economy. At the same time a large amount of the money spent on the sport goes back to funding stocking programs, fish habitat programs, and preserving the waters we have. You can claim the river to be yours, but without the rest of us you wouldn’t be making a living.
I don’t mean to stir the pot, but with a rising star such as christian, why would FLW ask him not to fish anymore over something as small as leaving the side of your coangler for bathroom reasons. it doesn’t add up. With his track record, i would figure the FLW would want to have him aboard. Plus if christian was truely doing it for the competition of it he would want to continue fishing the circuit and wouldn’t have the stress of making a check. Something is fishy about the whole situation and i don’t think the general public knows about it.
i’m in!
FISHNUT
i am not sure if you have tried going to a chiropractor but they can be amazing with what they can do. I don’t know if you live by the quad city area but the Palmer college of chiropractic is located in davenport and also considered the founding school of chiropractic. they do some amazing work there with bulging and ruptured discs. It might be worth a call. Another thing that can be very important is trying to loose some weight. I don’t know if this is a problem for you but an extra baggage is just more stress on the back.
as for a recessed foot pedal. i personally would not recommend it. in my opinion they are not as stable because it is harder to put your weight on it. When you run into an underwater log that you didn’t see it can be difficult to stop your momentum with the recessed pedal.
i Have gone down to Reelfoot lake at the end of march the last two years and done well. The numbers are not high, but if you can find the bass they are usually schooled up in prespawn mode and the average size fish is 3 1/2 pounds. Are biggest is 8 pounds with three more around 6 and two many 4-5 pounders to count. The lake is an experience in itself basically being a a 7,000 acre cyprus swamp. Because of this if you are looking to run the boat around i might not recommend the lake. My group has always used the boats provided because they are flat bottom and stumps are everywhere. If interested i can provide some areas and a great bed and breakfast to stay that caters to fisherman for like $35 a person a night. It is a different world down there. Crappie are king, but there are some hog bass as well.
I agree 100%. Get rid of the rule. i was just offering a suggestion that i have seen work for your charity tournament. As for the cull rule, i don’t think the people of wisconin fully understand the economic impact that this would have on their communities. I myself am a landowning “fishtab” and fish roughly 20 tournaments a year in the great state. i would say on average i spend $300 a tournament without entry fee on items such as gas, lodging, food and whatever supplies in wisconsin. That is $6000 a year for the residents of wisconsin out of my pocket. Imagine what the proffessionals would spend when the came to wisconsin. Some of them would be here for a month ahead of time. The only positive reason i can see to leave the no cull rule in effect is so the fish don’t have the extra stress of being handled. However, there is very little information showing that tournaments have a large negative effect on bass populations as it is.
Riverfan,
I know of one way the no cull rule can be enforced. I fish one tournament a year in which the directors take the rule very seriously and try to enforce the rule by having tournament committe e boats on the water checking livewells as you fish. They will litterally board your boat and measure the fish. They then record the size and if they are not the same bass you bring in to the weighin you are disqualified. The first year they started doing this no one thought they were erious and because of that five teams were disqualified. Since then i have been checked three times in one of the tournaments and 0 times in others. But it definitly keeps the teams honest. At least until they get checked. The main problem with them doing this is a lot of anglers don’t like it and won’t fish the following year and it takes a lot more effort on the part of the people running the tournament. Just an idea.
skeets
i was in the market this spring for at that time what was a used 2002 ZX 190 w/175hpdi fully loaded with everything. The best price i was able to get was from a guy in kansas city willing to part with his for $21,000 which was roughly the same amount his dealer would give him for the trade in value on his new skeeter. however, after working out a deal he decided to renig on the deal and trade it in because he figured it would be easier. Anyways, the rest of the boats i looked at were between that 21,000 and 25,000 firm. Most wanted 23,500 for a good condition boat with either the 150hpdi or 175hpdi. A lot of the prices depended on what the original buyer bought his boat for. the guy in kansas city had a good sponsorship deal and was willing to part with it for a lot cheaper than most guys. I since boat a 2003 TZX 190 with the 175 hpdi and if i were to sell it i would start no less than 24,000.
