Now I Know How You Weekend Anglers Feel

So I went to PB2 today to find a line of boats at the ramp because there was a tournament on Tuesday of all days. I was by myself so I didn't even want to mess with the crowd and went to Coffman instead. On a better note I did catch quite a few bass skipping jigs. The biggest landed was probably three pounds...the biggest lost was a tank that was at least six pounds. She gave me the head shake right at the surface and swam off. I don't know how others feel but I think the number of tournaments has gotten ridiculous. I like to donate my money to a tournament every now and then but when you can't launch a boat on a Tuesday..........

I think that crazy also. Doesn't any one work anymore.:dono

Glad to hear you got out. Another month and I keep asking myself how do all these people that are 25-35 have all this time off to fish all day. I only recently got to that point.:dono

Plus the money for the boats and vehicles. An eye opener is going to the Highway Patrol/Water Patrol website and checking the number of tournaments on each body of water. I added up the number on LO and it was crazy. Don't remember the number right now. A 30 mile section of the Osage river had close to 30 tournaments this year. We use to be able to catch some decent bass but not now. I think it has really hurt the fishing. Plus with small parking lots they fill up the whole place. So I check to see were the tournament is and go somewhere else.

Its only going to get worse. There is a big push for BASS, FLW, and MLF right now and has been for sometime now. Everyone wants to be a pro fisherman, so they fish as many tournaments as they can. It is LOZ so boat traffic is always an issue during good weather. I would just plan on being at the ramp well before the tournament guys, and had no issues.

I counted 533 tournaments on Lake of the Ozarks this year from January to December. That is crazy. I may be off a few. Even at 500 that is crazy.

LOZ is the tournament fishing Mecca. I saw a post where someone said the Bassmaster Elites Series needs to go to LOZ. No no no BASS please stay off the LOZ it gets pounded enough already. I think LOZ is an amazing fishery based on the tournament results it consistently produces for bass and crappie, but sometimes I think how much can one lake take? I fished a summer tournament and saw a whole cooler of dead bass at the weigh in that they could not revive and several floaters in the lake. Now I think the reproduction rate at LOZ is good enough to sustain that but what about the pressure? So many fish getting caught that won't feed again for multiple days can make the fishing tough not to mention the displacement of fish from one area of the lake to PB2.

I know the 20-30 tournaments on the 30 mile stretch of Osage River has really hurt the fishing there. Catching use to be really good. Now when you do catch a bass it is usually 11"-11 3/4". Use to be able to get some nice ones. A lot of times when you reeled 1 in there would be others following. But that was before all the tournaments. I don't have a problem with tournaments for the most part. It is just the amount of them. Oh well we just keep trying.

I know a lot of guys the fish bass tournaments on LOZ. They don't like how the tournaments are run, and by that they said that most of the bass die when they release them back. They went back the next morning after each of the tournaments they fished, these are not large boat number tournaments, but maybe 15-25 boats, and they would routinely see 10-15 bass floating dead where they were released. The conservation department should do a better job taking care of the fish no matter the species, and if the tournaments are causing large die off of released fish the conservation department should start cutting back on the allowed tournaments on the lake. It is not like the MDC is short of funds, they make a killing every year.

The people running the tournaments and the fisherman need to learn better handling of the fish. We used to see a lot of dye off after Crappie tournaments also and we started taking better care of the fish before and after the weigh ins and that drastically dropped the mortality rate after release. Cooled live wells and plenty of oxygen and a release tank after the weigh in before release should be a must.

I saw that MLF is expanding and start having tournaments like Bass and FLW. But they will weigh and release immediately like the others tournaments they have.

I like how MLF does it from no prefishing to instant release. Makes more sense and the score tracker updates are great. LOL

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I agree and really like watching the MLF series, the score tracker seems to up the competition and pressure, especially when the guy coming up behind you is got something figured out. Fun to watch

If you have been keeping up with the new changes to BASS Elite series, FLW, and MLF, there are a lot of changes coming. MLF is going to have a lot of air time on TV and additional time online streaming. I like the MLF format it is way more exciting than the other tournament trails. It is how I grew up fishing against buddies, we called it junk fishing because it was not about weights it was about numbers. Its a lot of fun!

The end of bass tournaments? | Bassmaster
Here's an article make your own opinion. I know I like the MLF format better. There is no question that it is better for the fish. Some fisheries can sustain high tournament pressure and some cannot. Some tournament trails have the money and volunteers to do the catch and release and some do not. I just know that professional fishing is a sport that uses a public, or open to the public tax payer funded resource as it's playing field. So when the weekend angler sees 150 bass boats zipping around the lake depleting or displacing fish on a public lake do they have a legitimate complaint? Maybe they do but I also like fishing some tournaments myself......