Lake Waveland’s 1st Annual Fishing Tournament Date Drawing Event

Lake Waveland had their 1st annual fishing tournament date drawing event on November 13th at the Waveland Town Hall. There were 16 participants that represented 10 bass fishing clubs or organizations. As participants began to arrived around 8:30am they received a raffle ticket and information packet including a tournament date application form. The meeting began about 9:10am which was a little late but we wanted to make sure anyone running a bit behind didn’t miss anything. The meeting opened with introductions and a brief history of the lake and most importantly what has occurred in the past few years that have made it necessary to control the fishing tournament activity on Lake Waveland.

In general no one likes change, regulations or enforcement of regulations but this time it was different, everyone there recognized the need to do something to protect the Fishery from over fishing and to protect the Users of the lake from the unsafe conditions created when too many tournament boats are on the lake at one time. A short period of questions and answers revealed a concern regarding the enforcement of the program. The #1 answer to enforcement is not really enforcement but publicizing the new fishing tournament date program, education and understanding the rules and the willingness to comply because it’s the “Right Thing” to do. The program has been published on six bass fishing websites and over eighty emails have been sent to fishing clubs throughout Indiana and Illinois. The second component of enforcement is if the authorized group fishing a tournament suspects that an un-authorized tournament is being conducted they are to contact the Property Manager Lori Arts and She or another Park Official will investigate the report and make a determination if there is an un-authorized tournament being conducted. Enforcement is intended to be progressive, not punitive and the level of progression will depend on the willingness of the un-authorized group to comply with Park Officials. If there is an un-authorized tournament being conducted the Park Official will offer that the tournament be discontinued and re-schedule the event using the date application process. Hopefully this will solve the issue without any further progression. Letters will be sent to local business’s describing what an off-site weigh-in may look like and to report unusual activity to Lori Arts so she can conduct an investigation. The Waveland Town Marshall has been involved in the planning process and he fully understands and supports the program and is willing to become involved and resolve any conflicts but only as a last resort. Organizations that refuse to comply or try to sneak an off-site weigh in will find their indiscretions published on websites like Big Indiana Bass, Fishin.com, Bass Boat Central, Ultimate Bass and Bass Fishing Resource Guide.

Raffle tickets were drawn to establish the order in which each organization would make their date selections then the date selection process began. Things went smoothly as all participants were well prepared with list of dates they wanted and before you knew it round one was complete. There were a few participants wanting permits for additional dates so round 2 & 3 clicked off quickly leaving only USA Bassin to make two additional date selections. A total of twenty dates were selected leaving 248 or so dates available for mail in applications. After everyone confirmed and paid for their applications there was a door prize drawing and Susie served up homemade Biscuits and Sausage Gravy, Juice and Coffee all provided by the Waveland Town Hall, many left a donation in appreciation of the awesome breakfast. It was a pleasure to see people from so many different organizations socializing and sharing information, ideas and their passion for fishing with one another.

To receive fishing tournament permit information for Lake Waveland please send an email to [EMAIL="[email protected]"][email protected][/EMAIL]

Please include your contact information including organization name, contact name and phone number. You will be provided with all the information you will need to make your date selection. Email your date selections to confirm date availability and the date will be held for 7 days to allow time to mail in an application and payment for each date selected.

Lake Waveland Park will close on December 1st 2010 and re-open on February 28th 2011.