Indiana tournament fees

Have you guys seen this story on bassfan?

Here's the link:

[url]http://www.bassfanarmy.com/bfa_news_article.asp?id=183[/url]

Thought you might be interested.

Danny

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-25-06 AT 12:28PM (EST)[/font][p]I actually think it is a good idea.

If you want to use our resources to turn a profit, then they ought to pay.

Maybe instead of each tourny having a fee, a one time annual fee per angler for tourny fishing would be a good idea.

I would agree on eliminating the fees if all tourny fisherman claimed their winnings and earnings on their taxes. If they claimed their winnings even if its only $1000, the tax write offs for the boat, truck, gas, and gear would benefit them in a huge way.

It is already difficult for a big organization to legally hold a tourney on Indiana waters because they need a permit and an insurance bond. Now they are saying they will charge them on top of that. As far as resoources go, these tourneys are catch and release, so what resources are being used? All this means is that big tournaments will not pay as well in Indiana because they will take the fee from angler entry fees. That all adds up to local businesses making less money from anglers who buy gas, baits, etc. I know many people do not like tournaments, but the amount of cash flow they bring to an area is huge. Just my opinion, don't hang me for it.

They are using public funded boat launches, they are using public water, they are catching public funded fish that are a result of our fisheries management.

The arguement about how they help the economy is void, fact is 99% dont contribute to it. They buy their gas in their hometown. Very few stock up on baits on the way to a tourny. Seldom do they stay at local hotels, or eat at local establishments.

I am actually 100% for bass tournaments, just think that the fees are a small price to pay when you look at some of the payouts.

Payouts?? How many of you all get payouts? And about the fisheries management, at Monroe they let all the water out of the lake when the fish were spawning. I saw bass with their backs out of water trying to stay on nests. I also pay several fees when I tag and register my boat and trailer. Then I have to pay for a launching fee, entry fee, and oh yeah, fishing license. I'm all fee'd out.....

I guessed that's is part of the reason why the town of French Lick build a new casino because without tournament bass fishing at Patoka they are screwed. You really don't know much about the tournament scene Crappie, so quit talking about it. 99% don't contributes? don't spend money on local gas, hotel, food, etc..? give me a break. I spend a little over 300 bucks this past weekend in French Lick and that's just me. If you want to, call the Huck's gas station, Lane's Motel, restaurants in French Lick and ask them what is the different in revenue on a tournament versus non-tournament weekend. I wonder if this fees apply to all the natural lakes up north.

Tournament fishermen already generate MILLIONS in funds for fisheries management. Have you heard of Wallop-Breax? We pay taxes on all that expensive fishing tackle that should come right back to the resource (even though most probably gets wasted in our bloated beauracratic system). One tournament bass fishermen generates far more in tax revenue than 20 run of the mill worm dunkers (not saying we're the smartest lot, but we do spend the money, just ask my wife).

Why should fishermen legally catching bass have to pay extra? They are following all of the laws. Most team tournaments only allow 5 to 8 fish for a two man team, this is less than the legal limit. Big freaking deal if there is a small amount of money being passed back and forth! It's not like people are getting rich fishing these state tourneys.

What if fifty guys got together off-site threw in 100 bucks and brought all the bass back to the organizer's house where they were weighed. After that the group fillets all the bass and has a big fish fry. That would be totally legal and there would not be a fee even though every bass would be killed! What would that do to the resource? IT IS LEGAL TO KILL BASS, YET TOURNAMENT FISHERMEN RELEASE THERE FISH AND HAVE A MINIMAL IMPACT ON THE RESOUCE. LOOK AT THE DATA AND FACTS. DON'T ACT ON EMOTION LIKE SOME WACKO ENVIRONMENTALIST!


We keep throwing more and more money into bass fishing in this state and yet this state probably has some of the poorest bass fishing around.

This is just another reason why more and more tournament circuits are moving out of Indiana. I know our club is not having any tournaments next year at any DNR maintained facilities. We will try and go to Boggs and maybe the river but the remainder will be on Kentucky and Barkley lakes.

In my opinion Indiana DNR has no idea how to manage their fisheries. They keep adding fees such as the power boat fee and now a new fee for tournaments. Where is all of our tax money going? The property tax rate in Indiana is higher than any other of the surrounding states. I know several people and I plan to as well, move to Kentucky when I retire if not before because of the high taxes.

Like mentioned before, this will have a huge impact on all the local businesses around the lakes. If they don't have tournaments, and I'm not just talking bass, this will put a lot of businesses out of business.

Charlie

I know my input to this issue is not often welcomed on this board, but I never was one to shut up just because someone didn’t like what I had to say. Anyway, as West Boggs is almost always brought up in these discussions, I’m going to again try to throw in some logical responses to some of the rhetoric.

The comment about Wallop-Breax being a source of revenue is factual. The comment about those funds being wasted is an opinion. Using the two in the same context is a propaganda tactic that serves little in getting to the truth of these issues.

“Why should fishermen legally catching bass have to pay extra?” I’ll not try to speak for IDNR, but at West Boggs they don’t have to. Our tournament permit fee is for a permit to conduct a tournament for money, which is a commercial activity on public lands. We also have permit requirements for such things like vendors selling food, setting up trade shows, flea markets, etc. The point is that conducting any commercial activity on public land is not within the intent in the setting of gate fees, launch fees, etc. The argument that an angler will have to pay somehow extra for the permit holder to recoup the permit fee is little different that arguing that a person would have to pay a little more for a hot dog because the vendor had to pay a permit fee.

In that article, it states that the DNR is trying to re-coup some of the "extra" fee's they incur when there are tourneys. Can anyone help explain what these additional fee's are? I have fished a few tourneys in my day and never once seen any additional DNR support provided. Maybe I missed it but I didn't see it.
One circuit I fish has all ready been forced out of state. Looks like it might be the trend of the future. And a lot of tourneys on the Ohio.
Eric H.

How much in additional fees/taxes is that hot dog vendor paying into managing the resource? When he buys a buys his hot dog cooker is there a tax on that that goes to fish and wildlife?

I don't know. Probably not. I do know that our overall revenue from fishing and boating has grown by almost 80% since we began to regulate tournaments. Do you have any ideas about how we might get that back from tournament anglers or promoters if we removed those regulations?