costa series at cumberland

[rbass57]

spots are 12 in an up large m are 15 in an up smallies are 18 an up ,,,,correct?

[jerkbait1]

https://www.flwfishing.com/news/2018...-at-cumberland
Didnt look too hard but looking at the smallies weighed in, most dont appear to be over 18inches. I catch a lot of 16 and 17 inch smallies also, just saying. If the regs have changed since last year I will be glad to retract.

[jerkbait1]

https://www.flwfishing.com/tournamen...ake-cumberland
Note: no smallmouth were harmed in the posts above. 😉

[R19]

In the last couple of years there has been multiple occasions when KDFW allowed tournament anglers to bring in smallmouth at Cumberland that were not 18". If my memory is correct the first time I recall it happening was the 2018 FLW tour event in late march/early April when they allowed 15" SM. KDFW made a statement and said the reason they were doing this was so they could conduct a delayed mortality study and see how it impacts the fishery. At the time of the tournament the water temperatures were upper 50's and low 60's. That is PERFECT water temperature for bass to thrive and be healthy. If you want to check them and see how delayed mortality plays into the mix then do it when its mid to late summer when the water is warm. This is just purely my opinion but KDFW made that statement to make it "sound good"

Then if my memory was correct there was a huge high school tournament in the spring of 2019 where they were allowed 15" SM. I might be wrong on that one but it seems like I remember it happening. Then about 2-3 weeks ago in the Bradley Roy tournament they allowed 15" SM and just this past week they allowed 15" SM for the FLW Costa event.

Call me a conspiracy theory freak and say I wear a tin foil hat because I am okay if that's your opinion of what I am about to type but the ONLY reason KDFW allowed 15" SM in the events I spoke of was because of the tourism $ it generated. 2018 FLW Tour had 183 boaters and co-anglers fishing multiple days and in town multiple days before the event. Plus when you add the FLW staff that came to host the event you soon have around 400 people dropping money at gas stations, motels, restaurants tackle stores and etc. If my memory is correct the Bradley Roy high school event had just a tad over 200 boats. 203 if my memory is correct. They have a boat captain and a team of high school kids so that makes 600 people spending $ that weekend. Granted the kids probably did not spend much but I bet the boat captains and parents did. Then you have the recent FLW Costa that had upper 190's in boats and co anglers. They were in town multiple days spending $...heck I ran into one Costa guy from Oklahoma around the first of October and he said he rented a house near Cumberland for the entire month. I bet he dropped some $ in the local economy. Then add the other 400 or so people counting all boaters, non boaters and event staff and $ quickly adds up....see where I went with that. It was a $ deal pure and simple. I bet if a 20 boat club ask for a reduced size limit they would laugh because they are not going to drop enough $ to make a big impact on the economy.

Now don't think I am against supporting the local economy. I shop at Bass Pro in Bronston. I shop at Lake County Outdoors in Russell Springs. I have had my boat serviced at a Evinrude dealer in Bronston. I live 45 miles from Somerset but I still make the drive for some Sunny's BBQ so I just wanted to be clear that I am not anti local economy. My gripe is smallmouth (as well as all fish) are a great natural resource that need regulation and protection. I am all for that but when you make special regulations for specific large groups for the sake of $ that does not sit well with me...rant over

[rbass57]

In the last couple of years there has been multiple occasions when KDFW allowed tournament anglers to bring in smallmouth at Cumberland that were not 18". If my memory is correct the first time I recall it happening was the 2018 FLW tour event in late march/early April when they allowed 15" SM. KDFW made a statement and said the reason they were doing this was so they could conduct a delayed mortality study and see how it impacts the fishery. At the time of the tournament the water temperatures were upper 50's and low 60's. That is PERFECT water temperature for bass to thrive and be healthy. If you want to check them and see how delayed mortality plays into the mix then do it when its mid to late summer when the water is warm. This is just purely my opinion but KDFW made that statement to make it "sound good"

Then if my memory was correct there was a huge high school tournament in the spring of 2019 where they were allowed 15" SM. I might be wrong on that one but it seems like I remember it happening. Then about 2-3 weeks ago in the Bradley Roy tournament they allowed 15" SM and just this past week they allowed 15" SM for the FLW Costa event.

Call me a conspiracy theory freak and say I wear a tin foil hat because I am okay if that's your opinion of what I am about to type but the ONLY reason KDFW allowed 15" SM in the events I spoke of was because of the tourism $ it generated. 2018 FLW Tour had 183 boaters and co-anglers fishing multiple days and in town multiple days before the event. Plus when you add the FLW staff that came to host the event you soon have around 400 people dropping money at gas stations, motels, restaurants tackle stores and etc. If my memory is correct the Bradley Roy high school event had just a tad over 200 boats. 203 if my memory is correct. They have a boat captain and a team of high school kids so that makes 600 people spending $ that weekend. Granted the kids probably did not spend much but I bet the boat captains and parents did. Then you have the recent FLW Costa that had upper 190's in boats and co anglers. They were in town multiple days spending $...heck I ran into one Costa guy from Oklahoma around the first of October and he said he rented a house near Cumberland for the entire month. I bet he dropped some $ in the local economy. Then add the other 400 or so people counting all boaters, non boaters and event staff and $ quickly adds up....see where I went with that. It was a $ deal pure and simple. I bet if a 20 boat club ask for a reduced size limit they would laugh because they are not going to drop enough $ to make a big impact on the economy.

Now don't think I am against supporting the local economy. I shop at Bass Pro in Bronston. I shop at Lake County Outdoors in Russell Springs. I have had my boat serviced at a Evinrude dealer in Bronston. I live 45 miles from Somerset but I still make the drive for some Sunny's BBQ so I just wanted to be clear that I am not anti local economy. My gripe is smallmouth (as well as all fish) are a great natural resource that need regulation and protection. I am all for that but when you make special regulations for specific large groups for the sake of $ that does not sit well with me...rant over

AMEN

[Les Young]

I couldn't agree more. It was definitely a money thing is all it was.

[Wormin]

I think what we need to do is when they have there spring call in show on fish related questions we all call in and ask why it is Ok for some and not the rest.

[Bent Loomis]

I can maybe see giving the kids tournament a break but the pros ? If the pros can't catch the normal legal size limit then they need to up their game. I'm not a tourney guy but the pros need to follow the same rules everybody else does or in my opinion there's more pros on this site that catch legal smallies on a regular basis

[Shellkat]

You can’t have them pros not catching legal fish, I guess they could weigh in bluegills

[Imagoinfishin]

FLW tourney in 2017 followed state regs, 18" minimum on SM. But in 2018 SM limit was changed from 18" to 15". I guess if enough people whine about not cashing a check and a money-making organization threatens not to come back, rules can be bent! Especially when you consider the organization making and enforcing the rules relies on license sales for 50% of its funding annually...you take 180 fisherman, the majority of which are nonresidents, buying an annual fishing license at $55 a pop, that's not a bad haul for a fishing derby! Wish I had that kinda leverage in my little jackpot club . But I guess instead I'll stop b*tchin' and just go fishin'...think I had a t-shirt that said that at one point or another.

[R19]

Especially when you consider the organization making and enforcing the rules relies on license sales for 50% of its funding annually...you take 180 fisherman, the majority of which are nonresidents, buying an annual fishing license at $55 a pop, that's not a bad haul for a fishing derby!

You bring up an angle that I had never thought of so I crunched the numbers on the recent Costa event. Actually they had 191 boats so that is 382 anglers. A quick count on the boater side revealed 9 people from Ky. Going down the list there were a few people from towns in neighboring states that I would say bought a KY fishing license even if they were not in the Costa event. I am going to estimate out of 382 people who fish in the Costa 300 were from far enough away they bought a non resident license. Now technically they could have bought a 7 day non resident for $35. You had an open practice period, off limits period then official practice period. If you pre fished any in the open practice period the 7 day non resident would expire before the event began so for my purposes I will figure them buying the year long non resident because the number who skip the open practice would be way too hard to estimate. This might make my number high but I feel like I was close when I say 300 out of 382 bought non resident license because of this particular event so in the end my estimate should be fairly close. 300 X 55 = a good payday for KDFW $16,500...not bad for saying we will let you weigh in undersize fish.

I don't recall if it was this thread or another thread on another forum I was involved in but someone spoke to Charlie Evans who has deep ties to FLW and he point blank said if the size limit was not reduced to 15" then FLW would have went elsewhere.

[GeoFisher]

You bring up an angle that I had never thought of so I crunched the numbers on the recent Costa event. Actually they had 191 boats so that is 382 anglers. A quick count on the boater side revealed 9 people from Ky. Going down the list there were a few people from towns in neighboring states that I would say bought a KY fishing license even if they were not is the Costa event. I am going to estimate out of 382 people who fish in the Costa 300 were from far enough away they bought a non resident license. Now technically they could have bought a 7 day non resident for $35. You had an open practice period, off limits period then official practice period. If you pre fished any in the open practice period the 7 day non resident would expire before the event began so for my purposes I will figure them buying the year long non resident because the number who skip the open practice would be way too hard to estimate. This might make my number high but I feel like I was close when I say 300 out of 382 bought non resident license because of this particular event so in the end my estimate should be fairly close. 300 X 55 = a good payday for KDFW $16,500...not bad for saying we will let you weigh in undersize fish.

I don't recall if it was this thread or another thread on another forum I was involved in but someone spoke to Charlie Evans who has deep ties to FLW and he point blank said if the size limit was not reduced to 15" then FLW would have went elsewhere.

And that doesn't even consider the costs/day for fishing, eating, bait buying, etc, etc, etc, etc,.

My trips to the lake usually end up being about 100/day and that is modest......It could easily be 200-250 a day.

Now do that math. Say they all came down for 4 days, that is 382 x 4 x 200 for about 300k in spending in 4 days.

It is probably a whole lot more than that....BUT MAN oh MAN.

I agree that lifting the size for tourney that has that type of spending potential is good business.