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.