OK Tournament and Non - tournament Bass Fishermen

[MarkW]

A couple of suggestions:
1)Have it at another time of the year.
2)Charge a $50 a day entry fee
3)advertise at every possible venue you can---meaning handouts at each and every tourney you can find across the state and make sure a flyer is at every tackle shop.
4)Get some more river fishermen involved---maybe on a board to offer help and suggestions.
No offense to KRA, but they know restuarants not bass tournaments. The only thing they know is what they were taught from the tournament out in Arkansas.
5)Make sure each and every weigh station measures "legal" fish
6)Make sure that the payouts are more clearly stated or in more detail. It was a bit deceiving last year and I am sure it was this year because nothing has changed.

These are just a few ideas for starters---I have several more.

[fishbum]

[QUOTE=MarkW;297322]A couple of suggestions:
1)Have it at another time of the year.
2)Charge a $50 a day entry fee
3)advertise at every possible venue you can---meaning handouts at each and every tourney you can find across the state and make sure a flyer is at every tackle shop.
4)Get some more river fishermen involved---maybe on a board to offer help and suggestions.
No offense to KRA, but they know restuarants not bass tournaments. The only thing they know is what they were taught from the tournament out in Arkansas.
5)Make sure each and every weigh station measures "legal" fish
6)Make sure that the payouts are more clearly stated or in more detail. It was a bit deceiving last year and I am sure it was this year because nothing has changed.
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1.What time or year? We had it in summer, now mid spring.. it needs to occur during a period of time that the river is NORMALLY stable.. to be able to preplan the tournament.
2.$50.00 means 2500 entry days not 1500 to pay $50K and the hourly money.
3. All boat shows, all newspapers and radio were covered.. Wes Thomas went on the road preaching about this tournament all over Kentucky and Indiana.
#4 I agree with..
KRA hired professional fishermen to promote it this year. Unlike last year.
#5 The weigh stations were weighing ONLY 12 inch fish or larger. Fish brought in were measured if there was any doubt.. the smallest fish was .68 pounds and was measured. It was EXACTLY 12 inches.
#6 It was clearly stated that ONLY the $20K first prize was guaranteed in the rules. MORE than the $20K was paid out. Cudo's for the KRA for doing that despite the fact they did not have to do it.
As for the detail it was there and that may be the problem.. The legal wording may not have been understood, but every person who promoted this stated it plainly that ONLY the $20K was guaranteed.
I often stressed this myself when talking to people. Regular tournament anglers understand that and are used to the language.. IF you were not sure what a rule meant or did not understand the legal wording you should ask. IF you do not write in LEGALeze then you get in trouble... IF you don't understand LEGALeze then you need to ask questions. I do not understand my Car insurance and not understanding the diference in water damage and Flood Damage cost me a bloody fortune about 10 years ago.. so now I ask.

[CTFSHWHISKER]

i would have to say those who wanted to fish it did those who didn't stayed home.i went to nolin with with my dad and step son saturday night.why must those of us who fish tourneys that didn't fish this one be heckled to the question of how can you not fish this tourney.Sounds like you you are getting a cash bonus determined by the number of entries,my boss gets cranky like that when productions woes happen and it cuts in his bonus...
you do seem a little cranky about it,,,face it,it is the ohio river and i know
lots of guys who refuse to put their boat in it,for any amount of money..

[MarkW]

1) I would say early spring or fall. Other then a serious flood situation---why does the river need to be stable. I've fished several when the river was not "stable
2)$50 is ok---you don't have to have $50,000 to make this a success. The biggest problem last year was offering $50,000 and then backing it down to $20,000 this year.
3)For example---I was at Maysville last week for 3 days and never once saw anything, anywhere, or heard anything that mentioned this tournament. With over a 100 boats there and over 200 competitors from all up and down the river and across about 3 states, sure would have been a good time to plaster flyers on everybody's truck windows.
4)Good we agree on one thing.
5)I don't know about the measuring thing. I know for a fact last year at Wolf Creek they WERE NOT measuring fish. They may have this year, I don't know, but I was told they were not measuring fish---at least I heard that about Cox's Park on Friday and Saturday from a reliable source.

6)Jim, I did totally understand the rules and payouts last year. As a matter of fact I talked to Linda Hill several times and even called in to the Jim Strader show to clarify certain issues. I was VERY skeptical last year.
So, for the record I UNDERSTOOD---but when it came to the hourly prizes---people runng the weigh stations couldn't even tell us if they were paying out 1 place or 3 per hour. So ASKING someone who is supposed to KNOW, did no good!

[MrSplitshot]

I honestly think Dave Stewart said it best with:

"The reason the nontournament anglers did not fish it speaks for itself...they are not tournament anglers."

For me personally, that's why I didn't/wouldn't fish it. I have absolutely nothing against tournament anglers and echo the sentiment that DJD gave regarding everyone needing to get off the tourney anglers backs.
But I don't fish them...just not my bag...maybe I'll try it again someday, but I'm pretty content being a recreational guy.

That said, a few other things that I think as an outsider looking in.

1. I don't particularly care about fishing the Ohio River. Take the money out of the equation, because it's not about that when it comes to me and fishing. It seems like a lot of folks aren't big fans of fishing the river. It's a different deal, and quite honestly, it intimidates me. I don't know how to fish it, where to fish it, how to lock through, how to deal with the commercial traffic, etc.

2. Radio and Newspaper....fuhgaddaboutit....a waste of money. I live in Lexington and really only heard about this event here at this site. Spend less money on radio and newspaper, more money on grassroots flyers at local fishing events/mailers/local businesses/PHONECALLS...hit every fishing website with members of the right audience and geography...and throw in some television in the river town markets, as well as the larger outliers in range(Lexington/Dayton/Indy/Huntington). Don't know what the ad budget was...and not proclaiming to be a marketing know-all here...just some thoughts.

3. Stop targeting the non-tourney guy with this event. Wrong audience. They aren't in to money events or they would already be doing it. Sure, everyone likes money, but everyone doesn't play the lottery either. Go for the tourney guy...but realize that he may not want to skip one of his scheduled events to fish this thing, because he's probably already got commitments...he is, afterall, a tourney guy.

In all seriousness, the money end of this thing is probably one of those "too good to be true" sounding deals...like buying a car below invoice or something. BBBC pays out like it says it does, but remember that we're in a world where people have CRAP piped to them all the time on tv, on the radio, in the grocery store, at Best Buy, in their email inbox...it's a world full of advertising about the next best thing and how everybody's product is better than everyone else's. You've got to sell it, and it's not always an easy sell.

I know all too well the frustration involved with planning a big event and having it fall short of your expectations, but sometimes to your most amazing dismay, it just don't work!!!

[fishbum]

1) I would say early spring or fall. Other then a serious flood situation---why does the river need to be stable. I've fished several when the river was not "stable
2)$50 is ok---you don't have to have $50,000 to make this a success. The biggest problem last year was offering $50,000 and then backing it down to $20,000 this year.
3)For example---I was at Maysville last week for 3 days and never once saw anything, anywhere, or heard anything that mentioned this tournament. With over a 100 boats there and over 200 competitors from all up and down the river and across about 3 states, sure would have been a good time to plaster flyers on everybody's truck windows.
4)Good we agree on one thing.
5)I don't know about the measuring thing. I know for a fact last year at Wolf Creek they WERE NOT measuring fish. They may have this year, I don't know, but I was told they were not measuring fish---at least I heard that about Cox's Park on Friday and Saturday from a reliable source.

6)Jim, I did totally understand the rules and payouts last year. As a matter of fact I talked to Linda Hill several times and even called in to the Jim Strader show to clarify certain issues. I was VERY skeptical last year.
So, for the record I UNDERSTOOD---but when it came to the hourly prizes---people runng the weigh stations couldn't even tell us if they were paying out 1 place or 3 per hour. So ASKING someone who is supposed to KNOW, did no good!

The rules included the participation notes..
The KRA did not know until the last day how many would participate.
BEYOND that what did you want them to tell you?
When not enough people participated they were not required by the rules to even pay the HOURLY WINNERS and yet they did. That was a stand up action on their part. They paid over $50K and only took in as I recall and I am not exact here in the neighborhood of $8500.00 to $10K.
Do the math. They LOST over $45K.
And still they came back.
As for the measuring thing.. There was a board at the weigh station and the weigh master had the discression to measure fish. If a fish was obviously over 12 inches they did not measure it and I did not see any weighed that were not. I do not know about Wolf Creek I was at Cox's Park.