Does anyone other than myself think that bass tournaments are becoming to many for our public waters???????

Seems in the past 5 years there has been a MEGA increase in the number of tournaments being held. On some lakes there are tournaments being held every day of the week from ice out to Christmas.
With this massive increase in tournaments there also seems to be more obnoxious individuals who fish them. I haven't heard but I am sure that with our economy in the shape it is in that cheating is also on the upswing.

Everyone praises tournaments for bringing money into the local economy but if data was compiled I firmly believe that tournaments bring in very few dollars as compared to families who come to the area for a vacation. Tournament anglers are there for ONE REASON and that is to spend as much time as possible on the water. They will not shop in the local stores or attend the local tourists attractions. Gas, food and lodging is about all the tournament angler will buy while in the area and this is if the tournament is a professional 3 or 4 day event. The one day tournaments bring very few dollars into the local economy because they don't spend the night, they will bring their own food and ususlly they will have purchased their gas prior to their arrival.

Another aspect of tournaments especially in the spring is what happens to the TRANSPLANTS???????
Say for instance I catch a male off a bed in Barkley and haul him 60 miles over to Kentucky lake to release him after weigh-in and taking for granted that he will survive will he re-establish another nest and spawn again in Kentucky lake or will he be lost to the cycle for the year. What happens to the fry/eggs that he was guarding prior to being caught????? Times this by several thousands and many fish will be lost to the lake directly or in-directly. I know causual anglers keep fish to eat in some instances which removes them from the cycle also but most of the professional anglers target these spawning fish while the causual angler takes whatever is available.

I have heard the argument many times that Kentucky and Barkley are so huge that tournaments have no influence on them. If you consider the amount of acerage that is actually "bass friendly" you would see that their massiveness is deminished considerably.

Both lakes (Kentucky and Barkley) are full of undersize bass right now and that is good but this is because 4 or 5 years ago the lake was extremely high for an extended period during the spawn which caused a record spawn. With these fish's reckless abandon they will be whittled down very quickly and very few will reach the 15" size limit much less trophy size.

A lakes health and it's ability to self support depends of many factors which we have no control over. A couple years of bad or non-existant spawns and the massive tournament pressure our lakes is getting now and we might just see our lakes get to where there are few catchable fish remaining. This can happen before we know it. I remember a time back in the late 90's and before the massive tournament invasion that the numbers of bass were getting so low that the 14" and eventually the 15" size limit was placed on the lakes. And this happened simply because there was a poor spawn for 2 years.

What I would like to see is that there be ovesight established on the tournaments being held on our public waters. Tournaments in Kentucky is a free-for-all. There is very little if any oversight by anyone in authority. We need to establish a system as other states have that makes the sponsors of the events liable and to obtain permits and pay fees to hold the events. With our state in an economic shambles it would seem an intelligent move by the state to garner funds from every source available. Make the tournaments abide by rules as any business must because that is what they are.