Opinions on Tournaments

[RIBLUEFISH]

I think the biggest change in tournaments that I have seen over the years is guys are trying to use them to supplement their income these days. When I first started it was great to get together and see who was the best angler on that given day and if you won some money that was a bonus. I believe the lure of making some quick cash doing something you love(bass fishing) is creating an increase in the number of tournaments that are held every weekend. Check out the tourney board on this site. I know it is for a good cause, but, someone is having a tournament on Taylorsville Lake on Memorial Day weekend??? Who thought this was a good date to hold this?? Nothing like waiting 2 hours to get you boat out of the water, yikes!

[Dave Stewart]

Taylorsville was impunded when I was 16 and since we lived 25 miles from it we fished it wuite a bit. Was it a better bass lake when it was first impounded? Yes, but it was never I trophy lake. In my experience it was never common to catch 5-7 pound bass there, just like it is not common anywhere esle in the state.

The biggest problem I have seen with Taylorsville is that it gets a lot of pressure, from both tourneys and recreational anglers. With it's proximity to Louisville, Taylorsville is always going to get a lot of fishing pressure. Now I wouldn't mind seeing a limit on how many tournaments could go on in a day, but more for safety reasons on a small lake like T-Ville than for any other reason.

I agree that Taylorsville was never a trophy lake...not sure where your getting your information but I waded the Salt before it was impounded....fished there after it was impounded for years....there was some good fish taken in the first couple of years after impoundment..this was holdover fish from before the impoundment. But even then 5-7 pound fish were never common and rare at best. 3 and 4 lbs yes. After a couple of years it was tougher than nails to get a limit of keepers. I fished the original TNT trail there along with over 100 boats each week and most of the time you could win the tournaments with 3 or 4 15" fish. The weights you are getting from the tourneys on Taylorsville now are much better than they were years ago.

[Dave Stewart]

[QUOTE=DaveStewart;368982]I agree that Taylorsville was never a trophy lake...not sure where your getting your information but I waded the Salt before it was impounded....fished there after it was impounded for years....there was some good fish taken in the first couple of years after impoundment..this was holdover fish from before the impoundment. But even then 5-7 pound fish were never common and rare at best. 3 and 4 lbs yes. After a couple of years it was tougher than nails to get a limit of keepers. I fished the original TNT trail there along with over 100 boats each week and most of the time you could win the tournaments with 3 or 4 15" fish. The weights you are getting from the tourneys on Taylorsville now are much better than they were years ago.[ Example..they had a big fish pot back in those early years of Taylorsville in the TNT tournaments that anyone catching a bass 6 lbs or over during the season would win the progressive pot. Most years the pot was never won and it was divided up at the end of the season at the last tournament by the folks that places in the last tournament./QUOTE]

[Tim_T]

I agree that Taylorsville was never a trophy lake...not sure where your getting your information but I waded the Salt before it was impounded....fished there after it was impounded for years....there was some good fish taken in the first couple of years after impoundment..this was holdover fish from before the impoundment. But even then 5-7 pound fish were never common and rare at best. 3 and 4 lbs yes. After a couple of years it was tougher than nails to get a limit of keepers. I fished the original TNT trail there along with over 100 boats each week and most of the time you could win the tournaments with 3 or 4 15" fish. The weights you are getting from the tourneys on Taylorsville now are much better than they were years ago.

Dave, what part of the Salt did you wade? When I was a kid we fished it some right in Shepherdsville (behind where Kart Country sits now) and we would occasionally catch a smallmouth. Did you catch many smallies? I live less than a mile from the river now and haven't fished it in years, despite saying I am going to.

[smuckey41]

i have fished alot of tounaments the past 4 to 5 years and there are alot of people who fish them that are not respectful. for one you only have a certin time frame to to get 5 fish so this couses people to panic and fly from spot to spot trying to find a pattern. for two you want to get to a spot before any one else does. so with that in mind and a person wanting to prove them self or to win money all curtisy goes out the window for alot of people. but as far as them hurting the fish population i dont think so in my opinion. if they catch a male from a bed a nother male will guard that nest and the fish that was cought will find another spot. if the anglers take care of the fish wile they are in the livewell they will live. now just think if all those guys had a tournament then a big fish fry after then that would hert a lake. plus alot of these tourneys have people who can revive bass or a tank with a airator to help a bass make it. and a bass is a bass if you put the right presintation and the right lure in front of it it will get a reaction strike that is why alot of the tournament anglers are finding new ways and diffrent techneeks to catch these fish.
how ever i have not fished a tournament this year and have had the best year of fishin so far it has ben relaxing and there has not ben any presure to do good or try to hurry around to get to a spot. i just go out there and fish like i use to do and now i remember why i like fishing so much. and so far i have cought my biggest bass ever this year a 7.8lb large mouth and my biggest small mouth a 3.12lb. is that becouse i am concentrating more on fishing and not so much as how many has this person cought or what time is it we need to get back soon and i hope or spot is open. i have went behind somany boats this year and cought fish or wait for them to leave and go to a new spot that might be just as good. but all i know that when i am out there all i have is time and no worries and that makes it alot more injoyable. but dont get me wrong i have nothing against tournaments becouse i love compatition but there does need to be a moniter on peoples behavier in general weather it is a recreational boater, tournament fisherman, or who ever. just be nice to each other and respect what they are doing on the water what ever it is and the lakes will be alot more peacful. if people would do that every day the world will be a better place. it is all about respect and manors something we all where tought as kids.
(just my 2 cents)

thanks
chuck p.s. sorry about my spelling

[buzzard510]

Have you and Al Gore been holding hands around an old oak tree singing kum ba ya?

[kc]

My opinion of the current state of tournament fishing on our lakes is pretty low. I used to get on here and argue to my wits end how tournaments are hurting our fisheries and all else but for the most part I have backed down realizing I was arguing a non-winnable argument. People lured by money rarely will look at things with open eyes and politicians will rarely get behind things that hinder the flow of money.

Plus our lakes are public and tournament fisherman do have the same right to be on the water as anyone else does. But I do have one angle on that last thought that gets me about tournaments. Other boaters use the lakes for pleasure but tournament anglers use it for profit and essentially pay nothing (except what they pay to local businesses in their various means of support) to profit from our public waters and facilities. I am a weekend angler who works for a living like many and it gets me how when I do get a chance to get away and fish that I have to put up with tournament boats dominating the lake. Full ramps, boats flying everywhere, rude behavior and all from money-making events based on public resources. At least most of the pro tournaments are held during the week but most the local and regional tournaments are weekend events causing a glut of tournaments Saturdays and Sundays. Every weekend during the warm season there are literally hundreds of boats fishing tournaments on Barkley & Ky. It is amazing the difference in bass boats on the water after 4:00 pm.

I am a conservative and believe in minimal government regulation but when a group dominates public resources for profit to me there is an issue begging to be regulated. Obama ought to run with this one -- he could make millions taxing tournaments and give us all "hope" and "change"! lol As far as putting up with the craziness on the water for the most part I have learned to "adapt" my fishing times to try to minimize being on the water during tournament time. I sleep in a lot and I fish at night much more that I used to...

kc

[kc]

I will echo the thought that Taylorsville was never a trophy lake. I was young and un-attached when they flooded it and had a buddy with a 4-wheeler and we used to launch a 14' Sea Nymph before the ramps were even flooded and for the first few years we would catch big numbers of fish but there were never numbers of large fish. The fishing pressure on that lake hit early and has persisted and not many make it to being a trophy.

kc

[crankinon]

I believe that this is just the same old people gripping because they never do good in tourny's. The Lakes around here are full of fish. Sure their pressured but if they were as bad as you think the Fish & Wildlife will step in and do some regulating to straighten them up. Chill out guy's and go fishing. Quit worrying about what someone else is doing and you'll probably catch more fish. Read up on fish care in the Livewell and make sure everybody you know gets the same information and our fisheries will be fine. If any of you actually think that tournaments of any kind don't bring money to the local economy's go talk to the business owners around the Lakes, I'm sure you'll be suprised. Last but not least, sure there are numbskull's fishin tourny's just like there are numbskull's everywhere else but carma usually takes care of them. You never hear about the thousands of honest competetive fisherman out on the waters who are there to have fun trying to catch 5 fish and them let them go unharmed for another day.
Just my 2 cents

[smuckey41]

Have you and Al Gore been holding hands around an old oak tree singing kum ba ya?

we didn't sing kum ba ya me him and an old indian friend of mine where sitting around a camp fire passing a peace pipe talking about global warming or is it global worming

[Dave Stewart]

Dave, what part of the Salt did you wade? When I was a kid we fished it some right in Shepherdsville (behind where Kart Country sits now) and we would occasionally catch a smallmouth. Did you catch many smallies? I live less than a mile from the river now and haven't fished it in years, despite saying I am going to.

Gosh Tim...you would ask where I was wading...lol. It has been a lot of years since those days....and my brain is obviously sun fried from so many days on the water...lol. Actually, I don't know the name of it, but there was an old deserted Distillary along the road that runs from Lawrenceburg over to the what is the lake now..we waded from there downstream. Smallies and Red Eye were what we caught mostly, never any real big ones but a lot of fun. I used to use a fly rod with small poppers on them.

[mayracing]

I think its great on the larger lakes because the guys that love to fish like always have something to do. but the smaller lakes could probably use a lil less pressure.