May 27th report

[Ty Sennett]

We started at noon and fished until dark for largemouth and smallmouth bass. All total we boated well over 100 bass easily. It was a lot of fun. I don't know why these resorts up here do not promote how good the bass fishing is. Most of the fish came an hour before sundown. We were catching them every single cast in a couple areas.

Back at the walleye fishing today. I'll answer some of the other posts tonight when I have more time.

[noURsnagged]

Totally agree about resorts needing to market bass fishing in the area. Some very solid bass lakes that have some real nice fish in them. A bass tournament here and there would be good for the local economy.

[alonzo buck]

Fishing tournaments do none of our fisheries any good. If you buy into the fact believe that they give back to the fishing industry, you are naive. Any “token” amount they might give back does not nearly compensate for the impact they can put on a fishery. Why would anyone think we need tournaments? I have no problem with small weekly leagues, but large tournaments are detrimental to our fisheries.

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“Keep a Tight Line!”

[Cold Front]

The negative impact of tournaments on a fishery is very debatable. There is, without a doubt, some increased mortality...whether or not it's significant over the course of an entire season is definently suspect.

The positive economic impact of tournaments on the host communities, resorts, et al is irrefutable. Tournament anglers and the folks putting tournaments on spend money that wouldn't otherwise be spent in the area.

The fact is that humans compete. There are going to be competitions and tournaments ... overall it's probably beneficial to the area to have a tournament or two.

[Ty Sennett]

Alonzo, do some research on tournaments and you will change your mind. If you have ever fished any of the Minneapolis area lakes for muskies you will definitely change your mind. Most of those lakes have been stocked solely by tournament funds.

With the politics today the only way to really get funds together for stocking all of our lakes is with tournament money. I'm not saying tournament money stocks all of our lakes. I'm saying the DNR can't afford to stock each and every lake so tournament money has to step in and cover the lakes the DNR can't cover. Most of the money comes from muskies Inc tournaments but there are some individual tournaments like the Hartman tournaments that really make an impact.

On a selfish note people hate tournaments. More boats than normal fishing spots they themselves would like to fish. But you know what, if you think about the positive things that come from tournaments it eases the pain.