Everyone is aware of the bad economy. Jobs are being lost, homes are being repossessed and those are just a few of the problems. Now it appears that the bad economy has hit bass tournaments and this could have a major impact on the tourist industry in Lake County.
One of the largest bass tournament organizations in the West, WON-BASS, announced a major change in its pro/am bass tournament format last week. Instead of the typical five-fish limit per boat, where both the pro and amateur share the weight, the format calls for only one fish being weighed in per boat. One of the reasons given for the change is that it will take fewer personnel to run the tournaments and will result in less expense.
Like many tournament organizations, WON-BASS has seen a drop in corporate sponsorship. Major sponsors such as bass boat manufacturers and tackle manufacturers are tightening their belts just like everyone else and are taking a long look at the money they spend on advertising.
WON-BASS is scheduled to hold one of these new types of tournaments June 13-14 at Clear Lake. How well the new format goes over with fishermen remains to be seen. Some may like it and others will hate it.
Other tournament organizations are also feeling the pinch because of the hard times. For example, the popular 100 Percent Bass organization has stopped its pro-team tournaments. However, it will still hold the future pro events.
Many of the organizations are saying they will be taking a long look at their tournament schedules to see if they are profitable. Typically a bass tournament organization makes its profit from sponsors and a portion of the entry fees that fishermen pay. When the number of fishermen entering these tournaments drops the revenue also goes down. Now factor in fewer fishermen and it”s harder to attract sponsors.
This year there are 37 bass tournaments scheduled for Clear Lake, down from a few years ago when the average was more than 50 tournaments.
The number of fishermen participating in the tournaments is also down considerably. Where once the average team tournament drew at least 75 boats, now a tournament is considered a success with 30-40 boats. In fact, a number of tournaments are only fielding 20-25 boats.
The tournaments that continue to be successful are the specialty tournaments such as the Holder Ford-Mercury tournament and the Triton Boat and Stratos Boat events. They still draw more than 120 boats per event. Of course, the FLW-Outdoors tournament that”s scheduled for March 5-7 will draw well in excess of 100 boats, but the field will be made up of mostly seasoned pros who make their living fishing.
The majority of the bass fishermen visiting Clear Lake are tournament fishermen and typically they spend several days on the lake prefishing before the actual tournament. They also spend a lot of money in the county. It is estimated that a visiting tournament fisherman will spend at least $150 per day in the county and that includes motel rooms, food and gas. When you multiply that by several thousand fishermen per year it adds up to some serious tourist dollars.
In addition to the poor economy, there is another black cloud looming on the horizon — drought. If we don”t get the rain needed to raise the lake level, most of the public boat ramps could be high and dry by mid-summer and that also will be a factor in the bass tournaments. If the bass boats are unable to launch, there won”t be any tournaments.
Most of the tournaments currently go out of three locations — Lakeport, Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina, and Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa. The ramps at Lakeport would be the first to be closed if we don”t get any rain. Fortunately the ramps at Konocti Vista and Konocti Harbor are in deeper water and could stay open longer. But a repeat of the drought of 1977 could find even those ramps in trouble.
A few of the public ramps are already experiencing low water. The ramp at Lucerne is very shallow and it”s hard to launch a boat. The state park ramp is also getting shallow.
