The 2012 bass tournament season kicks off this weekend with an Angler”s Choice tourney on Saturday and an American Bass tournament on Sunday. Both tournaments are team events.
The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has issued 45 permits for bass tournaments in 2012. These are “event” permits and involve tournament organizations and specialty tournaments. The DFG has issued another 51 bass club permits.
The event-type tournaments will draw most of the attention this year. The tournament organizations visiting Clear Lake this year are Angler”s Choice, American Bass, Western Outdoor News (WONBASS) and Best Bass Tournament (BBT). FLW Outdoors will hold a major three-day tournament April 26-28. That tournament will draw professional bass fishermen from throughout the West.
BassMasters, which has held tournaments at Clear Lake in the past, won”t be out on the West Coast this year. There are also several specialty tournaments such as the Lake County Chamber of Commerce tournament (formally the Holder Ford) and the Triton and Stratos boat owners tournaments. Just about all the tournaments operate out of Konocti Vista Casino in Lakeport although a few will go out of Redbud Park in Clearlake.
Clear Lake is one of the more popular stops for the tournament circuits and the reason is the lake produces some of the largest bass in the West. The lake has a national reputation for its excellent bass fishing.
The number of fishermen competing in tournaments has dropped considerably during the past five years. Ten years ago most of the team tournaments drew from 75-100 boats, but no longer. Now a team tournament is considered a success if it draws 30 boats and some are drawing as few as 10-15 boats. One of the primary reasons for the decline is the economy.
Many tournament fishermen work in construction and the trades and many are out of work and have even lost their homes to foreclosures. To enter a tournament costs approximately $200 or even more in entry fees per team. Typically the tournament organizations pay back in prize money about 60 percent of the entry fees. A 30-boat field will pay back to six places and the winning team takes home approximately $1,000-$1,500 ? and that is divided by two. The other top finishers take home a lot less.
When you add in the cost of gas to travel to Clear Lake and the cost to operate the boat, not to mention motel and restaurant expenses, it can run up to $700 or more per tournament. Many of the fishermen just don”t have that kind of spending money these days.
Some exceptions are the specialty tournaments. They typically draw more than 100 boats and sometimes as many as 150 boats and they have a much larger payback.
For example, the old Holder Ford tournament always drew at least 150 boats. The same applies to the Stratos and Triton tournaments. The other tournaments that normally produce large fields are the Tournament of Champions (TOC) that many of the circuits offer at the end of the year. For example, the American Bass TOC usually draws about 180 boats and occurs in October.
Of course, it”s not just the tournament fishermen that are being impacted by the bad economy. Recreational fishermen numbers are also down considerably. Even with the warmer-than-normal weather few fishermen are showing up to fish at Clear Lake. A check of parking areas at the local boat ramps shows very few boat trailers, even on weekends. The local fishing guides also say their business is down compared to previous years.
The good news is the bass fishing at Clear Lake has been rated very good despite the winter weather. The other factor is that within seven weeks the first part of spring will arrive and the fishing should be outstanding.
