Too Many
Tournaments?
by Brian Brown
I pose this question to all the tournament anglers in the state of Minnesota.
Are there too many tournaments?
To me at least, it seems like in the past four years we've
gone from a modest half dozen "money" tournament circuits here to a dozen
"money" tournaments each weekend day as of late. I am glad to see such an
interest in tournament fishing though are there really more tournament anglers
or is everyone so divided in what they want they keep creating a new circuit to
fit there needs with a better possibility of cashing a check.
I remember when I first started fishing the "money"
tournaments 12 years ago we had basically 3 team circuits and one Pro-Am style.
These tournaments generally had 70+ boats and very good competition. Now with
all the tournaments out there each weekend the tournament angler pool is being
stretched thin. I don't blame anyone for fishing their home water rather than
driving a couple, three hours to fish a tournament but in doing so are we
creating smaller fields with smaller pay backs at all the tournaments with less
competition?
I'm not sure if this started with anglers not wanting to
compete against certain anglers or guys wanting to run their own tournament to
make a buck off the anglers and deciding to start a new circuit for anglers to
fish. Don't get me wrong it's great to have some choices as to what you want to
fish, but wouldn't it be nice to see tournament fields back to 70+ boats and
increased payouts that would come along with it?
Also, as each new tournament series is created they are
looking for sponsors to help promote their particular circuit and now the
sponsors contributions are also drawn thin. So rather than giving a couple tours
some good product and possible monetary support they are only able to give some
small product support.
I'm not sure how to change this trend or if it needs to be,
maybe everyone else is happy to see the way the tournament scene in Minnesota is
going. One thing for the anglers to remember is that the tournament directors or
organizations are not going to run a tournament or tournaments for nothing,
that's why many only have a 75-80% payback. This seems to be one of the many
sticky points of which tournaments guys will fish.
These are my two cents of what I've noticed as of the past few
years.
Tight lines,
Brian Brown
classicbass.com Field Staff
