Bass tournaments northeast ohio

[Bigry941]

Not trying to bash anyone there could be good reasons behind it and that’s what I’m trying to figure out, but why is it that every year it seems like the tournaments are competing against one another. This year every x series and team bass extreme are on the same weekends as each other except for one. Wouldn’t they want anglers to fish them all that would mean more people at the tournaments instead of people trying to decide which one. Seems like there is weekends off then 2 tournaments then weekend off. Also why not a few more tournaments in September and October?

[Mr.Wonderful]

Agreed! There are a lot of moving parts to running tournaments but I've wondered this for years. At least NOAA and X-Series events being under the Dobass umbrella should limit some of the conflicting dates and stacked weekends.

[BASSINONE]

All i know is, TBX team division had their schedule out on Nov 1. TBX promotes teams to fish different circuits. There are plenty of tournaments, and plenty of weekends. Teams will decide what schedule, or schedules looks best for them, for that year. I fish multi tournaments, plenty to choose from. It is hard to avoid each other, all the time, just my 2 cents..

[Jeff Hahn]

The problems all of you have mentioned are real. But, the difficulties in trying to avoid conflicts and two tournaments on the same weekend are not always apparent to the fishermen.

Part of the problem are holidays. There's at least one in each month from May-July, which knocks out those weekends for events. Also, remember that there are open tournaments, walleye events, muskie events, etc. and the DNR and Parks people who grant the permits will limit the number of events on the same day ore event he same weekend at the same lake. Then, some tournament directors may have family events or vacations on a particular weekend/week that prevents them from scheduling then. Some trails don't want to schedule on Saturdays because many guys have to work. Some circuits want to avoid Sundays because of church. You get the idea...

Many years ago I was part of a group from several Ohio tournament trails that meet in Columbus one winter in an attempt to minimize schedule conflicts. It became readily apparent that conflicts were inevitable, so much so that having two event on the same weekend was hardly an issue.

[jeffbob]

I was told by the state that if a lake has three ramps they will allow a tournament to go out of every ramp the same day. If you notice some tournament trails are pro-active for scheduling and some are reactive in their scheduling. If you wait too long to apply for permits then you have to take what's left which sometimes creates a mess with another circuit. Even though tourney directors are vying for all contestants they still don't get together to sort out their schedules so that most can have a full field.

[alumking]

There are so many events anymore that it is impossible not to have conflicts. I don't believe anyone is trying to schedule on top of other circuits dates but it is inevitable. This is especially so when a director is running multiple divisions or trails they have to worry about when they have time to run events too. I get my requests in very early and try to coordinate with a couple other trails and still have to re do some of my permit dates. If I tried to work with all organizations it would flat out be impossible. It sounds simple to the anglers but once you run a trail or two you would have a different perspective. As long as we have this many events we will for the most part have partially filled events. We just do not have enough tournament fisherman in certain areas of the state to go around. There are very few trails out there that fill fields.
We are going to have a bass forum with ODNR next month and most directors should be invited to it. We will be addressing fish care minimum standards as well as a reporting page on ODNR site that will list all events and locations for the year. Hopefully they will also require we report catches like WV in order to get permits for the next year. It would be a huge amount of data for ODNR so they could see if a lake is having problems quicker. The reporting page may help us directors to find dates and locations much easier and possibly help this problem. Maybe??

[vicsservice]

september usually has alot of tournaments, october can be tough with lake levels falling, duck hunters on the shore, and alot of fishermen in the woods hunting.

[Bigry941]

Thanks for all the post. I forgot about bad bass, there series wasn’t up on dobass until recently. After I looked again everyone did a nice job actually. I know it’s impossible not to have some conflicts. The other thing and this is not a big deal because I known most of the lakes have a lot of no wake zones and for portage it’s all no wake and the lake gets heavily pressured. I was just wondering why not a few more tournaments on Berlin west branch and the other north east lakes. I know they drop the lakes but water levels are usually ok until around August. Again not a big deal at all just wondering.

[Bassbme]

As far as the above post goes .... one of the reasons West Branch doesn't have many tournaments is that the turn out for events there are always down when compared to other lakes in the area. Personally I love fishing West Branch, but I and others that like the lake, are in the minority. The circuits try to have their events at the most popular lakes so they can draw the largest possible fields. West Branch is not an "if you build it, they will come" kind of lake.

Also as far as West Branch goes, it's a smaller lake that gets very heavy boating traffic. I think the park managers restrict tournament dates there for that reason. I'm pretty sure that a few years back you couldn't fish a tournament on West Branch between Memorial Day, and Labor Day. The last few years though, they have allowed some summertime tournaments. It's just that a lot of people hate fishing that lake.

Berlin always seems to have a tournament or two per month, even into late August and Sept when the water levels are usually at their lowest.