bass tournament bashing article

Interesting read. I sent a 3 page email to him and the newspaper. I would urge you, even if it is short to voice your opinion.

http://thegazette.com/2013/10/17/bass-tournament-crowd-violates-the-rules/

Jeremy

yeah i read this.

Unfortunately, most of the article is true. Of course not all "tournament bass" guys do this, but on the upper Miss, he has a point.

What can be done....not sure. I guess when I'm in my boat, I do the best I can to be a good steward of the water and fisheries.

I also think he goes "overboard" a bit with some of his comments.

i also LOVE seeing that bass boats go 80+ mph  

I dont see most of this article as being true. I see him generalizing and trying to lump all bass anglers into one category. I will post my response next. Kind of funny what you find out about someone through a google search. Be ready to put on your reading glasses and I TOO like to see 80 mph boats !!!!

This is in reference to Tim Mason article on October 17, 2013; titled Bass tournament crowds violate rules.

It is clear that Tim’s thoughts are purely from an extremely bias observation only standpoint. I find articles like this, which are written completely on emotion, comical and discredits the writer. It is clear that Tim is completely clueless on this issue and did little, if any research prior to writing this.
The first thing I asked myself is why would he write a ridiculous article like this. Read on and you will find out.

First off let me say that I am a tournament bass angler. I don’t have a boat that will do 70 -80 mph. I don’t have a shiny truck, matter of fact it is an older Chevy with rust. My boat is not wrapped with sponsor logos. It is one that I got from a salvage yard that had a hole in the bottom that I picked up for $600 and had to fix it up. I live in the country and not some metropolitan city. I was raised with deep Iowa values that hard work and honesty gets you through life. Just like the majority of bass tournament anglers. I fish around 20 tournaments a year all across the state of Iowa and I can honestly say that the description Tim gave of bass tournament anglers is completely off. Matter of fact I can count on one hand the number of boats and trucks that fit his description I see during a given year.

I am not only a bass fisherman, I love fishing for all species of fish. While in college at Upper Iowa University I took fly tying course and found myself fly fishing the trout streams every free minute I had. I waded the Turkey and Upper Iowa rivers catching smallmouth on ultra-light equipment. In the spring I would go to Sweets Marsh and the Wapsipinicon River and catch northern pike. Once I started fishing bass tournaments though, it was amazing how much of a better angler I became, not for just bass but all species.

Let’s get the only thing that I agree with Tim on out of the way. It is our public water. That is right, “our”! Just as much mine, as his, as you who are reading this. Since all water for the most part is public, why is it that Tim should be the dictator and telling everyone who can use it and how. Why is the way he chooses to use the water “better” than anyone else’s? Why does a bass angler have fewer or more restrictive rights compared to any other angler? If we are all anglers aren’t we all part of the same brotherhood? Don’t we all want and love to fish, for which ever species you choose to pursue? Why would he start a fight amongst us by profiling?

Tim is aware of public water as he operates a guiding service for trout anglers. Doesn’t he realize that he is crowding out other recreational and local anglers from using those areas by taking clients there? Let’s be honest also, Tim is doing that for one reason. THE MONEY AND GREED. He is making money off these people and the natural resource. The only investment he has is an annual fishing license. Guiding anglers he is not required to pay a permit, or guiding license – it is free. Heck of a deal for him.

Also Tim operates a Mississippi River kayak fishing guide service. Now we are getting somewhere why he wrote this article. So he doesn’t like bass boats going by and making waves and fishing while he is out there making money off people who are paddling, fishing, and looking at birds. Why isn’t he complaining about all the other boats using the river? I don’t like the fact that kayaks don’t have to pay registration for their vessel. How is that fair that they get to use the water for free, but anyone else with a boat has to pay a registration fee? He makes reference also that bass angler interfere with his fishing. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times that I have been fishing and had other anglers come over to where I was and drop anchor or start fishing within a boat length of me. This is not a bass angler problem; it is a lack of respect from people of all walks of life. However, Tim is going to blame bass anglers because it is easiest group to paint as bad. Still he is making money off the resource at basically no cost to him and he is upset that he can’t have it all to himself. It’s all about the money for Tim.

Now let’s get to the facts of bass tournaments. Tim says that this “industry” is fueled by greed and grand prize money – how hypocritical for him to say. Clearly this a statement made by someone who is completely clueless. 90% of the tournaments I fish are team tournaments and I fish them with my Dad. I fish them because we are doing more than fishing. We are talking about whatever is on our mind. I can guarantee you that there will never be a time in my life that I will think, “I wished I wouldn’t have spent so much time fishing with my Dad, or my Son.” Yes there is some money to be won. The average bass tournament costs about $75 to get into and if you win around $400-$500 you will get to take home. Not really a big pay day. What Tim doesn’t realize is that when we are out there fishing that we are actually competing against the fish and not other anglers.

What does this type of bass fishing do for the “industry”? Like in NASCAR, it has developed many safety standards for boats. Better hull designs, engines, steering, floatation in boats, rods, reels, lines, lures, electronic, gps, lifevests, the list goes on and on. Do you think Tim is using circa 1950’s rods, reels, lines, lures, waders, cameras, kayaks while guiding his clients? No. He can credit most of this nice equipment to competitive bass angling as they are what are what drives the “industry” forward in creating new, better, and safer equipment.

Littering, I find this comical that he would bring this up. Tim states that he has seen a handful of items being thrown out and other violations. When I was younger I worked at a park with a lake for 4 years I can tell you that by far the largest amount of litter is from livebait anglers. After every weekend the banks were littered with worm containers, chicken-liver tubs, plastic sacks, fishing line, and various snack bags just to mention a few. Let’s be clear on this and straight forward. Bass anglers are the most conservation minded group of anglers in the world, having donating time, money, materials, and other things to the Iowa DNR and different organizations. Most clubs also have a lure and line recycling bags they hand out before the tournaments and collect afterward. Bass clubs run strict rules that if they are caught breaking any state, or federal law they will be disqualified there on the spot. To uphold the integrity of the sport many clubs have incorporated the option of and have used polygraphs if issues arise. Name another sport that does all of that.
Then Tim brings up fish kills. Yet he failed to mention that these are catch and release tournaments. The fish are kept alive and in the event that one may die the angler’s will be penalized for it. Once weighed in, the fish are released alive to be caught again some other day. Remember though, these fish are of legal size to keep if they wanted, they choose to let them go. The mortality on tournaments has been studied for a long time all over the country. Bottom line there is not enough of an impact to have an effect on the balance of the fishery.

Then Tim goes on to talk about the Iowa DNR not running these people down to ticket them. I got a simple answer for this. Because they are not doing anything wrong or else they would! Sounds like Tim wants a badge and gun now also to fix all the Iowa’s problems. Tim then references the DNR regulations on bass tournaments and says, “However after studying these documents, I see fee collection rather then actual safe guarding of the resources and other river users’ safety.” The DNR charges a $25 fee for any outdoor related permit. How are they making money off of that? The permit fee was added a few years ago to reduce the number of tournaments and to regulate on how many were on a body of water. Otherwise you could show up and there could be 4-5 clubs trying to have a tournament that day at a certain body of water. No matter how you slice it, not really a money maker for the Iowa DNR since there are about 700 permitted tournaments a year totaling a little over $17,000 – a drop in the bucket.

What Tim doesn’t bring up is what it does for his local economy. There is a lot of small hotel/motel that depend on all the summer bass tournaments. Not to mention all the local eating establishments, gas stations, bait and tackle shops, marinas, etc. that benefit from it also. If these were taken away you will see a lot of local business closing up.

It is clear to me that Tim sees himself as an elitist. Tim has all the answers, just ask him and he will tell you. It is clear that even though Tim has no life experiences to base his opinion off of other than what he has observed. He still feels he is educated enough to write an article. Then he advises his readers to voice their opinion to legislative representatives, when in reality it is Tim’s opinion. My words of advice Tim, educated yourself, get some life experiences on the subject, ask questions, keep an open mind, and be humble.

Finally Tim I would be more than happy to let you jump in my boat and fish a tournament with me. I will provide everything. Then at least when you are done you can at least say you have experienced it from both seats. Heck you might find a new hobby that you can take up with a relative, or friend.

I will be sending a letter myself. I have no problems with it and I am pretty good at letting my fingers run wild from time to time.  

I only know of a couple boats on 19 that will run 80+ they are out there though. Guy showed up with a new aluminum boat at our last one that I can't remember the brand now but it had a 250 sho hangin off the back of it and man that thing was stupid fast. He claimed it would hit 85 on gps. I can believe it too. They were wearing helmets too.   Something I have done on occasion. I didn't realize that bothered people not bass fishing.

There are certainly some points in there worth discussing. However, most of which are just complete crap IMO. I beg the jonboaters of the world to go blowing by us when we are fishing. Guys running 20' plate boats and 150 to 200hp motors and just plowing along throwing the biggest wakes possible while they was us up on shore or blow out a set of logs. Get that dam thing a movin. I'd much rather see you come blowing by at WOT than that crap. That's not a lack of respect, that is a lack of brain power cause they don't realize there boat makes 3 times the wake doing that than it does on pad. Same thing with the pleasure boaters. Someone coming through a chute and see ya fishing and dump a big ole cruiser off pad right where your at. Really! Go another 20 yds instead of again washing us up on the bank. Again, ignorance, not respect.

I am just getting my fingers warmed up for my letter.  

Sure looks to me like Tim has a lot of opinions on a lot of matters just based on a quick google search. He likes to express his opinions thats for sure.

First thing I will say Jeremy is great job on the article. You have an amazing knack for taking an extremely diplomatic and educated approach to handling the situation and getting your facts across.

You sure you shouldn't have been a lawyer?  

Its obvious your a great asset to the entire fishing and outdoor community as well as us as bass fisherman and a lot can be learned from how you go about conducting these types of articles and letters. Nice work!

Every time I read something that you have put up here it has certainly helped me to not be quite so harsh about how I might have said things and made me realize you can get the exact same points across and likely have them taken a lot more seriously if done in a more diplomatic manner.

Thanks Randy :)I have my wife to thank for that, you know women it isnt what you say, but how you say it

I dont expect to hear anything back from him regarding it, but I sent it to the gazette also so maybe they will run it for me.....one can wish

Yes, he is outspoken, and some of his comments are mostly targeted towards the BFL, Everstart and Elite guys. Something that keeps his little town of McGregor functioning with money spent at motels/gas stations etc.

Now, he is only talking about the Miss River, pools 8/9/10 I assume from where he lives. He has no clue about the lakes of Iowa, and the article is not speaking of them...he lives in a river town, why in the (censored) would he ever go to a lake  

His three main points:
#1=Do bass guys blow no wake areas...yes
#2=Do bass guys break the law by going past anchored boats in sloughs...yes
#3=Do bass guys piss off people when they blow in an area, and are gone in ten minutes...yes.

***bass guys refers to the sparkly sequined boats he was talking about.  

When I first read the article, these 3 things is what I said I agree with, which in my mind is what he is upset with. The above 3 things happen all the time on the river, it is part of tournament fishing sometimes...good or bad.

DO other anglers do the same things in #1-#3...sometimes, but not very often.

The other statements are mostly just opinion by Tim, which along with everyone I take with a grain, sometimes a tablespoon of salt.  

Well he hasn't fished around us. At times that stuff drives me crazy about Mike but no way we would ever be accused of any of those things. I feel like we spend an hour or more of every tournament day idling around to be proper.

He went a little to far, but I understand where he is coming from. It seems like it is an all about ME world these days. Doesn't matter where you go or what you are doing, there are always those that seem to put themselves ahead of everyone else. You see it at a 4 way stop and you see it at your local WalMart. That is one of my biggest gripes about todays society. When you run into someone who is caring and giving rather than careless and greedy, it seems like a rare day but those are the people that make life worth livin!
I know there are good people out there and everyone on this site falls into that category, in my opinion but there are a bunch of them out there who just can't seem to get away from the ALL ABOUT ME concept!

Jeremy, great job on the article, I hope the Gazette runs it. People that don't fish need to read it. Just curious does Tim realize the damage he and clients do to streams due to wading causing undue erosion. Again Jeremy great article

The guy is a complete

Todd_NE wrote:

The guy is a complete

LOVE IT!  

That is pretty funny Todd. Nice find!   

A little update. I got an email from cedar rapids gazette and they want to run my response. Only they want me to cut it to 250 words.......the way it is now is 1750.

Not sure I can get my point across with just 250 words, so I told them that and waiting for a response...

Good to know that they liked it and are listening  

Get Thomas to reword it, that's what he does for a living!

Seriously,

I can tell this guy dug at a few of your heart strings. Imagine if you were still playing baseball or football at our ages and the pro's "came to town" to play.

This is sentimentality. Fishing can be whatever you want - high, low tech, intensity, whatever.

I've fished tourneys for 3 species in about 10 states. Sometimes for purses of 50k + boats. I have never, nor do many guys I know, fish for M O N E Y. Tourney fisherman are, for the most part, the most broke pecker on their block. I have rarely, or ever, sdeen disrespect of the non-angling public on the water. If anything, the public likes to get into the middle of tourney guys.

A lot of walleye pro's live in a trailer, single, with a 10 yr old truck with 200k miles and a 60k boat they don't own stuck in a snow bank without a tarp but hope to sell at break even.

Do they/we all dream of some "big" tourney break through - winning a classic or something like that, sure. We'd dream of winning a super bowl if an adult football league gave us a chance to get there too.

It's public water. Deal with it. If drowning a worm in bibs makes you happy, go for it. I go that way myself once in a while. But tourney guys don't rape a fishery, suck out the resources or go after ma and pa.

Remind me how many bass tourney anglers eat?

My response. I don't have to justify tourney fishing anymore than that guy has to justify being a communist.

Todd_NE wrote:

Seriously,

I can tell this guy dug at a few of your heart strings. Imagine if you were still playing baseball or football at our ages and the pro's "came to town" to play.

This is sentimentality. Fishing can be whatever you want - high, low tech, intensity, whatever.

I've fished tourneys for 3 species in about 10 states. Sometimes for purses of 50k + boats.  I have never, nor do many guys I know, fish for M O N E Y.  Tourney fisherman are, for the most part, the most broke pecker on their block.  I have rarely, or ever, sdeen disrespect of the non-angling public on the water. If anything, the public likes to get into the middle of tourney guys.

A lot of walleye pro's live in a trailer, single, with a 10 yr old truck with 200k miles and a 60k boat they don't own stuck in a snow bank without a tarp but hope to sell at break even.

Do they/we all dream of some "big" tourney break through - winning a classic or something like that, sure.  We'd dream of winning a super bowl if an adult football league gave us a chance to get there too.

It's public water. Deal with it. If drowning a worm in bibs makes you happy, go for it. I go that way myself once in a while.  But tourney guys don't rape a fishery, suck out the resources or go after ma and pa.

Remind me how many bass tourney anglers eat?

My response. I don't have to justify tourney fishing anymore than that guy has to justify being a communist.

Dang Todd, you could not of said it any better than that! Can I quote this?

Do anything you want with it. Pecker might be bad. I was going to say "running down the street covered in jelly, carrying salad spoons while wearing a leather police outfit with chaps" rather than communist but I thought I'd hold back.

Most tourneys I've ever been a part of the public goes to head of the launch line, people go by at idle, help people learn how to fish, even have a kids clinic now and then.

Waterfowl was simple 30 years ago too. We all wore jones hats, froze our assess off and used pumps, browning A5's and blew Faulks. (OK, I still use Faulks)

Darrin wrote:

Todd_NE wrote:

Seriously,

I can tell this guy dug at a few of your heart strings. Imagine if you were still playing baseball or football at our ages and the pro's "came to town" to play.

This is sentimentality. Fishing can be whatever you want - high, low tech, intensity, whatever.

I've fished tourneys for 3 species in about 10 states. Sometimes for purses of 50k + boats.  I have never, nor do many guys I know, fish for M O N E Y.  Tourney fisherman are, for the most part, the most broke pecker on their block.  I have rarely, or ever, sdeen disrespect of the non-angling public on the water. If anything, the public likes to get into the middle of tourney guys.

A lot of walleye pro's live in a trailer, single, with a 10 yr old truck with 200k miles and a 60k boat they don't own stuck in a snow bank without a tarp but hope to sell at break even.

Do they/we all dream of some "big" tourney break through - winning a classic or something like that, sure.  We'd dream of winning a super bowl if an adult football league gave us a chance to get there too.

It's public water. Deal with it. If drowning a worm in bibs makes you happy, go for it. I go that way myself once in a while.  But tourney guys don't rape a fishery, suck out the resources or go after ma and pa.

Remind me how many bass tourney anglers eat?

My response. I don't have to justify tourney fishing anymore than that guy has to justify being a communist.

Dang Todd, you could not of said it any better than that! Can I quote this?

In a nutshell this was my response to both him and the Gazette. I got a response back from both of them too. As I am sure Jeremy did.

My response from the Gazette should be no shocker to you all. "Your response is WAAAAY to long for us to ever post"   If you would like us to post it we need a response less than 250 words and yours was over 2000 words.   Well, welcome to everyones world that reads my crap.

Far as the response from Tim. I am sure it was the same generic one Jeremy got. Just a generic response sent out to everyone saying how he got hundreds of responses and most everyone was in agreement with him. "Ya Right!" Bla bla bla bla. F u dude!  

Todd_NE wrote:

Do anything you want with it. Pecker might be bad. I was going to say "running down the street covered in jelly, carrying salad spoons while wearing a leather police outfit with chaps" rather than communist but I thought I'd hold back.

Most tourneys I've ever been a part of the public goes to head of the launch line, people go by at idle, help people learn how to fish, even have a kids clinic now and then.

Waterfowl was simple 30 years ago too. We all wore jones hats, froze our assess off and used pumps, browning A5's and blew Faulks. (OK, I still use Faulks)

Oh Todd!!!!! For a husker fan you sure do make me laugh!     

Don't remember anymore how we ever really got hooked up but glad we did. Love your thoughts on things.  

So you all know. Faulks is a brand of call. Not a dude on all gay cruise with free butter spray.

Randy, I think it was on Ryan's site. Mutual.

I $%@#%@# hate tourney bashers. This guy is like Woody Paige/Denver Post/ESPN if you know that twiddle Duck. The u beats spell check.

Sorry I'm in a very bad mood and it's safer to vent to friends like the sarcastic Ahole I'm being a state away.

As one buddy said last Sunday after I shared a few things. "Why the (censored) are we fishing, we should be getting you drunk in a strip club." That's a good friend.

Family is ok, wife is here, haven't been fired - nothing like that.

That last post is classic Todd right there.

I don't think I know anyone that has be to more professional on a daily basis than Todd. Yet more down to earth and good hearted when around those people that share his passion, be it for the outdoors or strip clubs.

Vent away buddy, vent a way!! Lmao.

Thanks Randy. 2 clubs 20 minutes from cabin, haven't been to them since I bought the cabin. But, the guys think I should go

Work, wife's family, etc.

Whiskey sounds really good but haven't started a bottle. I don't think I'd stop.

I did come up with a good country song title.

Whiskey won't put out the flame