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You Utah anglers freezing yet?
So I'm here to test the waters with the Utah community. A tournament organization that I'm familiar with is throwing around the idea of expanding their circuit to Utah. The organization is currently in several states, and in my humble opinion, a class act trail.
The years I spent in Utah I ran across many other bass fisherman, but not much of a tournament presence.
So, to my question. How many would be interested in participating in a bass fishing trail that is just in Utah? Say maybe a 5 lake circuit with a championship at the end.
The fee's are usually $360 a boat per event with 100% payback. Those of you familiar with tournaments know this is a great deal, very few offer 100% payback. Without divulging too much information the circuit also carries some heavyweight sponsors including a well known boat manufacturer among others.
Let me know Utah! I'm curious to see what everyone says.
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The problem I've noticed in Utah is the tournament schedule looks like this:
Powell
Powell
FL Gorge
Powell
Fl Gorge
Powell
I just got sick of getting beat by guys that live at Powell & Fl Gorge.
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Ranger what about Utah's other summer bass waters? Pineview, DC, Utah Lake, etc.... Why no tourney on those lakes?
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My point exactly, most of those lakes can't handle the number of boats in these big tournaments. I would love to fish tournaments on these other lakes but they need to be smaller tournaments because of their size.
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20-30 boat field too much in your opinion?
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20-30 boats might work at Ut Lake, Jordanelle, maybe Deercreek. I've fished alot of tournaments on Utah waters and the good spots can really get crowded with 20 boats in a tournament. I would love to see this happen and I wish them the best of luck.
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Pat where you at? I'd love to get your input on this. You're the most senior (citizen haha) Utah angler I know, not much you haven't seen!
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Lack of suitable water is the biggest thing that hampers tournaments in Utah. I ran team tournaments for US BASS and Utah BASS Federation for years back in the 80's. You try and run a 30 boat event on Pineview, you also have to deal with all the pleasure boaters. I tried to get the guys to fish Utah Lake, but had no participation. Starvation is suitable, as is Utah Lake, but other than those two, you are left with Fl. Gorge and Lake Powell. Some of the Utah clubs can put 20 or more boats on the water for club events, and they run into the pleasure boat issue. Some clubs have moved their events to the middle of the week or late afternoons to avoid that problem. Right now, a 5 event schedule would look like this:
Early spring ( Feb- April) Lake Powell - Bullfrog
Late Spring ( April - June) Utah Lake
Summer (June- Aug) Flaming Gorge/Starvation
Late Summer( Aug-Sept) Flaming Gorge/Starvation
Fall (Sept - Oct) Lake Powell - Bullfrog
That is pretty much all you could do. So from the Wasatch Front, where 80% of your anglers live, you are looking at 4-6 hour drives for all but one of your events.
Your can expand into Idaho for one or two events, but then you are increasing your drive time.
It is do able, but only the hardcore fisherman are going to play, which will cut your participation down to 20 boats. Your overhead for insurance and fees will make a smaller field unvialble.
Paul Reutlinger has been running a couple of West Coast team circuts here for years and is well aware of what works and what doesn't. Both Federations have seen a drop in participation in the past few years due to increased costs, mainly fuel for travel both on and off the water.
Utah is just not a Tournament friendly environment !!!
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There is lots of tournament bass fishing going on in the state of Utah. Participation levels are low and not improving. There just isn't the population base to provide the type of numbers to get much of turnout.
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The lakes are there as well as the fish. Is it the tournament fee's that keep the Utah community away? Distance to the tournaments?
Maybe a better questions would be for those who would be interested in tournament fishing, why aren't you?
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I would love to get into it, but I don't own a boat. I've actually been signed up to be a co-angler twice and when the boater found out I was a relative noob to tournament fishing, they said no thanks and dropped out. If I had a boat, I'd be all over tourney's.
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[#0000FF]I explained my position in my PM to you. In a nutshell, I do not fish competitively. Been there, done that, ain't doin' it no more.
You have already received some realistic input from some other knowledgeable Utah bassers. Utah just does not have the quality bass waters...of suitable size and bass population...to warrant any more tournament fishing. Okay for some small club events but anything more than a few boats and it gets ugly. And seldom does any angler or team weigh in a full limit...of any size.
While there are a few lakes that can sporadically produce decent fishing...for a small group...Powell is the only lake that is really tourney worthy. And as others have stated, it is too far and too expensive just to get there to get the "average" angler excited.
Utah is what it is...a desert state with fluctuating irrigation reservoirs that sometimes contain a few bass. It is not a state with big rivers and major impoundments that remain at a fairly constant level and which have multiple food sources to grow lots of bass.
Having bass tournaments in Utah is like setting out a big decoy spread for ducks in the middle of a dry lake in Nevada.
And that's also why I quit hunting elephants. The decoys were killin' me.
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I want to thank everyone who took the time to post here, it's appreciated.
While I have the utmost respect for all the BFT anglers, I do have to admit I thought I'd see more interest from the community. But wouldn't it be nice to have a tournament that could draw a limited amount of boats and still be able to provide great payouts without over crowding the lakes?!?! Tournament fishing doesn't have to be on the scale of FLW/Elite series for guys to have fun and make some money.
I do understand that Utah had a terrible water year this past summer and it was discouraging for a lot of folks, yet I've also been in Utah when their was great water years and I couldn't keep smallies off the line at Pineview.
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[quote TroutBumDave]I would love to get into it, but I don't own a boat. I've actually been signed up to be a co-angler twice and when the boater found out I was a relative noob to tournament fishing, they said no thanks and dropped out. If I had a boat, I'd be all over tourney's.[/quote]
What about your tin boat?
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I would be interested in a new tournament series BUT like I mentioned to you before, the high entry fees and travel costs to get to some of the better lakes (like powell) just don't make it very practical on my budget. Yes, the higher payouts would be nice, but for a lot of people like me that are just getting into it the risk may not be worth the reward.
Also like someone mentioned earlier the locations will be a big issue. Traveling all over the place gets pretty expensive, but most of the closer lakes get too crowded with that many boats.
My suggestion would be to consider downsizing it to accommodate the state a little better. Maybe either do less boats per tournament so they can be fished on smaller lakes like Pineview and Jordanelle, Or maybe a smaller entry fee and smaller payout. Unfortunately we don't have as many dedicated bass fisherman here as in other states so that might be a way to get more people interested and get things going.
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The two things that inhibit me from fishing tournaments in Utah are the distance/overnight requirement and saturdays.
The reason is honestly I can take a weekday off to fish (do pretty much every week of the year) and still spend time with the family on the weekends but to spend the only real family day to be outdoors, bbq with friends, etc - and spend that one day a week away from the family does not work out so well.
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We have the same struggles in Idaho, but we have the snake river that brings magic to our valley. If you are purely in it for the payout, there is at least one high dollar open every month from march til sept across the state. There were two circuits that were dissolved due to lack of participation. I fish three local clubs, but would drive aways for a good tourney. It sux to spend a lot of money to get beat by the locals on their home pond. Milner and Walcott were both great this year they are the closest for you guys. Long as you don't eat em, I'll put you on fish.
. . . But hell it's sturgeon time.
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I would love to fish tournaments, but unfortunately no bass boat pretty much shuts it down for me
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[size 3][font "Calibri"]Utah has more than enough interest, anglers, andwater to have a good tournament trail if all of the anglers could agree onlocations, format, and entry fees etc. etc. etc. The problem is that itwill never happen; way too many people will not fish a tournament if itisn't on "their" lake every time, or by their rules. We havemany clubs, two Federations, opens, and team tournaments nearly every week-end somewherein the State. Each one competing for the same anglers, which dilutes thenumber of contestants leaving us with minimal participation. Furthermore, most Bass guys are reluctant and worry about promoting bassfishing here because they don't like to see a resource they love and havespent a life time enjoying be wiped out by meat eaters and bass killers.It's not so much the size of the lakes for tournaments as it is the size of thelakes after everyone tells someone else where to go and how to catch them thatwill ruin our bass lakes for good. So back to the original question, if you canconvince every tournament guy in the state to fish this new tournament then Iwould love to see it. Unfortunately, if not you will end up spending all youreffort recruiting contestants and competing with all of the other tournaments.[/font][/size]
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[size 3][font "Calibri"]Tight lines......[/font][/size]
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There are no shortage of bass fishermen in Utah. Most of the important points have already been brought up about the challenges of bass fishing in Utah. I got burned out on fishing most tournaments (in Utah) but I'll probably fish a couple next year. Interested to see what you have in mind.
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