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| Instead of argueing what is best, lets try something new, how about section fishing, take a body of water, split into even sized sections and split the field up. Kind of like golf holes. I think they used something like this in Bass tournaments, What do you think? This is just an idea. One other idea I heard from a friend was meet at a location, convoy to unknown water and have a tournament. No way of networking or cheating. I realize that there are alot of other factors involved, I am simply making conversation. |
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Member
Posts: 2393
Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | I like both ideas. That's one of the reasons that I posted the format for the first bassmaster tournament on a previous post. The secret water idea fascinates me.
I have also been watching the bass tournaments on Saturday mornings that have the “golf hole” scenario. I think it’s more fun to watch than a regular tournament.
I think that the biggest obstacle that walleye tournaments have with the media is that the majority of our fishing is trolling and its difficult to make it intriguing or interesting on TV. With bass fishing you see more activity on the tube. We need to somehow put more excitement into the tournament to make it more interesting for the normal viewer.
The two formats that you mention would add excitement.
A little off topic (sorry), but my crystal ball says that in the future of walleye tournament fishing you will see:
1. Year round competition. Those southern reservoirs are getting attention now. The west is prime.
2. Live bait will be outlawed.
3. More “by invitation only” tournaments. A site like this one may offer a championship some day.
4. More emphasis on the individual than the team.
5. Higher payouts. Trend is already here.
6. A walleye tournament winner on a Wheaties box.
7. More sponsorship outside of the fishing industry. Again trend is developing. Tournament anglers need to become more creative and watch the race car industry for ideas.
8. More crossover from bass to walleye participation. Did you know that Al Lindner did both walleye and bass tournaments?
9. A limit on horsepower ratings on boats. Or like bass tournament championships and the RCL last two days; boats will be assigned to use.
10. You’ll be able to “watch” entire tournaments live on the internet. And internet sites like this one will become more and more important to all of us for information and updates. Why buy an outdated magazine when you get up to date info on sites like this one.
Edited by Sunshine 11/22/2003 11:16 AM
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Member
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| Dennis,
I agree with almost everything you said about the future of walleye tournaments except the live bait issue. There are many places that demand the use of live bait if you want to catch fish. I understand that there are many artifical, and plastic baits out there that trigger bites, but they do not work all the time. As we are seeing more and more over the last couple years, there is a growing list of waters that carry slot restrictions. They are probably the resource managment tool of the new century. On Mille Lacs (my home water) we have very tight slots, and the use of artifical baits works well for many fish in the protected slot (17-28") and the occasional trophy slot (over 28"), but you will not win or place well in any tournament using those artificals for the keepers (-17") that you need to fill your bag limit. Same holds true on many other waters as well. There is a time and place for each, but I don't see any time in the future where one will be banished for the other, except maybe on the Great Lakes where very little live bait is used anyway.
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Member
Posts: 714
| Sorry about the faces, I don't know how I made them. They were not intended. |
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