Classic

[Quillback]

Looking at the weather forecast, they're saying storms on Thursday with a sunny, windy, cold day on Friday. Saturday and Sunday look to be relatively mild, but it will be interesting to see how they do on Friday (if this forecast holds up).

[ollie]

A couple of buddies and I wondered the same thing about the driving to T-town for the big event. We all agree that one of the casinos in the area could have hosted the event just as well. Less drive time and would have kept the tournament more local for the merchants.

[Bill Babler]

I would just about bet you that the locaion was put out to bids. BASS does not fool around when it comes to money for sponsorships. You can bet the Chevy pickup and the BassCat that Hard Rock and Tulsa Convention and Visitors Bureau paid out the nose for it. Hard Rock especially. Don't believe its a million, but I think its 6 figures.

Seems like a few years ago either Branson or Kimberling City was offered to make a bid on the Classic, and it was at that time in the hundreds of thousands.

[Phil Lilley]

How does that work? Driving all the way to Tulsa with fish in the livewell... then back to the lake. This may be an obvious, dumb question but isn't that hard if not lethal on the bass?

I'm not up on BASS or any other bass tournament practices... so I don't know these things.

[Bill Babler]

Phil, this is for sure a sticky whicket. They will of course drive to the weigh-in sight with the fish in their aireated livewells. The water will be cool, but those fish will be sloshed and sloshed around. When they are weighed they go into a medicated and again oxygen filled tank that is constructed for the purpose of substaining and invigerating the fish.

Usually that tank is mounted on a pontoon boat and at the conclusion of the weigh-in they are driven back out onto the lake and deposited over a couple of mile area.

Here the pontoon will have to be driven back to grand and the fish released. Got to believe this will be by then after dark and can see this as a nightmare. That is if they are taking them back to Grand. That seems to be what the folks at Grove are concerned with, the possibility of them not bringing them back.

Again, here with only 53 boats and a 5 fish limit, even if everyone has a limit and I don't look for that to happen, does rarely, even in the Classic I believe there will be some mortality, but it should be under 10%. In two days of total group fishing that would be I'm guessing about 180 to 200 fish per day being weighed in at the topend. Or about 400 fish max. Say 10% die, that would be 40 fish.

Probably not a disaster and we all know Grand has had a couple of those, but it continues to be the Best by far Largemouth Bass fishery bar none in the Mid-West.

[fishinSWMO]

I heard a rumor they were taking the fish to Ft. Gibson after weighing them. Can't find any info on that personally, but heard from a weekly fishermen on grand lake.

[Bird Watcher]

For as many tournaments as they hold on Grand Every Fri. Sat. and Sun. all year long, if every fish caught in this tournament died it would still just be a drop in the bucket.

I also heard from another fisherman that all the regatta permits have been suspended for the last month in preparation, so bank whatever dead fish those would have created towards the bottom line.

[Jerry Rapp]

another thing to ponder, they are just taking their limit "home", maybe less than the legal limit. They could just cut slice and dice them and fry them up. I am sure there will be more illegal bass caught that weekend and filleted right on the dock than what will be killed for the weigh in.

[Guest]

Remember when Ike went all "yard sale" on the camera guy and broke the american flag off his running light?

Then he proceeded to toss his DEAD 5 bass limit back in the water like they were sticks of firewood.

TOTAL MELTDOWN

I hope this doesnt happen to another angler in route to Tulsa, b/c of the long drive.

[bluebasser86]

I wonder if they'll have a tournament official check their livewells after takeout to verify their fish are alive so if an angler loses a fish en route to the weigh in they aren't penalized? I'd certainly be upset in a tournament of that magnitude to get penalized for a dead fish because the weigh in was over an hour away when they were all live when I was leaving.