River Bassin Tourney Trail 2012 Coming Here!

[Stoneroller]

I am happy to announce that Missouri will have 3 events during 2012 as part of the RiverBassin.com Tournament Trail. We will have our own division, and will likely share a regional event with Arkansas's division. (exact division names have not been determined) From what I know the Arkansas stops will be Fayetteville and Little Rock. I lobbied very stronly for our own events so we would not have to travel to another state to participate. That being said, I'm really hoping for a strong turnout at each of our events here in Missouri. We will have 2 regular events and a regional final, plus there will be a national final.

Currently I am looking at the Meramec/Bourbeuse River drainage as one stop and the upper Gasconade,upstream from Jerome, River basin for the 2nd stop. The regional will likely be shared with the Arkansas division, but it looks as though it would be based in Springfield because of BPS. So that greatly benefits Missouri anglers. I know 2 stops sounds small, it is, on purpose. This is the first year, so rather than over extend, going with fewer events will help us provide a higher quality event.

Here is the input that I need from you guys as anglers. WHEN would be a good time to hold these 2 events? Keeping in mind that time still has be left for the regional and final events. Would you rather fish spring or late summer? Keep in mind school outings/starting, hunting season, football season(i personally care nothing about the former 3), holidays, typical river flows etc. The idea is to fish the river when we stand a chance of catching the greatest numbers of quality fish, while having plenty of water that is fishable. I lobbied for later in the summer and into fall as water levels, although lower, would be stable.

Unlike the past RiverBassin events I am lobbying for a 2 day event, where you could put in saturday morning, float, camp ON the river, and then float sunday and meet for 'weigh in' around 4 at a centralized and mostly downstream location. Thoughts about that? camping on the river is another reason I went for later in the summer to avoid flash flood or tresspassing issues. You are always able to fish just one of the days if you can't make both. 2 days opens far more water, allows you to move to a different area if you wish, allows camping on the river therefore more river miles are available to us, and makes more economic sense, although our divisional event entry fees will be less than the current $60/event, from what I understand.

I'd just assume avoid the spring closed smallmouth season if possible as I felt most Missouri anglers would rather not have that 'pressure' on the river during that time even though it is a CPR/No Take tourney. I've seen some of the battles on here over fishing bedding fish. We close all other seasons during breeding, no reason fish shouldn't be the same in my opinion, but i'm open to constructive thoughts and ideas.

It is also VERY likely if not imminent that MDC will be at each event final and/or checking anglers on the river. The state fisheries biologists will receive our results, including photos to help their creel surveys.

I have the ability to make this into pretty much any format, within reason, that will provide the best that our rivers have to offer and I want to make sure it's scheduled and set up in a way that will maximize participation. I realize 2 events can limit the ability for someone to participate, which is why i'm open to suggestions with supporting reasons as to why an event should be held during a specific period on one of the rivers mentioned.

[Al Agnew]

I'd agree with you that spring would not be an optimum time, both because of the closed season/spawning, and because of a greater chance of encountering high water. I'd say around the second weekend of June would be the earliest good time. Any reason you aren't considering early summer?

Personally, if I was fishing it on the river systems you are considering (and I might), I'd rather see it happen between June 15 and August 31. Early to mid-fall fishing just isn't as consistently good.

[RSBreth]

I'm with Al on the early Summer thing, and I'd forget the 2-day format. It's hard enough for some of us to get away for and afternoon, let alone an entire day - those that aren't able to commit to two full days won't be competitive.

I'd love to see you hit an area over here in SW MO but I know that's probably not for this year, so I'll likely have to wing it on watershed's I don't know well.

[Smalliebigs]

Good for you Mike!!!!!! I am personally glad you went out on a limb and worked with Drew and the people @ Riverbassin to get their tourney's here in Missouri. I know you had to do some foot work and I commend you for that. I'm down with any river drainage in Missouri, just tell me where. One thing for sure with me is, I think the Riverbasin trail does it right in regards to the fish. It's the least invasive to fish in my opinion, compared to any other fishing tournaments I have seen.

[Stoneroller]

so $60-40 to fish a single day tourney seems reasonable? There is nothing that would prevent someone from fishing a single day of a 2 day tourney. Hell, you could sign up, show up 30 min prior to the weigh-in, fish the river at the weigh-in, catch 3 big fish and WIN the entire thing for only 30 min of fishing.

If you fish both events AND the regional, you've commited 6 days out of 365 to fish. If that can't be done, then tournament fishing isn't for you. I don't see how it makes economic sense to pay to fish a single day tourney. A single day tourney format also SEVERLY limits the floatable water available. In some cases it cuts out more than half of the available water on a river system.

A 1 day tourney format also does not allow you to fish the entire day. I've never understood tournaments that fish from sunup till 3 or 4. I'm not going to pay, nor would I ask anyone else to pay $50 to fish what amounts to half a day.

I guess I can kind of understand that 2 days would be more difficult for some people to attend both days, but overall I think I provides us with greater opportunity and MUCH greater value, and those two things far outweigh the inablity of a participant to secure the entire weekend for fishing.

If you can't fish both days, just fish one. Problem solved.

[MOsmallies]

I'm very interested in this and would vote for Al's time frame of June 15 - August 31. I personally like the idea of a two day format but I probably wouldn't have a tough time getting away for a weekend (no kids). I can understand the other side as well though.

Please keep us posted on this Mike!

[Stoneroller]

I'd like to point out, nothing is really set in stone. I'm just trying to play out the pros and cons here instead of it becoming an issue out on the water. I have heard a few others support the 1 day format too, so it's not out of the question. And it's possible we could try it both ways, do the first stop as a 1 day and the 2nd stop as a 2 day. I want people to feel like they are getting their money's worth, even if they don't win a prize.

[Al Agnew]

I'd lean toward just a one day event as well. There's no denying that if it's a two day event, the guy who can only fish one day of it is at a competitive disadvantage. Which will probably reduce participation. Another problem with it is that what if the guy can only fish on Saturday but the "weigh-in" is on Sunday?

I agree, though, that fishing til only 3 or 4 PM does short-change one a bit on time on the water. Logistically, however, if everybody is going to get together for the "weigh-in" (picture-in?) at a central location that evening, you've got to give them time to get off the water and get there. If it's held in early to mid-summer when it doesn't get dark til 9 PM, you could just tell everybody to be there by 7 or 7:30, and if they want to spend more time on the water they just have to fish somewhere close to the gathering site. Not much different than a tournament on a big reservoir where some anglers might run a boat for 70 miles to the other end of the lake, knowing they're going to lose an hour or more of fishing time both ways.

[Addicted to Creeks]

i look forward to finding out more about this tourney, i would lean toward a one day event but wouldnt mind 2,

[HiCountry]

No Riverbassin trail this year!

http://drewgregory.com/river-bassin-tournament-trail-comes-to-an-end-for-now/