Tournament Cost

[Feathers and Fins]

Gas 180.00$ boat

Gas 60.00$ truck

Line 60.00$

Assorted baits for tourney 175.00$

Motel room 2 night 150.00$

Food 80.00$

Entry fee $100.00

Total 805.00

These are rough numbers from when I tourney fished a two day tournament with 2 days pre-fishing years ago, I do not know today’s prices but would thing near the same to double it depending on outside factors. So and angler would need to win 805.00 just to break even if they had no sponsorship and were doing it on their own. I did not factor in if these guys have a real world job and had to miss 2 to 4 days of work which I will simply add another 400.00 for so potentially right out the gate 1,200.00 just to break even potentially.

I fished saltwater tourneys but would assume that freshwater are close in cost.

Im curious to you guys who fish these tourneys what the actual cost has become to fish them?

[Guest]

You're right on target there.

Its hard to justify when you're losing that kinda money.

This is the very reason that I stopped fishing tournaments.

[techo]

We just fish the little tournies on Table Rock so we are bit different. We also use a small boat with a 90 horse and fish mostly for fun. We don't have to pre-fish as we are already fishing most of the time.

$120.00 gas fill the boat and truck.

Depends on line but $60.00 gets me a large roll of Maxima fishing line and I usually keep a couple rods with the florocarbon on it. The large roll lasts all year, usually.

I think tackle is a lot less too. Not sure about these umbrella rigs but usually your tackle is narrowed down to 2-3 choices or less. I would think $50.00 of tackle would be plenty.

Entry fees for the tourneys we did ran closer to $200.00 but there are cheaper or spendier depending on what you are looking for,

Not counting missed work that is around $430.00. I still think that is an extremely high estimate for folks that live here and fish the tournaments for fun. Traveling guys have to add food and motel, and the pre-fishing which would get you back to your $800.00 mark.

[riverfish]

for me it kinda depends on how you look at it and whether you want to live in luxury or just get by i fish a tourney evey year on grand ake that cost 200 to get in i spend about another two hundred and fifty on gas motel/food i dont usually figure my tackle b/c i buy in bulk and i have it already and would use it even if i was just "fun fishin" same with my line so i dont figure them as an expense i try to use my vacation time for prefish days and tournament days if they are in the week so im not really losing money there either so i think its up to the angler and how the individual can manage their finances and all the other variables mentioned so it does cost money that i wouldnt normally spend but, if i was to go over there for fun it would still cost about the same outside of the entry fee. as far as fishing derbys here on the rock small or larger entry fee is about all i consider a "cost" because i would be fishing anyway all i would be looking for by entering is a chance to make an extra dollar by doing something i would be doing already so again for me its all in how a person looks at it. i do think that if a person was to try to make a living doing it they would need sponsorship. savings only go so far and ive ate light and slept in my truck before its not as fun as one might think but all it takes is five good bites in the right tourney to open some doors so if thats your dream i say go for it! but not getting them bites can also hurt so... nothing that was ever worth it was easy