Tourney circuits - is this normal?

[wawalleye]

Last year my partner and I fished the inaugural 'Washington Walleye Circuit'. It was a great time. We learned and grew as the circuit went on and met alot of great folks. We are fishing the circuit again this year (hope to much better).
When I looked at the schedule for this year I found that the schedule for the first four tourney dates is May 5-6, May 19-20, June 2-3, and June 23-24. It seems to me that this is bunching things up pretty tight. At $250 - $300 a pop for the tourneys (includes options pots), it's a stretch for some anglers to find the $1000 to fish 4 tourneys in just over a month. Also, it doesn't leave much time for prefish between dates.
My partner and I don't have a complaint. We won some last year and will use that for entry fees, and we close enough that prefishing isn't much of a problem. What about the out-of-towners? The more participation, the more successful the circuit will be. Is this schedule too tight? What do they do in your area? Will spreading out the dates increase or decrease participation? Am I insane for a post this long?

Tight lines.............wawa

[curt quesnell]

my guess is they are trying to avoid the high fish mortality
that comes with tourneys in mid to late summer.

i suggest you ask them and find out the real reason.

good luck in the competitions

curt quesnell

[wawalleye]

Curt,

Just got off the phone. You are partially right. They are trying to stay out of the heat and the spawn as much as is possible. The bigger reason is that the F & G Dept. only allows tourneys based on permit and one of the criteria is there is no other tourney going on. This area is a big bass area and the bassers have already sewed up most of the dates. They have been around much longer than us wally guys and have established tourneys on most of the other dates. Thanks.

wawa

[always wondered too!]

I used to fish all the tourneys in Oregon and Washington, Ive often wondered the same thing, why so many bunched up in May-June. Makes it really tough for a working guy to make all the dates. Ive always wished they were spread out more, but its really hard to get all the Tournament directors thinking on the same wavelength. Ive always thought that by spreading the dates out, entry numbers in all of the events would go up, since fewer teams would be forced to pick and chose between tournaments because of time and money constraints.

such as...

March-Irrigon
April-Potholes
May-Banks
June-Moses Lake
July-Kettle Falls
Aug-Boardman
Sep-Umatilla
Oct-Portland

[wawalleye]

This would help us as the fishermen. It may not be beneficial to the fish in our area in July and August. However, it is no more a problem here than it is on Peck or other places that circuits hit in summer. Maybe in a few years this will happen. Potholes moved From Sept. to May, Vancouver from late to early Sept. I'm gonna fish 'em all regardless, but it will increase participation to spread them out. Thanks for the reply.

wawa