I wouldn't be late for this weigh in!!!

Bob, thanks for letting me post this here!!

Wind River / Drano Lake Salmon Tournament!!

May 18th and 19th

$200.00 entry fee per team
A team consists of two members with the winning team providing
the best total weight not exceeding 8 Salmon for this two day event..

A minimum of 75 teams is required.

Top Team will receive $5,000.00
2nd Place will receive $3,000.00
3rd Place will receive $1,000.00

There is also be a big fish of the day and a tournament winner! Big fish tickets will cost $20.00 each day. You do not have to be in the tournament to enter the big fish.

Mandatory Pre Tournament meeting will be held at 3:30 am on Saturday the 25th at the front steps of the Wind Mountain Resort Store.

Weigh In will be from 5pm to 6pm each day.
NO WEIGHTS GIVEN IF YOU ARRIVE AFTER 6pm!
Weigh In will be at the Wind Mountain Resort.

You can pre-register by mailing the form below to:
Tournament 150 Pleasant Hill Rd. Chehalis, Wa. 98532 or stopping by
Wind Mountain Resort 2 miles East of the Wind River, or
Emailing your Name, Address and Phone Numbers to: sstourneys@yahoo.com

If 75 teams are not registered before May 16th,
tournament will be cancelled and all money refunded.

Name_______________________________________Phone______________________

Address________________________________________________________________

Email _______________________Partners name if known________________________

Please send Check for $200 plus $40 if you want big fish tickets to:

Tournament 150 Pleasant Hill Rd. Chehalis, Wa. 98532

For Questions call: 360-520-1175

Ooops....you have to be registered before the 16th not the 23rd.

JimB

I edited the 1st post to reflect the date change.

OK, guaranteed $15,000 in the pot (75 X $200), $9,000 payout ($5,000, $3,000, $1,000). Who gets the other $6,000? What am I missing here?

Thumper, your a good man to have around!

Exploit the people...Exploit the fish...Exploit the people...Exploit the fish...theme gets old doesn't it?

FJ...out.

Yes, thanks Thumper! Something smells kind of funny, and I don't mean the fish. What, am I just supposed to send $$ off to some strange address? This doesn't sound very official...

Gentleman,
This is a test tournament, the goal is to find out how to most efficiently run it, what it takes cost wise etc...This concept of an annual tournament series will be presented to the NSIA board in June, we are hoping to have one under our belt to show how it can be done. Some of the proceeds will be donated to NSIA and the rest will be to cover the cost of putting on the tournament. I appreciate your asking wasn't sure this morning to put all details or just run with the flyer.

Hope this helps,

Jim

In my humble opinion, this is a very bad idea. The last thing salmon and steelhead angling needs is a circuit like the bass boys have.

There are a couple of reasons why it works for them and not for us. The first is the size of the impoundments the bass guys have to fish. The second is that all bass tournaments that I know of are catch and release. How would you do that?

What do you think the other fishermenare going to think about a bunch of overly agressive fishin-for-money types descending on Drano? Think they will just kick back and watch the action? Putting this kind of pressure on folks tends to bring out the worst in them.

Another point: You seem to be saying that this touney is non-profit with some of the proceeds going to charity and the rest covering expenses. Is that the way of it or are you also trying to put a few thousand in your pocket? I have absolutely nothing against capitalizm but I would like to see the breakdown up front.

Bad idea! Fishing out of desperation,
what's the point. I think that this should be played out in Las Vegas in a casino. The Fish and the local fisherman can't take this kind of abuse. I can see it now, the agression, the compromising of good sportsmanship,
the neglect of anglers not in the tournament.
All things I go fishing to get away from. I hope this will just go away. My $.02 worth.

For the sake of discussion...not argument.

Why I think its a good idea. If any of you have ever been intensely involved in the politics surrounding the fish we love to fish for I think you will understand. Lets take a look at the Springer season that we enjoyed last year and this. It is only because of massive fin clipping that we are allowed to fish, massive fin clipping fought hard for by NSIA. In a bigger scale take the North of Falcon process. In a meeting a few years ago I was sitting next to Clancy Holt and realized that the commercials had their Biologist and Attorney there...the Indians had the same...and we the sportsfisherman had nothing. I wrote this on a piece of paper and wrote..."we Lose!!!" These tournaments if successful would bring in some necessary funds to provide a greater ability to fight the fight. I hear on these boards all the time all the whining and complaining how we are always getting the shaft..."bend over" is heard alot. Well I am open to other venues to provides some big dollar income that is needed...lets hear your ideas...

Oh and by the way thanks to the 11 teams so far!!

Jim

How much of the 5K goes to uncle Sam. Does the winner have to pay tax? Uncle Sam has a tight line and a sharp hook. Never seen him loose a fish. Kind of like me

Now your talkin'... But of course it has to be on a weekend when I have to work...

Question though, 2 team members and 8 fish??? You up the limit's or something?? Or can you have 8 guys and 8rods hanging out of a boat for the 2 people to enter the entire catch...

As for those concerned with the tourney, I'd recommend not fishing that day in that particular area and as for the types of fish being caught, well they're hatchery fish right?? I'd be thankful that these fish are being caught and not haveing to go through the birage of corkies and snaggers in the main river.. At least you can't snag them in open water... We already have the right to catch and release wild fish...

Count me in on a weekday...
Keith

Keith thats 2 fisherman X 2 fish X 2 days that = 8 thanks for playing higher math (I'm just teasing) I'm not sure if this is a good idea or a bad one or if we could keep this type of thing going more than the one tourney.

What happens if you now get dependent on these tourneys for donations and we get no fish next year.

and lets say I do hit the big payday like someone else asked what is my tax liability.

Despite some anglers' hopes to the contrary, fishing STILL isn't a competitive sport...

Fish kisser...maybe I was raised differently but fishing has been competetive since the first time my sister and I fished together. And Dad always made it competetive "betcha I catch the next fish!" I do the same thing had a bet going with my 11 yr old son yesterday...whoever caught the next fish got to choose dinner location. I think its competetive for most of us, with that said here is where I hope all of this goes.

My ultimate goal is simple:

Have some guys that actually make their living doing this.

Have at least one tournament that First place is worth nearly $50,000.00

Have about 200 boats that are informed for every tournament and at least 100 enter

All excess salmon donated to local food banks

Catch and Release Sturgeon Tournaments

One weekend per year all tournament fishers participate in a habitat for humanity project

Massive end of the year banquet with "Top Rod" awards being presented hopefully with a major sponsor donation as a reward.

All of this happening while NSIA earns nearly $500,000.00 in the process. We as sportsman would then finally have our first well funded lobbying organization...can you feel the winds of change??

Jim

sign up for the tournament: sstourneys@yahoo.com

Here are a couple of pics from Drano taken on Wed. A rough count on Wed. morning was over 100 boats and 30 bank fishers by the bridge. We left on Friday afternoon so I would have to guess that there were considerably more boats on Sat.

I have a couple questions.

Facilities, with Drano already having over 100 boats on a weekday and parking and facilities being strained how would you deal with the additional number of tournament boats? On wed. there was literally no place to park and barely enough room on the lake to fish.

Registration, is this tournament registared with WDFW?

You said that "some" of the leftover $6000 would go to NSIA. Would you mind being more specific about how much will be going to NSIA and also does NSIA currently know about this tournament?

Who is running the tournament and does the $6000 - NSIA donations go to this person for his/her time and expenses? What are the forecasted expenses?

With that kind of money on the line I would expect that there would be and offical weigh in station and some published rules and regulations. Is that correct, where can we get a copy of the regulations and rules? Who and how would disputs be handled?

Quote: "In a meeting a few years ago I was sitting next to Clancy Holt and realized that the commercials had their Biologist and Attorney there...the Indians had the same...and we the sportsfisherman had nothing. I wrote this on a piece of paper and wrote..."we Lose!!!"

Is this an attempt to start a "for profit orginzation" to save the fish or a "non-profit orginzation"? If so can you give us some more details about this orginzation and their goals and agendas?

Bruce,
Well first of all...how did you do fishing, I know on Thursday it was limits by 7 or 8 am.

To answer your questions:

Any tournament puts a squeeze on parking, however so far everyone that has registered has also fished Wind or Drano at some this year, it is also why we are fishing both spots.

Salmon tournaments do not require a permit from WDFW.

NSIA is fully aware and Pete Morris from ifish.net has already checked that out so please contact ifish instead of NSIA since they have much bigger fish to fry. NSIA will be getting half of the proceeds, since I have never done this before I have no idea what the expenses will be. But keep in mind the goal is to pull one off so that the board of NSIA can see how it works.

There is a weigh in station, pretourney meeting which is mandatory and disputes will be handled by myself and two randomn fishers.

In no way is this intended to start an organization, it is intended to make a tourney happen before the next board meeting of NSIA. However, to be honest, if they don't go for it I may pursue it. It has been very fun so far other than this thread....Thanks alot Bob! haha...oh yeah I asked for permission.

There you go hope that quenches your fire!

Jim

We have much bigger fish to fry?
Jim, that does it for me.

You told me in your letter when you wanted to advertise this on ifish.net, Quote from Jim:
"...Honestly, some of the proceeds from this tournament will go to NSIA but the bulk will be retained by myself as I will be doing all of the work and absorbing all of the costs."

This sounded like a personal project, and yes, we did call NSIA.

Pete reports:
We contacted NSIA to see what their involvement was. They will not be involved until after Bain proves himself AND the NSIA board reviews and approves Jim's proposal. NSIA said they are not involved except that they are considering Jim's proposal at this time.

We check out all personal inquiries for advertising. We asked for information on the last biz you suggested to us for advertising consideration. Since you didn't supply it, we denied it. I have found that it is just good biz to follow up on things and be fully aware.

Good luck with the tourney.
... and please, do not contact ifish. We aren't involved.

Jen

Other than the crowded conditions and the high winds, fishing was good. Fishing is always good

Follow up questions:

Who should the checks be made out to?

Are there any published Rules and Regulations? If not, then I think that may be a big can of worms. We're not talking about chump change here and I would definatly want to see pulblished rules. I.E. encrouchment, gear, etc.

So we should not contact NSIA but Pete Morris from Ifish.net instead?

So if NSIA does not go for it, then this could possibly be a profitable venture on your own? Sorry it's just not clear to me yet regarding who is in charge of this tournament, a business, orginzation or private party?

Jen...NSIA has bigger fish to fry not ifish.

I asked if I could announce the tourney on your site not advertise...it is the same question I posed to Bob here on Piscatorial. I find it interesting that two other webmasters are so concerned?? What the?? Jen...you have asked for years that if anyone is upset with a post to please email...you can't do the same?? Hmmmm...oh well this thread is going way beyond fishing....fishing is competetive in a very fun sort of way! But webmasters competing on another board is not fun competetive. The tournament will go on if we get to 75 teams and I feel we have probably gotten all that we will get from this thread...YIKES. Jen...sorry but it seems if I smiled at you I would offend you.

Hey Bruce....I liked your post by the way...well done and had a professional feel.
I know that you know more about tournaments than I do, and if we were on better terms I would pick your brain but there are other sources that I will lean on.

Jim

All I really have to go on are the pictures provided by Mr. Pearson, but if those are any indication of the fishing pressure out there then I see no problem with shoehorning in a couple hundred more boats. I see a LOT of water in that picture that, if people put out there bumpers, could hold boats.

The benefits of a blanket of boats on top of the water are numerous.

• Trips to take your boat out of the hot seam for restroom breaks are no longer necessary, as you can walk from boat to boat to get to shore.
• No collisions when boats aren't moving.
• Additional anglers in town allow a much larger ratio of crackers...I mean...anglers to residents so that the looting and pillaging can go on without interruption.
• Waiting for the bite is made easier when you see the hooksets from the line bumps as the fish makes its way past the rods in front of you and to your offering.
• Drunks no longer fall into river, allowing the Coast Guard to concentrate on saving stupid surf walkers.

From what I understand the Wind River fishery is an amazing success if you go by the annual returns of crackers....I mean...fish to the area. The downside is the concentrated area from which an angler has to fish for these salmon. While I can envision salmon tourneys working in such large areas such as sections of the Columbia river or possibly buoy 10, going to an area that already has a problem with overcrowding and introducing a competitive fishery that goes way beyond the normal "a buck in for biggest fish" sounds like throwing a match into a powder keg.