Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

There’s a prestigious bass tournament coming to Lake Minnewaska in August.

The Classic Bass Champions Tour is on Lake Minnewaska for a one-day tournament on Tuesday, Aug. 27.  All the anglers in the tournament are by invitation only and had to earn their way into the tournament by finishing well in other events, according to Scott Bonnema, who owns and operates the tournament.  He told me last week that he chose Lake Minnewaska for this year’s Champions Tour because it is “a great fishery.”

We will be doing a full story on the tournament in next week’s issue of the Pope County Tribune & Times.  It is a unique tournament for a number of reasons.  One, there is no entry fee and all those participated (32 anglers) were invited based on their performance in other events.    This event is sponsored by Skeeter Boats and Yamaha Outboards and the winner will take home a fully equipped Skeeter boat package worth about $60,000.  In addition there are cash prizes up to $13,000 available.

Another unique feature of the Champions Tour is that no fish ever ends up in a livewell.  The tournament series was created by Classic Bass owner, and longtime bass tournament angler, Scott Bonnema. The goal of this circuit is to bring the finest anglers from various regions of the Midwest together to compete.

“For several years, anglers had expressed interest for new, fresh, and exciting tournament concept,” commented Scott Bonnema, Owner of Classic Bass. “With the Champions Tour, we aim to bring the finest Midwest bass anglers together to compete on some phenomenal fisheries.”

The Classic Bass Champions Tour is an individual tournament series, where each angler is paired with a high school angler, who serves as the boat official, who will track and record each legal fish and enforce the Champions Tour regulations.

Every smallmouth or largemouth bass that is caught, which meets the minimum size requirement will count towards the angler’s weight/score. At no time will any bass be placed in the boat’s livewells or brought to a weigh-in.

The Champions Tour displays the results and content real time via ClassicBass.com and on social media. Competing anglers will also be providing viewers with helpful fishing information on the lake they are fishing, along with the techniques and lures they are using.

The tournament is conducted on a Tuesday to stay out of the way of local and visitors to the lake on the weekend.   The awards ceremony will be at the Water’s Edge on Tuesday evening.