Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

I was driving around Lake Minnewaska very early this morning and noticed a number of nice boats out at daybreak.  The angler or anglers in the boats were not fishing.  They were using their electronics to help find bass that they will target in the Tuesday Bass Classic Champions Tour event that is bringing the top anglers in the Midwest to Lake Minnewaska for the final championship of the season.  One of them will win a nearly $60,000 Skeeter boat with a Yamaha Motor.  There are also other prizes in the thousands of dollars.

The reason they were not “pre-fishing” the lake on Monday is because that’s not allowed.  The anglers can use their electronics to check out the lake, but only for a limited time on Monday.

Locals may want to visit Water’s Edge in Starbuck for the awards ceremony on Tuesday evening.  The tournament will take place from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., with an hour break, and then continue from noon until 4 p.m.  The awards ceremony and the angler conversations about their techniques and successes will get underway at Water’s Edge about 4:45 p.m., according to the itinerary provided by the tournament organizers.

As I stated last week, and in a news story that can be found on the front page of this week’s issue, the tournament is unique for a number of reasons.

The Champions Tour is a unique-style bass tournament, where no bass are EVER put in the boat’s livewell.  Each bass over 1 lb, is weighed on the water, recorded in the Reel Livewell app, and then released right back into the lake in the same location it was caught.

What also sets the Champions Tour apart, is that in each of the anglers’ boats–doing the weighing of the bass, and enforcing penalties–is a high school boat official.   This opportunity provides an incredible learning opportunity for these young anglers to watch along as Champions Tour anglers break down and react quickly to ever changing fishing conditions, according to Bonnema.

A tournament like this one coming to Starbuck and Lake Minnewaska is good for the fishery and for the area.  Of course, there are some economic benefits, but it also provides some well-deserved public relations for Lake Minnewaska.

We will be covering the event and the tournament’s owner, Scott Bonnema and his crew have been very good with providing us information on the tournament’s operations.