Do You Fish Tournaments? multiple choice
	Club tournaments with an occasional open or charity event
	Open or tournament trail tournaments
	Occasional charity tournament
	Do not fish tournaments
Votes accepted starting: 10/16/19 01:06 AM
View Results

thanks for creating this poll....somebody made statement that only 7% of bass fishermen fished tournys and I believe the percentage is much higher....

Here is a source that says only 6% of fishermen fish tournaments. I truly find that hard to believe, but then again, we don't really know who they are considering "fishermen". It quite possibly might be anyone that owns a rod & reel. Interesting that the article says 52% of Rayburn fishermen compete in tournaments though.

https://www.bradwiegmann.com/fish-b...heries-management-from-mississippi-.html

You should include night tournaments. I've fished a ton of night tournaments but only 3-4 day tournaments this year.

I know hundreds of fishermen and women and only a handful fish tourneys.

Right, it just depends on who you consider a fisherman or fisherwoman. If it's anyone with a fishing license, then a tiny percentage fishes bass tournaments.

This poll is like asking Democrats if they hate Donald Trump, you have a very biased crowed in this section. Most of the people on here fish tournaments but overall I think tournament fisherman are a very small percentage of license holders.

Probably not the most accurate poll since it's being run on the TFF where most of us are obsessed with this stuff and do fish tournaments.

I know a bunch of guys with top of the line bass boats and equipment that don't fish tournaments. Those guys know more about the recruiting class at their alma mater than they know about BASS, FLW, or MLF combined.

It's an interesting sport where people spend a lot of money but don't actually need any connection other than what they get with nature and their close friends/family.

Makes sense, I believe the true majority of people who bass fish do not fish tournaments. Less than 5% in my opinion.

I fished two kayak events in 17 one in 18 and this is my fourth year. I clicked occasional charity but could have just as easily clicked I do not. I am not even averaging one a year and have little interest in fishing one any time soon. I feel like the guys that say overwhelmingly most do not.

And then there are those of us who were hard core tournament fisherman but have retired from tournament fishing for various reasons.

not sure why you would estimate the percentage that low....take a look around at the fishing boats on the various lakes in Texas (or any southern state) and the overwhelming majority are bass boats except for a few weeks in the spring when the crappie fishermen come out...seems reasonable to assume that if you see a $40-70,000. bass boat that the owner bought to fish tournys out of.....
this forum may not be the best place to get an accurate sample poll but it's showing 70% of us fish some type of tournament...
also keep in mind that B.A.S.S. at one time had over 500,000 members most of which belonged to a bass club...FLW also had over 30,000 members and most of them were members so they could fish BFL or other FLW tournys…
the various states DNR dept.s could find out the percentage of tournament fishermen with a simp[le survey of license holders however I suspect they really don't want to know just how high the percentage of their income is coming from guys who fish tournys….they might have to start managing lakes to protect the bass and get rid of the cormorants,asian carp,alligator gar and quit spraying grass...

I know 3 guys that buy a new skeeter every couple of years. None of them fish tournaments

Agreed, especially if you take out the guys/gals who might fish a friendly charity tournament every few years.

A poll on this site will not be true barometer because we live in a state where bass fishing is relatively popular and like fishing enough to sign up for a forum.

Let's assume this site represents 10% of the bass fisherman in Texas (this is probably high). If 60% of the folks on this forum fish non-charity tournaments (the current tally) and this forum represents 10% of all Texas bass fisherman... then back of the napkin math says +/- 6% of Texas bass fisherman fish in tournaments. This will be further diluted when you factor in the northern states where bass fishing is not as popular.

A statistician will be able to poke holes in my layman's calculations... but the basic premise will remain the same even if exact calculations and assumptions are applied.