Tournament fishing/parking/PA

[Brian G]

The Pa. Fish Commission requires that you fill out an application to get a permit to hold an organized Bass tournament on state water. Ok, thats no problem, but on two lakes they do not allow you to park your rigs at the boat launch parking area! One of the lakes you are suppose to shuttle people back and forth from a lot that is 1.7miles away!! The other lake restricts anyone(except our members with handycaps) from parking at the boat launch area! We went to see our local representative, and he said the reason for this is that the TOURNAMENT anglers fill up the parking areas so there is no more room for REGULAR anglers!!!!!!!!! That sounds a little bit like discrimination to me! Is anyone else out there having this problem?

 

[Kim Becker]

Brian, What are the two lakes where you had this happen ? I have not heard of this before.

 

[Brian G]

White Oak and Prompton Dam

 

[Steve Rizza]

If the tourney fishermen pay their launch fees,shouldn't they have the same right to park in the lot as everybody else ?

 

[Brian G]

There are no fees. Although you are required to apply for a permit, catch and release(of course) and fill out a catch report after the tourny.

 

[Texas Transplant]

Several points. I understand that it was probably a typo, but handycap is not correct, in any sense of the word. << Comment removed, due to misunderstanding of original message. Apologies.>>



Unfortunately, tourneys have been known to really tie up launch ramps. This year, when we put on our open tourney, we stationed someone at the entrance to initially check people in. Whenever anyone not fishing the tourney came to launch, we gave them a different colored card, and directed them to bypass the line and launch directly. There were not many, but it helped.



When a tourney completely blocks a parking area (recently happened to us also), it really causes great grief for local anglers and weekend fishermen. We launched at a ramp where it turns out another club launched also. By 6:00AM, there were NO PARKING SPACES available for anyone else. In fact, my vehicle wound up down the road (not far, but not in the lot). I'm certain that anyone else arriving after that, was pretty upset.



As always, there are many sides to these issues. Consider them all carefully.



Tex

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

Tex, I don't understand your first paragraph? All of the ramps in my area have handicap access parking places. You have to have handicap tags or a handicap sticker or you get a ticket and pretty heavy fine.



Bill

 

[Brian G]

Maybe I should have said, our members with dissabilities. My mistake.

 

[Texas Transplant]

All - maybe I just misread Brian's original message. I took it as it being a backhanded slap towards anyone getting special treatment at the ramps. I'll edit it, based upon Brian's follow-up message.



Apologies.



Tex

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

Thanks Tex, I just wasn't sure what you meant and I knew you must have mis-read what Brian said. I thought maybe those darn pain meds I'm taking were making me not see things right. Ok, Ok, no wise cracks. :lol:



Bill

 

[Brian Feist]

From some of the STUPID things that the PFBC is doing with tournaments, it sounds like they want them to stop. While we haven't had them tell us that we couldn't park somewhere, they have made us run tourneys out of launch areas the nobody else uses on a regular basis. The one that they make us use most of the time at Glendale Lake/Prince Gallitzin has an unpaved entrance area with a dirt ramp and no dock. The shore line at the lanuch is eroded to the point that there is a several foot dropp off to get to your boat. There was rumor that they wanted to start a "tournament fee" with the license fee increase last year. Another thing that we have run in to this year is the fact that on some of the local lakes they want us to carry insurance to even use the lake. Our club is small with a lot of our tourneys having less than ten boats. They want us to buy a police for the day that is about $500. Seeing that our first place pot is usually about $20, I guess we won't be fishing in those places this year (at least with a permit). After paying $31 for my license this year, I think that we deserve better.