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discrimination

1K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  stevie1 
#1 ·
I guess that most of you are aware that in Michigan we, (the bass tournaments) are forced to file for permits to use conduct a tounament. Well I have a serious problem with this, and I have been in contact with local congressman and state senators, and this is why it bothers me.

1. We have to pay a permit fee to have a tournament at a lake. but they dont guarentee parking for our members. So in essence they are charging me to park my boat and go fish, but the kid on the jet ski does not have to pay? I have a problem with this, my fishing license fee paid for this ramp along with the excise fee I pay on all tackle purchases, yet now they charge to have a tounament.

so I need your help call your local congressman or state senator and tell him your thoughts and tell him you dont like being discriminated agaist, they seem to hate that word.

also the DNR will not allow tounaments on Labor day, Memorial day or the Forth of July. thats also a crock, they told me that its because of the high use of waterways on those weekends, well I personally dont care, I pay my taxes and if my congressman wont vote the way I wish I can just as easily change my political views as an angler you know from pro-republican to Democrat. call them let them know it is how you vote. And if we all stick togather they will change it, or their replacements will.

again see you on the water.

Rich
 
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#2 ·
Rich

I'm not so sure I agree with you on this one. I guess if I had a problem with parking spaces available for club anglers I might, but it seems like every tournament that I've been in we our up so early that there is plenty of spaces available.

Or maybe if the launch sites were in such horrible shape that I would ask the MDNR where all our money is going to. But again I personally have never had this problem.

This all comes back to (taxation without representation) but I'm sorry to say that the MDNR has fullfilled everything that we should expect from them.

And on the tournament front, have you ever been to a launch that does not make you file for a permit? Well in Ohio you don't need to and the launches are a complete cluster.

just my.02

Steve
 
#4 ·
I think the main reason,or from what I can fiqure out , is that the MDNR is charging us for permits because tournaments take up most of the parking for most of the day. Rather then a casual boat ride or jet ski ride that comes and goes every couple of hours. If you really think about it its smart business. They are just trying to prevent loss of ramp fees during tournaments.

Personally I think if you start calling for changes your just asking for trouble.
 
#6 ·
I agree, we have been singled out. I also believe the DNR should be promoting the maximum use of our resources rather than triing to limit opportunities. Most of the access sites have plenty of open area that could be used as overflow when they know they have a specific need for it and can staff accordingly.

The private access sites seem to get things down just fine and a number of other states also understand the full value of promoting the resources and how it can impact them economically. If it were and private company too many customers would be a great problem but our DNR just wants to run them off. The foundation of the whole tournament process makes it an impossibilty to have many major tournaments because you can't even apply untill January 1st of that year, I think they knew most organizers couldn't live with that. When the permit process started they also wanted to restrict private access sites and limit the number of boats per acre.

I just really wish they would start promoting and creating more outdoor activities rather than restrictions. Tournaments do promote fishing as a sport and they also provide lots of promotion of our outdoor resources. Because of the large tournaments that have come to Lake St.Clair when I talk to fishermen from all over the country they talk about coming to fish Lake St.Clair, and many do make it a fishing destination. We've got other excellant fishing opportunities like Saginaw Bay, Traverse Bay, Burt and Mullet, Thunder Bay Etc., but St.Clair has had the promotion.

Just my $.02
 
#7 ·
I have no problem with them charging a fee for ramp use, but I do have a problem with them only charging tournaments, see I paid for the ramps with my fishing license and excise tax, and I dont appreciate being charged for tournaments. We have paid our dues and to be honest with you, I could care less if the jet skier or ski boat get a parking spot, the reason being if I can get my but out of bed to go fishing at 6 then so can they.
 
#8 ·
At one point years back, I was spending a lot of time sitting in meetings with the MDNR trying to get a fair tournament permit process. There was support of a fee and support for no fee (including the then Region III MDNR Parks and Rec boss who said it cost him $50 to process our $15 fee).

User fees are a common approach. I wasn't in on the meetings that the most recent changes came from. I do know the tournament permit fee is supposedly there to cover the cost of processing the applications. I also believe that higher fees were adopted for the size tournaments they were to try to limit the bigger open tournaments that occur on inland lakes since those are the tournaments that are least popular with a lot of non-tournament citizens and officials. Those are the tournaments with the most conflict and issues.

At one time, it was discussed that the Federation (MBCF) would have actually handled the tournament permit process, but some were concerned that since the federation also holds tournaments, it could cause complaints of conflicts of interest.

The January 1 date was chosen since it was the first day of the new season and we needed a date to target that was the same for everyone so we could have a fair first-come, first-served process. There was no attempt to hamper national tournaments. I would have jumped on that. At the time this whole permit process began originally we were several years away from our first national tournament ever. This project originally started a loooonnnnng time ago - back in the late 1980s.

There have definitely been ups and downs, but we had so many tournaments in such short time with enough conflicts and complaints that something was inevitable - believe me. It could have been worse.

The old policy we came up with was not just for tournaments, but any organized event that used an MDNR ramp. What we have now is partially a result of tournament anglers not keeping involved enough with the MDNR and not keeping involved in general enough with issues that affect us all. You don't hardly ever write letters and rarely go to public meetings. Lake association members do go to meetings. They do write letters and they do make phone calls. So do others that don't necessarily want to see more tournaments.

We stick out. We are an easy target and we are often our own worse enemy by our own behavior or lack of policing our own.

One thing we really need to change is to promote all the good things bass clubs and organizations do publicly. Also, we need to get more press in general so the public know what we really do and why. You'd be surprised how general many of the questions were in the original tournament permit process from MDNR employees who really did not know why we did most of what we did. It's the same with the general public.

We are a tiny minority that is a mystery to most people. We should take responsibility for that on ourselves. For example, I told clubs for years to make their local MDNR employees their friends. I'll bet the majority of bass clubbers still don't know the name of their local fisheries biologist. I know some of you do on this site because I've seen it, but you are not the majority. Of course, I like to see any positive move in the right direction, we just still have a long ways to go and it's uphill. Bass tournaments are the red-headed stepchild to many people in Michigan right now - maybe worse than ever.

First, we should all be aware of that and think about how that should affect our actions. Second, we need to think what is in our control to do about it. And third, we should start doing some of it.
 
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