Konocti Vista Casino’s decision to hold off hosting bass tournaments until 2021 has caused panic among the tournament fishing crowd, but the decision was the correct one. A good example was the recent Won Bass California Open tournament that drew more than 300 anglers from throughout the West. Many of these fishermen came from areas where there were massive outbreaks of the coronavirus.
The big question is will tournaments be held at all during the pandemic? Just trying to get all the fishermen to wear masks is a huge undertaking. I attended the weigh-ins during the Won Bass tournament and despite the director of the tournament pleading with fishermen to wear their masks, many did not. A good number of fishermen also didn’t maintain the correct distance from each other.
The management of the casino knew that if just one fisherman got the virus the casino would have to be closed and be disinfected. In fact, earlier this week an employee of the casino tested positive for the virus and the casino will now be closed until Friday.
The big question now is what location(s) will the tournaments be held? Back in the 1980s and 90s, the old Skylark Motel in Lakeport hosted most of the tournaments, including some big ones. The Record-Bee/Bruno’s team tournament drew 225 boats for a number of years and was headquartered out of the Skylark Motel. Other tournaments such as West Coast Bass drew at least 100 boats per tournament.
There are approximately 17 major bass tournaments scheduled for the remainder of 2020 at Clear Lake. The tournament directors haven’t yet approached local motels to host their events. One reason the bass tournament organizations prefer to go out of motels, such as Konocti Vista Casino, is because everything is located in one place and that means a place for the fishermen to stay and eat.
Of the 17 major bass tournaments that are scheduled for the remainder of 2020, with a few exceptions most were scheduled to go out of Konocti Vista Casino. With Konocti Vista now closed to all tournaments until 2021, these tournament organizations will have scramble to find a new location. The county and city parks are one option, but the tournament organizations will have to obtain a permit from the government agency that controls these parks and ramps. Most of the government agencies require an insurance policy that holds the government blameless in case of an accident. That type of policy can be expensive. The permit is only good for the weigh-in site and where the awards ceremony takes place, not for launching boats.
I contacted several of the tournament organizations and only one said they had found a place to hold its tournaments.
Many other states have simply canceled tournaments for the remainder of the year. A number of large bass tournaments in California are presently going out of the Delta as well as other locations.
What makes all this doubly hard is nothing like this has ever happened. The big question on everyone’s mind is how long will the COVID-19 pandemic last and what happens next? Bass tournaments are an important part of the tourist industry for Lake County and the last thing we want is for the tournaments to be moved to other lakes in the state.
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August 12, 2020 at 07:24AM
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KVC’s decision the correct one - Lake County Record-Bee
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