Advice on how to start a fishing tournament.

[Gunga]

Im trying to set up a fishing tournament at bethany lake for my senior project. I was wondering if anybody knows how im supposed to get a permit or any other advice that you could give me to start a fishing tournament. Im hoping to have it near the end of april or early may.
Thanks
Tyler

 

[troutdude]

Call ODFW my friend. I'm sure that they would be happy to help.

Maybe they'll even do a special stocking for you!

 

[muskieguide]

Do exactly what troutdude said and you might call trout unlimited and talk to them too bout gettin some fish

 

[Sgrunig90]

If you get the tournament up and running, better post some information on OFF first.

 

[Gunga]

Ya i will definatly post on here first. All day i have been emailing people at ODFW and they said they could provide loaner rods and maybe some bait. plus for new people to fishing they would have a guy come in and do some educational type stuff. plus i sent an email to the Oregon bass and panfish club asking if they could assist me. The only thing im going to have trouble with is the donations for the prizes. i dont know that much on how to go about getting them.

 

[Sgrunig90]

Do you have a general date? I wouldn't mind to help out in any way I can.

 

[nwkiller]

yep set a date, im sure you will get some help!!

 

[Gunga]

I was thinking late april early may.

 

[Sgrunig90]

Alright, once you get it up and set. Let me know. I will try and help any way I can.

 

[Gunga]

That would be awesome. Thanks.

 

[GungasUncle]

Ok - I'll be the first to throw in a donation prize... I'll tie up a dozen assorted flies as a prize.

Now here's some questions for you - are you going to make the fishing tournament catch & release, with the winner being he/she who catches the most fish, or is this going to be a catch & kill tournament (they are stockers, after all) and the person who has the heaviest weigh-in of fish or the first person to limit-out going to be the over-all winner? Or maybe a prize for the first fish, the biggest fish, the most fish? Gotta figure up your rules and how you're going to structure things, right?

If it's a C&R tournament - how are you going to keep track of who has caught how many fish (and keep them honest?) and how big the fish are (if awarding size-based prizes)?? Going to limit the number of entrants?

Since Bethany is a multi-species lake - you could even throw in a prize for the person who catches the highest number of different species?

Are you going to focus on juvenile anglers, or open it to all ages?

 

[Gunga]

Its going to be open to all ages. i was thinking if the person wants to keep the fish they can if they want to release it they can. i was going to go with the most fish caught biggest smallest number of different species. and ive been writing down rules as i go.

 

[Sgrunig90]

I'd talk to local sport shops, sure some may donate. As well I am sure some of OFFers can help/donate.

Yeah I feel it takes a lot of man power to make a 'successful' tournament, and I use successfully loosely...Hopefully you can get thing in place way before, would hate to do all of it last minute.

 

[GungasUncle]

Just thought of something - you want to host this at Bethany Lake - you need to get ahold of the Tualatin Hills Parks & Rec people - since it's their lake. Make sure you get their OK. Parking is pretty limited there - and if you get a number of entrants - parking could be hell, especially since you want to hold this on a weekend. Bethany is pretty popular with other users aside from fishermen. Any ideas on a back-up locale? Vernonia Lake might be good, though it's a ways out there. Unlike Bethany - there's a good trail that goes around the entirety of that lake - along with boat launch, and if it hasn't been removed - there was a small fishing dock/pier also. It's not too far away from the high school, in case you get a lot of folks to show up and extra parking is needed. It's also a multi-species lake - with pretty much the same diversity Bethany has. As a bonus - you've got the Nehalem River flowing right through town, so when the tourney ends at the pond - you can try your own hand at steelheading the nehalem if so inclined.

There's a lot more bank access at Vernonia - so people won't be so crowded if you chose that locale vs. Bethany. I suppose another option that is closer to the westside would be Commonwealth - there's a lot more available bank fishing there than at Bethany, and they've got the three wooden fishing platforms. Parking would be a nightmare at Commonwealth though - since there's only on-street parking and it's tucked away in a residential area.

Hagg Lake could be a good solution too, at least as far as access and parking goes. Would be harder to keep track of entrants unless you're confining the fishing for the derby to one small area. Unless you've got a tournament official paired up with every angler - you'd have to trust people to give you accurate numbers or sizes of fish caught - and I hate to say it, but people will lie.

 

[Sgrunig90]

I want to make some suggestions:

If you do different species, you could do biggest/smallest for the more 'common' species. ex: Trout, Bass, Bluegill, and Crappie.

If you want people to record the fish, I would go with the lakes regulations. As well, I would personally have the entrees bring the fish to a central location if they want to be accounted for. If you want to allow them to have the ability to let them go and still count, pictures. Maybe? Every tourny I've been to they have you bring the fish to the central location. Might be easiest. Just make sure you modify rules to match the regs. Just because it's a tourny doesn't mean you get to kill a population of fish and bring in 20+ trout. My feeling.

I personally wouldn't mind a lake with a dock and a boat ramp. Yet you have to work with what you got. =)

I would make some shirts for the people willing to help. Make us stick out more. =)

If you could find some volunteers that could walk around and monitor fishers, or ask ODFW for some helpers. I am sure they are limited with budget cuts. I would think they would atleast send out one ODFW to sell licenses and permits. One would think . . .

Parking may an issue, but people can walk if they need too. =) I haven't been to Bethany before. Does it have a wheelchair ramp/dock?

Are you doing a tourny registration form/fee? I wouldn't mind helping you out with a template and/or a flyer.

If you get enough registrations, maybe a raffle?

 

[Gunga]

I was wanting to do a small fee and donate the proceeds to a good charity or foundation. Any help with flyers would be awesome. Bethany doesn't have a dock. I could contact ODFW about them sending a person out to see if they could get some one out to sell licenses. I agree that i dont want people killing 20+ trout i would have them record there fishes they catch. I also don't want to break regulations to. Do you know any where that i could possibly make shirts for the events that would be cheap to make.

 

[GungasUncle]

Couple things with Bethany re: access, for those who're not familiar with it.

It's located at the intersection of NW 185th Ave and NW West Union Road, in unincorporated Washington County, just north of Hillsboro/Beaverton. The lake lies between a huge field on the south side, and a private upper-middle class neighborhood on it's north bank (with no public access on the north half of the lake.)

There is a small gravel parking lot on the west side of 185th. The other access is in a residential neighborhood, at a square dead end on NW Columbia Blvd, with only on-street parking in front of people's homes for access to the west end of the park.

A paved path stretches the length of the lake along it's south shore, there is a lot of brush along this shore, especially on the western half of the lake - and there are a few small areas that the brush has been cleared to allow anglers access to the water.

At the west end of the lake is the dam, a small low head concrete dam that lets water spill back in to Rock Creek. At the dam there is a graveled area with a picnic table and a bench - which could accomodate a few anglers.

Other users of the park include joggers, dog walkers, bicyclists, soccer players, and the occasional young man strolling through the field playing the bagpipes (I'm not kidding.)

THe south side of the field at Bethany Lake Park butts up to people's fenced back yards.

It's a nice little park - but as big as it is, it's kind of limited in the number of users thanks to parking. There's a shopping center at 185th & West Union on the northeast corner of the intersection. Westview High School is about a mile south on 185th. There is a Tri Met bus that services 185th.

The lake is a host to stocked rainbow trout, bluegill, pumpkinseed, crappie (I've caught both white & black), warmouth (very few in numbers), largemouth bass, bullhead, the oddball channel cat, along with a few different type of carp (I've caught mirror carp, common carp, and giant gold fish here before.)

 

[Sgrunig90]

and the occasional young man strolling through the field playing the bagpipes (I'm not kidding.)

Can we invite him to the tournment for show? =)

 

[Sgrunig90]

The lake is a host to stocked rainbow trout, bluegill, pumpkinseed, crappie (I've caught both white & black), warmouth (very few in numbers), largemouth bass, bullhead, the oddball channel cat, along with a few different type of carp (I've caught mirror carp, common carp, and giant gold fish here before.)

Wow! That's a lot of fish. Sounds like a good place to fish! Should be tons of fun for all kinds of fishers!