Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh!

[An t-iasg]

The Bassmaster Classic events are in Pittsburgh this week! I went to the Junior Bassmaster event in Kittanning (about an hour north of Pittsburgh, on the Allegheny River) Kittanning is my hometown, so it was nice to go back for a day. The Junior events (ages 11-14 and 15-18 ) were held yesterday (Monday), and the other events will begin in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

I don't do any sport fishing, but it was fun to attend the day's events on Monday. There was lots of good food and music! The winning kid got a $5000 college scholarship and a $5000 boat! The next four runners-up also got scholarships. It was so hot on Monday, about 92 degrees. The rest of the week should be much cooler!

 

[QTOFFER]

I never heard of this event, but it sounded like a good time. On Long Island, there is an event in which the boaters compete to catch the most legal-sized blue fish in the allotted time (12 hours). One of my friends did this last year - 12 solid hours on his boat in the middle of the Long Island Sound! Is the Bassmaster competition something like this?

 

[An t-iasg]

Wow! 12 solid hours on a boat! That's a love of fishing!

Yes, the Bassmaster is like this. Tomorrow is a practice day for the contestants, and some have been here for a few weeks already, scouting out locations. The allowed rivers are the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio, up to certain lock and dams on each river, and also some tributaries. Wow! That's a lot of area to scout out. The anglers can bring back 5 bass a day, of at least 12 inches long. The bass are brought back in "livewells" to be weighed. The greatest total weight over the 3 tournament days (Friday-Sunday) wins. The fish are released after weigh-in. I wonder if they put something like Amquel into the livewells??

 

[Toirtis]

Livewells are often aerated, so that helps. I wish we had a couple of bigger local fishing contests here....I could use a new boat...

 

[An t-iasg]

I was reading the newspaper articles a little more, and there was an illustration of the livewell and how it circulates water. I guess it's not really a filtration sytem in there, but it does pump in fresh air and water.

Good luck to all the contestants!