2016 CCBM Open changes

[Basscat7]

Thanks to all of you who have supported the Chester County Bass Masters open tournaments the past 6 years. The participation, fun, and competition increase every year !

We'll be releasing our 2016 Open schedule shortly.

Year-end prizes !  We'll have 5 Opens out of Anchor Marina in North East, Maryland, with the best 4 tournament results counting toward prizes for the top 3 teams for the season.

Sponsor prizes again will be awarded to the top teams finishing out of the money and for a second lunker !

Chester County Bass Masters have been in meetings with Joe Love, Tidal Bass Manager for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and we are working to ensure the health of released bass in our tournaments.

As many of you experienced, in 2015 we purchased and used an expensive Pro Scale that calculates weights in 4 seconds in an effort to keep the fish out of water as little as possible.

In 2016 we will add a couple of new improvements and procedures to further reduce the stress on released fish.

We've purchased the best available zippered weigh-in bags with mesh bag inserts. These bags will be used by all contestants to weigh their fish.

The mesh insert enables quick removal of the fish to the scale. What we hope to accomplish by limiting the number of bags available at one time is to eliminate people standing in line with fish for too long a time. This will have a tremendous impact on the health of the released fish. Having 10+ pounds of fish in a few gallons of water for more than a few minutes is unhealthy for the bass. By using larger bags with zippers and only handing out a few bags at a time we'll hopefully ensure none of the fish will suffer delayed mortality after release.

Second we will have a southern off-limits boundary for the tournaments.  A west to east line drawn from the south point ( Sandy Point ) of the Bush River to the South point of Still Pond Cove ( Plum Point ).

The Bush River and Still Pond will be the southernmost fishable waters for the Opens.

This eliminates some concerns on transporting and dislocating bass from the Middle, Gunpowder, Back Rivers, etc., to the North East River.