Next week, Minnesota will begin collecting the highest fishing tournament fees in the nation under a new system designed to help the state off set administration fees.
The move, approved by the Minnesota Legislature this year, has some tournament organizers wondering how it will impact their contests.
An increase in the number of tournaments has resulted in $180,000 annual administrative expenditures associated with the tournaments, according to the Department of Natural Resources, which handles fishing tournaments.
Locally, organizers of the International Falls Bass Championship planned for Aug. 24 and 25 in International Falls will be charged $1,000.
Gary Potter, president of the championship’s board, said he found out that the Falls tournament would be charged a fee when he opened his mail Tuesday.
“We could use this money locally to help grow our event, instead we have to send it to St. Paul,” Potter said.
Under the new system, off-site weigh-ins, like the International Falls Bass Tournament, will be charged a fee of $500 for mid-sized contests and $1,000 for tournaments with 100 or more entrants. The system calls for a fee of $120 for an ice-fishing permit and $400 for open-water events with more than 100 people and an on-site fish weigh-in.
The additional costs are almost certain to be passed along to anglers via larger entrance fees. The permits had been free.
The Minnesota DNR issues roughly 600 tournament permits per year. Broadly speaking, the agency requires permits when there are 30 or more entrants for open-water contests and above 150 when iced over.
The move upsets competitive anglers, some of whom see the fees as an assault on their pastime and worry they will be the final straw for small tournaments struggling to stay afloat.
It’s a debate that’s come to neighboring Wisconsin, too. Officials there are refining a proposed tournament fee schedule after one sank last year amid concerns it was excessive. Andrew Fayram, a fisheries policy analyst at Wisconsin DNR, expects the next plan to split regulatory costs between competitive anglers and contest organizers.
Beneath the fee fight is a deeper dispute over water use.
The spread of tournaments — traced by some to competitive fishing’s increasing TV presence — has stoked questions about the sport’s possible strain on fisheries; organizers say they follow catch-and-release practices and that tournaments don’t increase fish mortality. There’s also tension over lake access and waterway traffic because the events can draw dozens of boats.
Vern Wagner, who has been active in Minnesota tournament fishing for two decades, wonders if the fees are a covert attempt to discourage contests.
‘‘If this was 30 guys in canoes there wouldn’t be a problem. It’s the fact that a bass boat cost $35,000 so accordingly somehow we’re economically profiting,’’ Wagner said. ‘‘It’s a perception that it’s a bunch of rich guys going out on the lake and somehow exploiting the resource.’’
Terry Peltier, a member of a DNR citizen panel that recommended the fees, denies trying to curb tournaments.
But if fewer tournaments is the result, Duluth angler Dave Zentner is all for it. He views fishing as a recreational escape and is bothered by corporate sponsorships attached to many tournaments.
‘‘I still want to puke when I look at an outdoor channel and see guys grabbing a fish out of a tank and running it across a stage like they’ve just won the Boston Marathon,’’ said Zentner, a former national president of the Izaak Walton League of America. ‘‘It just turns me off.’’