Letter from Gary Nault

After a Sturgeon Bay Bass Tournament committee meeting it was decided to not have a tournament this year. The decision did not come easy but after holding one every spring for 9 years, (would have been 10 except Covid prevented one that year). Again this was a tough decision but one of the factors was the age of the committee members, all have reached retirement age, and efforts to recruit new younger members has not been successful.

Basically it’s time to enjoy retirement. Running a tournament requires much more effort than most would think, from meetings, securing sponsorships, renting facility and logistics that go with it, more meetings, organizing set up crew, boat inspectors, and MORE meetings. Even with our switch to the immediate release weigh on the water format reduced work during the actual tournament days, the effort required was still extensive. So, we will miss the anglers who fished with the SBBT, and their friendship we have enjoyed, a few have moved on to even bigger fame on some big bass fishing stages, THANKS for being a huge part of the SBBT.

Foremost thanks to our sponsors who supported us, many for all 9 years. Lund boats, Cherryland Shell, Fincintari Bay Ship, and Kitty O’ Reillys, Flanigan Distributing, being our MAJOR sponsors , and all of the many sponsors who made the tournament possible and allowed us to payout bigger payouts than any other smaller tournaments. Thank you to our local sponsors and national sponsors. Thanks to the Pioneer Fire Company who cooked, especially the steak sandwich, and served or Budwieser products for-all 9 years And our committee needs a big thank you for their effort on bringing the anticipated bass tournament and the competitors who Sturgeon Bay loved to see every spring. I personally will miss the event immensely.

From 1991 when Cheryl and I held a tournament with a mere 24 boats to becoming the largest bass tournament in the Midwest, the Door County Invitational tournaments for our local anglers, the Neighborhood Pub Tournaments, the AYA Tournament, and lastly the Sturgeon Bay Bass Tournament. All of those were not to make a personal profit, but to help the sponsors get their year started by tapping into our great fishery, and putting Sturgeon Bay and Door County on anglers radar as one of the best fishing spots in the country. If I helped do that I’m proud of it! Tournaments have been my springs for a long time.

Lastly I just have to mention the “weigh on the water format” that the SBBT developed 5 years ago. After watching Major League Fishing hold their tournament here in 2020 and with their help, along with Fisheries Forever, West Shore Outfitters and many more, we secured scales and worked with Fish Donkey and our local Quantum Technology who were both very instrumental in making this format work especially well for both us and our bass. I have to credit Mark Holey for his technical advice and making it work as well as it does. We will continue to offer our scales and technical support to any tournament who wants to use them. We will always be proud , of our move to doing the right thing for our bass resource.

In closing THANK YOU to all who had a large or small part in the event, those competitors who fished any of the events, and our community who came to the pavilion to support it Thank You. I have to mention that if anyone who would like to take over the SBBT our committee has said we will offer use of all of our equipment and all the technical and sponsorship support we can.

Thanks again, Gary Nault.

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