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Location: Athens, Ohio | I just received some good news from our Muskies Inc WV Chapter president. Last year, our chapter scheduled a two day tournament at Stonewall Jackson Lake for the first weekend in May; we've had our memorial event that weekend for maybe 15-20 years. We'd received notification that WV DNR had suspended all permits through May 3 as part of the governor's orders.
Our president checked back with WV DNR and this was the reply:
"I just wanted to send you a return email to clarify that your tournament has not been suspended or cancelled by the WV DNR.
Whereas your tournament is catch and release and the anglers do not congregate together for any reason, there is no reason why you cannot have your tournament."
So, we made a few changes to the way the chapter will do this - no lunch meetings and proper distancing as examples.
West Virginia has one of the lowest incident and death rates for COVID in the nation at present. I'm certain this fact was a significant factor in the state's decision. I don't usually fish these events, I might go one day for this one; most motels in that area are still closed and the chances for me of encountering illness if I did stay over are personally too great, since I have nearly all of the known risk factors.
I'm posting this just to give a little hope out there that there can be an end to this. Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia residents have given up a lot to get to this point and we can only hope that the sacrifices we all have made will not be in vain if this crap surges back. m
Edited by mikie 4/18/2020 3:49 PM
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Posts: 199
| Wish I could "like" a post on here. |
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Posts: 32827
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | COOL!!!! I'd fish that one if I was close enough. |
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| That is good news. Sounds like the DNR took a common sense approach and as long as participants do the same, should work. Here's hoping for a good tournament, good turn out, good weather. Made me think, maybe one good thing that will come out of all this is that we will appreciate people and events more than we did before when we tended to take things for granted. |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | I just want to clarify: there are maybe 130 members in the chapter, and if we have a dozen one-and-two person teams show up for these events, it is a 'good' turnout and we met our expenses. WV has allowed 'outdoor recreation' as 'essential travel' in the past weeks and I know of no one being hassled for fishing. Right now, it's mushroom season and I don't know of many folks who don't do that solo. m |
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Posts: 486
Location: Northern Illinois | Thanks for the good news! Hope all goes well! |
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Posts: 371
Location: SW Ohio | That's good! KY has restrictions that have killed all tourneys including PMTT and the MH tournament (that was open state wide and not on just one lake). We just got our docks back in here at Caesar Creek so the ramp crowding should diminish slightly. |
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