“Bass fishing is a major recreational pastime across the country and it’s really the king of sport fishing. There have been occasional tournaments in the Bay City area going back to the 80s and 90s, but historically, we’ve not really been an area that a lot of these major event circuits have focused on.
That all started to change just a couple of years ago.
After hearing rumors in the bass circuits of how good the bass fishing was in the Saginaw Bay system, the Bassmaster College Circuit came to Bay City to give it a try…and they were SHOCKED by how good the bass fishing was. As soon as anglers started catching big bass here, Bay City’s reputation spread and everybody wanted to come fish here to try it out.
Word traveled and Kevin VanDam, the Tom Brady of bass fishing, and his nephew Jonathan VanDam caught wind of it. Jonathan came up here on a fishing trip for fun, and when he got back, he told Major League Fishing that they needed to bring a tournament here. When you’ve got people like that advocating for what we have here in Bay County, that can just blow the barn doors right open.”
– Mike Kelly and Ed Clements
“Sports tourism has a direct spending impact on the local community and for Bay City, fishing becomes a bigger part of that every year. Mike Kelly and Ed Clements enlisted Grand Valley State University and the Seidman College of Business to survey the anglers at last year’s National Professional Fishing League and Major League Fishing tournaments held here in Bay City, asking many things like, ‘Where do you stay? What did you spend on gas? What did you spend on food?’
Those two events alone were close to a million dollars of direct spending impact.
At Go Great Lakes Bay, it's our job to get the word out to the local residents, shareholders, and business that this is a big deal and they should want to get behind it. This isn’t just a fun weekend of fishing—these tournaments directly help the community, and that’s something sponsors should support.”
– Tim Shelton, Director of Sports Tourism, Go Great Lakes Bay
“Not only do the anglers fishing in the tournaments love to come here to fish, they love coming here because there is also a ton to do. That also encourages them to bring family and friends with that, making these tournaments an even bigger win for the community.
That’s such an advantage over other communities and these sport fishing organizations are all talking about it. They've told us that we are really close to being the premier destination for bass tournaments because of our fishing, our location, our amenities, the activities that are downtown, our restaurants, and the affordability. We're at the doorstep of something big for Bay City, and with a few tweaks and a couple of improvements to our boat launches we'll be right there. We're steps away from being a premier fishing destination.”
– Mike Kelly and Ed Clements
