By Louie Stout

The number of registered bass tournaments held in Michigan in 2019 jumped by my more than 500 events compared to 2018.

Tournament directors are required to register their tournaments each year and provide statistical information.

Last year’s (2020) stats are still being tabulated at the time of this writing and will be reported by Michiana Outdoors News when made available.

One thing is certain – the pre-pandemic season was notable in numbers and weight of the fish caught in 2019.

There were 2,783 events registered that year on 298 bodies of water to include catch/measure/release (CMR) events and those that held weigh-ins.

The tournaments averaged nearly 14 boats per event and the average weight of bass at actual weigh-ins was 2.21 pounds with the biggest fish of the event averaging 3.85 pounds. Some 105,205 bass were weighed or measured during the contests.

Smallmouth accounted for 78 percent of the bass caught in both CMR tournaments and weigh-in events.

And big fish were caught. The biggest bass reported in 2019 was an 8.34 pounder caught at Lake Missaukee in northern Michigan. Lake George in Branch County produced an 8.28-pound bass followed by a 7.5 caught from Lake Michigan and a 7 pounder caught at Jordan Lake in Barry County.

It took at least a 6.44-pound fish to make the top 10, and the 10th spot fish was caught in a tournament at Pipestone Lake in Berrien County.

Not surprisingly, St. Clair led the list with 73 tournaments followed by Muskegon (59), Gull (52) and Gun Lake (48). Austin Lake near Kalamazoo rounded out the top 5 with 45 contests and sixth place Klinger Lake hosted 39. Other popular lakes within Michiana include Portage Lake in St. Joseph County with 37 and Paw Paw Lake in Berrien County with 34.