In response

Dear sir:
This is in response to the RRWT letter in last week’s paper.
The only letter we received were the informational letters addressed to Dale LaBelle or myself, Jody Shypit. They were sent to the team captains and not all anglers received the letter.
LaBelle’s Birch Point Camp did not receive a letter informing us of the change in dates of the RRWT. As soon as the letter came out, anglers were calling the RRWT committee to respond.
I was in contact with one of the committee members on four different occasions—twice on the phone and twice in person. Once with Mike Graham to drop off at least 20 of the surveys which were all in favour of leaving the date the third weekend in September.
When I told the committee member the majority of these people would not fish the RRWT because of the conflict, the member responded to us that they had enough U.S. teams on the waiting list to fill the vacancies this year.
Last year was the first year I fished the RRWT and I noticed most, if not all, of the U.S. anglers stayed in Baudette, Mn., which meant they bought their gas, food, lodging, etc. in the States.
How does this help the Rainy River businessman?
The committee also says after two years of decline in fish and total weights, a decision had to be taken to change weekends. I don’t understand this statement. Last year, they decided to increase the field of anglers by, I think, 10 teams, which was received and they still have a waiting list.
I never heard any teams say they wouldn’t fish the RRWT because of no fish being caught.
When Dale left Rainy River on the last day of the 2002 tournament, he was told by a committee member no dates would be changed. The only change might be opening up the lake so more and bigger fish would be caught.
Then when they sent out the informational letter, it was flip-flopped—not opening the lake but changing the date.
There are at least 12 teams affected by this conflict, which is 15 percent of the field. In the eyes of the RRWT committee, this is a very small minority yet in taxes, 15 percent is a lot.
We wish RRWT success next year, and maybe in the future something can be resolved to give as many anglers a chance to fish as many tournaments as possible.
Signed,
Jody Shypit
Co-organizer of
the Rainy Lake
Fall Bass Classic