Muskogee Buzzing With Excitement During Bassmaster Open Series

About 400 anglers are fishing in a tournament up and down the Arkansas River this week.

The Bassmaster Open series is benefiting Muskogee's economy.

The Arkansas and Verdigris Rivers usually are full with barge traffic, but that's not the case this week.

Professional and amateur anglers from all over the region are competing in the Bassmaster Central Open.

Muskogee's Three Forks Harbor is the home base for the three-day tournament.

"Anytime you bring 200 boats, 400 anglers you need to have the infrastructure in place to hold the event and launch the boats, park the boats, take care of  the anglers and this facility here at Three Forks works fantastically," Bassmaster Senior Tournament Manager Chris Bowes said.

Anglers will go anywhere on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System to fish.

We found several anglers locking through on the Verdigris River to find their favorite fishing hole.

With hundreds of anglers in town for a fishing tournament, restaurants and hotel rooms are filling up.

“We like to think it's very substantial," Bowes said.

Mahylon's Bar-B-Q is seeing some of the crowds.

"After weigh-ins, we seem to get a flood of them come in,” Kenny Greer said. “I think from the other night we had anywhere from 16-22 of them in here at one time at different tables. …It's great for the local economy. They've got to have somewhere to stay, they've got to have somewhere to eat.”

The Muskogee Chamber says the tournament is expected to boost tax revenues.

Saturday is Day 3 in the competition. It narrows to 12 pro anglers and 12 amateur anglers. The weigh-in will happen at 3 p.m. in Broken Arrow at Bass Pro Shops.

You can find more information here.