The Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League is in La Crosse this weekend and the Mississippi River is already getting busy. But local business owners are hoping to reel in some extra income, from the crowds.

Mike Schams has been fishing on the Mississippi since he was a boy.

"Once you're in, you're hooked for better of worse... Kind of like a marriage."

He fishes for walleye, crappies, and for this weekend's big tournament, he hopes to catch a lot of bass.

"I could do great or I could bomb, it all depends. With the weather change like this, the big front that moved through, somebody will find them hopefully its me and there stacked up."

The anglers aren't the only ones who will benefit from the tournament and its thousands of dollars worth of cash prizes. The city and local businesses also have the chance to come out winners.

"The economic impact of something like this fishing tournament is probably in the range of $125,000 to $150,000,” says Dave Clements, Executive Director for the La Crosse Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It will depend on how the anglers stick around, if they bring all their family or come alone or if it's just them or one other person or what have you."

With hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing into the area, stores like Blain's Farm and Fleet have seen a big jump in sales over the last three weeks.

"We've had over the last three or four weeks a definite increase in sales in the fishing category itself,” says Dale Lenz, head of Sporting Goods at the store. “A lot has to do with, in part, a lot of the local tournaments that go on. With the competition for the bass fishing on the river itself, we sell quite a bit of lures that will accommodate the contestants that are in that."

The tournament’s top prize is $6,000 which Schams hopes to reel in, which may give him the fix he needs when it comes to his obsession.

"It's an addiction kind of, you say in the early spring, ‘Oh you're not gonna fish as much’ and spring starts to roll around and you get out there a couple times and you get a couple good fish and you're right back off the wagon, you're fishing."

The top forty anglers in each of the BFL's twenty eight divisions advance to the regional championship with a $140,000 prize.

The tournament starts Saturday at 5:30 a.m. and weigh-in is at 2 p.m.