I got into this issue of too many bass tournaments on Candlewood and the totally open season which made for extensive bed fishing with the DEP's Inland Fisheries division a few years back and did some research on what other big lakes in other states were doing with the bass tournament issues.
This issue has been discussed with the Fisheries Division and the bottom line was that there was no evidence that juvenile recruitment was affected by fishing pressure. This was in regards to bed fishing and its impacts but the issue of the large number of tournaments was a factor that was also considered.
I have a small pond, about 3 acres, that is on average about 15' deep. I find that by the end of the summer I have the same amount of bass fry and fingerlings whether I had only a couple of successful bass nests or more than a dozen successful nests. Fishing is all C&R in my pond. So tournaments and bed fishing may not affect in any appreciable way the year class populations in a lake. Candlewood is a very productive lake in general with a robust forage base and all of the glacial rock on the shorelines and bottoms which favors smallies.
But Candlewood Lake has by far, on a surface acre basis, more bass tournaments than any other lake in the Northeast or New England of a similar size. It used to have 175 per year so the DEEP has dialed it back some in recent years. Also there are only two reliable state launches on the lake so access is competitive.
Lake Wallenpaupak in the Poconos has about 50 tournaments a year and it is basically the same size as Candlewood, is a hydro facility water source, has the same forage base, a rocky bottom mostly of shale outcroppings, has a strong smallie population and decent largemouths, and is nearly the same depth and contour. They have a group of stakeholders including the Pa. Fish Commission, a local mayor, some sportsmen and business owners on the committee that decides how many bass tournaments and when they can be held. Pa. also has more stringent Fisheries laws regarding bass fishing as does NY and NJ versus Ct. with its open seasons. If Candlewood was in NJ, NY or Pa. it would have about 50 tournaments a year.
Other examples are Lake Hopatcong in NJ which is that state's largest lake but smaller than Candlewood has about 50 bass tournaments a year. In Pa. Raystown Lake (the Juniata River with a dam on it) is over 8,000 acres, far larger than the 5,300 acres that Candlewood has, and has many more boat launches, yet has a cap on bass tournaments at 100 per year. That said, I doubt that the top three bags from bass tournaments at any of the above waters I mentioned exceed at all the top three bags from Candlewood in a similar sized tournament.
Looking at the tournaments that actually followed the rules of submitting a report to the DEEP after concluding their bass tournament Candlewood does stick out as the place to get a largie over 6lbs but keep in mind it is the state's largest lake and has twice as many fishermen each year out fishing it so you should expect more of everything each year including trophy largies. The average bass fisherman fishing a tournament on Candlewood seems to be getting the same sized average number of bass per outing with about the same bag weight as are fishermen in other ponds so it may no longer be the premium bass lake in Ct. for the average bass fisherman though due to its size it would probably be every bass fisherman's first choice destination.
And one reason it is the number one destination, though the average bag is now more in line with other lakes, is the top finishers are still hanging bags in excess of 20 pounds per tournament and compare favorably with the trophy bags of many years ago. Some of those guys are right here on this site. So maybe the real answer for all of us average bass fisherman like me is just learn the lakes better and be a better fisherman.