new trails, clubs, orgs, whatevers....

[PoorBoy]

I am hearing some rumors of new tournament groups that plan to start divisions in this area next season.

Fishers of Men

Midwest Sportsman

BASS

cant remember the other one, but i wanna say ABC maybe???

What do you guys think about all the different tournament groups competing for the same water, launches, times, dates, members, etc.

I know anyone and everyone has a right to do what they want, but i think it is getting a little ridiculous. So many choices and basically most are offering the same thing.

It seems to me that it would be wiser to incorporate some of the trails that are identical for the most part. There would be more members, hence more membership monies. Payouts would be bigger. Sponsorship programs would be bigger.

I guess most new clubs are created because a handful of guys are not happy with the current group ( not individuals per say, but the club, trail, organization...) they are fishing with. Whether it is the fees, the lakes, the dates or days, the payback, anything.

On the flip side, other tournament groups may do well in other areas and figure they are missing out on this area and then decide to expand.

But it seems like every year we get a few more. I know a lot of guys who all fish different stuff. Word on the street, season after season, is that turnouts are way down for most of the established tournament groups.

As an assistant director for the American Bass Anglers i can honestly say that we struggle in some situations. We may have one tournament that draws 25 boats on Kent Lake and one on Lake St Clair that only draws 7 or 8 boats. Then 2 weeks later we may have 20 boats on Clair.

The ABA is a little different than most clubs because we use a draw format that pairs the boater with a non boater. But the boater and non boater are competing against each other unlike the BFL where it is a seperate field.

But the dozens of other tournament groups who are fishing the identical formats on the same lakes on the same weekend at the same launch for the same price makes little sense to me. I am all for variety but in my opinion it is kinda getting out of control.

I would think we could all benefit by merging some of the tournament groups together. I was wondering how the rest of you guys felt.

PoorBoy himself

[Revtro]

I agree in principle. But I think merging would be hard for many of the groups because of the differences. For instance, there are cost differences that would have to be resolved, plus some are team formats and some are draw formats. There are different sponsors involved also. If they could all figure out a way to do joint tournaments while keeping separate points for the organizations anglers are fishing for, it might work.. at least for the team format organizations like NBAA, CATT, and Fishers of Men. Not sure how ABA could work with other organizations that do team formats. Sounds like a pretty difficult thing to pull off to me, but I agree that it would be cool to have bigger fields, payouts, and less overall tourneys on St. Clair.

I agree also that many guys switch tournament organizations due to bad experiences. However, most of the time it's just a handful of bad seeds that cause problems in a tournament or a bad TD. Rather than start a new trail when things go wrong, it would be good if people tried to lobby for change in their existing organization. Or switch divisions. I fished a division in a trail this year that I felt was very poorly run. So I switched up and fished a different one instead which was better run and I really enjoyed it without having to leave the tourney organization altogether. Just my experience.

Question? Don't some organizations already have "super tourneys" together? I thought I remembered seeing something like that this season. Maybe someone could suggest some joint NBAA, CATT, and FOM super tourneys throughout the season. That might be fun.

[mark]

I think that new clubs are always good, because alot of clubs are low stress tournaments, and it's a great place to learn. However, there are way too many trails. When I get good enough to fish the Federation, I would love for there to be 75-100 boats at every tournament. But with all the new trails it's not gonna happen. Eventually, some will start going out because there won't be enough fishermen to support them all.

[djkimmel]

They've come and they've gone over the years, that's for sure.

I believe if you offer what anglers want and enforce your rules strictly, evenly and fairly, you'll succeed and draw anglers better than others. If you don't, you stand a good chance of disappearing from the scene.

There's another new circuit probably coming to Michigan next year on top of those mentioned - Bass Anglers United. They are planning a number of events next year. Don't know a lot about the setup yet although their 'inaugural' event next weekend allows a team or individual to fish.

I enjoyed the Top Bass I fished this year at Houghton Lake. Kind of a fun and unique format. I think I'll fish some next year too if I can on top of hopefully the BFL with their new schedule.

[blakstr1]

Any info on [glow=red,2,300]BASS ANGLERS UNITED[/glow] ?

How about a 2006 schedule for [glow=red,2,300]TOP BASS[/glow] ?

[MBell]

I don't see how merging could ever work or be worth it. Most of these tournaments are run by bigger organizations that would have no interest in merging. I remember hearing about ABC last year. Of all of the new organizations coming in next year I don't see any offering anything new that would be different than what is already here. I like how top bass doesn't have a membership fee, I think if they promoted a little more they could get pretty big with that format(website!!). With the low/spotty turnouts membership fees aren't worth it. I was dissapointed in the turnouts at most of this years tournaments, hopefully a trail will step up and take over just too many trails.
-Matt

[djkimmel]

I've heard a tentative schedule for Top Bass next year, but I got the impression it wasn't close to being ready for release yet - dates not chosen. They are probably closer now. I'll check with them in the next few weeks if someone else hasn't posted a schedule by then. I may fish one to three of them next year. I had fun at the one I fished this year. I know Larry wants to fish most of them next year.

Last I heard about the new Bass Anglers United, number of events and dates were not set in stone yet. We've talked about a magazine they want to put out too so I expect I may hear more about that.

[blakstr1]

Any new word on the Top Bass schedule yet??

[djkimmel]

Totally forgot I was going to check on that. I thought I had an email address for one of them, but I don't see it now. I'll have to give them a call. They should have something down by now.