New Eastside Club and Tourney Discussion

[Revtro]

I'm planning on starting a new club on the East Side. As someone who is tired of the overly competitive nature of my last club, I decided to start something new and different. In my last club, the guys were unwilling to share information and competed as if we were fishing for big payouts even though we were fishing for NOTHING. No money was involved. The bummer about it was that we didn't develop many meaningful friendships either which is partly why I joined the club in the first place.

The other big reason I joined was to learn from other anglers. Not that I expected them to share GPS coordinates, but I was hopeful of learning from their experience. This didn't really happen much.

So I'm starting a new club. At this time we have about 6 guys who are on board and we're looking for more guys who have the same goals. If you're looking to be a part of a fun club where you can make friends and learn from other anglers, then read the club concept below and see what you think. Let me know if you'd like to be a part of it.

Club Concept: FUN, FRIENDSHIP, and PERSONAL GROWTH is what it’s all about. Vesting our personal best, helping each other grow as anglers, and learning from one another is how we approach our tournaments. We practice the free exchange of information with one another.

Competitive Nature: To compete against YOURSELF in regular club tournaments. Score from each tournament is added to each angler’s cumulative year-to-date score. At the end of the season, the anger who improves the most over the previous season’s score becomes the Angler of the Year. For new anglers, the first half of the season’s tournaments can be counted as if they were the previous year’s score and the second half of the tournament season can be counted as the “improved score”.

Our goal isn’t to compete against each other, thus creating a club atmosphere which is incompatible with the free exchange of fishing information. Instead, the idea of the club is to build friendships with other anglers and to become interested in helping each other grow as fishermen.

Michigan BASS Chapter Federation & B.A.S.S. Affiliation
To keep costs low, it is not mandatory to be a member of B.A.S.S. or the Michigan Federation. If there are at least six members who are members of B.A.S.S. and the Michigan Federation, the club will be federated for that year. This decision will be made year to year. BUT, maybe those who get involved won't even be interested in B.A.S.S. Perhaps we'll get involved with C.A.T.T. or some other group. Or maybe none at all. Maybe we'll just be a fun club. It's up to all who get involved.

Initially we're thinking about fishing a mixture of inland lakes and Lake St. Clair. Perhaps 4 to 6 of each during the season. Let me know if you're interested in getting involved or if you're looking for a new club to join. We'll keep the dues dirt cheap. We'll probably only ask for enough to buy trophies at the end of the season. Maybe $10 for the season. Since we're in the planning stages, we're very open to suggestions about how to run the club. We have a basic idea of the tournament guidelines which I'll be happy to share with anyone who is interested.

[Revtro]

Ok, it seems we have a few guys who are interested. At this time, I think we're up to about 7 or so guys that I have spoken with who are interested in starting up the new club.

Questions to consider:

What do you guys think about the overall concept?

Should we use a points system?

What lakes should we consider?

How many tourneys should we have? (personally I like the every other weekend format)

In addition to possibly being a B.A.S.S. Federation club (not sure if we will yet), should we consider getting involved with C.A.T.T.? Anyone know more about them? What I've heard so far is intriguing.

Let's brainstorm.
Tom

[G3BASS]

This concept sounds interesting. I know NBAA is discussing an introductory series that would travel around the midwest holding tournaments for beginning anglers. Might want to get in touch with them.

[Revtro]

I'll look into that. Right now we're also looking at CATT. The club won't necessarily be a club full of beginners though. Although there will likely be a few, even experienced anglers can benefit from this type of club situation, especially when it comes to preparing for other money tournaments. My goal is to have a nice mixture of experienced anglers who would enjoy helping less experienced fishermen learn the ins and outs of tournament fishing. In this scenario, everybody wins and hopefully will have lots of fun in the process.

Hopefully, when the spring hits, many of the guys who normally frequent these boards will come back and chime in on this idea and hopefully get involved. We're starting to put the concepts down on paper though, so anyone who wants to get involved, now is a good time.

[MBell]

Sounds like a good idea, I could have used a club like this when I first started. I was in a club for a short while, but because of scheduleing conflicts with other tournaments I was unable to fish most events, would this club schedule around the major trails, more specifically the BFL? I like the goals of the club, they are right online with why I fish touraments. Have you thought about tournament format? As for schedule I like to fish the big water as much as possible. I like to fish the inland lakes at the begining and the end of the year when the water is cold. Just some other thoughts, catch and release tournaments, weeknight tournaments.

[Revtro]

I think the strength of this club will be our willingness to work together. So we can absolutely do our best to schedule around other trails and any other potential schedule conflicts.

We still haven't figured out the details of the tournament format. Please feel free to give some input on that. Initially, we're thinking of a point system to make it fair for guys who fish more big water tourneys than small water (and vice versa). The trick is gonna be figuring out a way to make the tournaments somewhat competitive, but still making it easy for guys to want to share info. Any ideas about that?

I think draw tournaments are the best way for guys to get to know each other and learn from more individuals.

Personally, I like the idea of mixing up the bodies of water throughout the summer. I fished some inlands this summer and had a ball when other guys were only fishing St. Clair. However, it does seem that most guys I talk with prefer fishing more St. Clair during the summer. We can figure out a way to accomodate everyone I think.

How do people feel about Golden Rule tournaments versus weigh-ins? Personally I prefer Golden Rule tourneys because the fish are released immediately and it's better for them. However, I have heard of people trying to do boatside weigh ins with digitial scales. I guess that could also work provided we all have the exact same scales and they are calibrated properly. The other option is to do a normal weigh in. However, I don't own a scale for this so we'd have to have someone in the club who has one and be willing to handle the weigh ins.

These are just ideas. I am very open to structuring this club according to the concensus. Please chime in on your ideas and let's build this thing together. I'm looking forward to a fun tournament season and meeting new friends along the way.

[Northernbass]

I would say make the tourneys draw format but the two anglers fish together as a team bringing in five fish for the team. That way perhaps the guy that knows what he is doing is more willing to help the other guy since they are now a team. Also I think golden rule is a great idea for the early catch and release season that way we can have more tourneys ane Exscuses to fish more. Then once season opens up I say do a regular weigh in we don't neciscarilly need a regular scale just get a regular like rapala digital scale put the fish in a basket and hang it on the scale since the baskets will be the same and we only use one scale for all the weight ins it won't need to be calibrated exactly. Also if we don't have a lot of memeber say 10-12 then that would be 5-6 boats so we could fish inland lakes that regular tournament trails don't fish because they are to small. There are some great smaller inland lakes that would accomidate 5-10 boats great but wouldn't accomidate the bigger tournament trails that good. Then we are fishing some of these smaller lakes that perhaps alot of the guys havent fished and that will make it a learning exsperiece for all. If we just fished the same lakes as all the other tournament schedules then guys who fish them all the time would probably go to the same areas and fish the same way, so if we fish the smaller lakes that don't get fished by the tourneys most of the guys will probably not have fished them or if they have not as much and the teams can all go out for a good learning exsperiece, of how to fish new waters. I also think that the club angler of the year should be based on how much he improves from one year to the next because if you have an angler that wins alot of the tourneys one year then they next does the same then really he didn't improve that much, so maybe that isn't as fair. I think just keep it to a simple points system and the guy or guys at the top at the end win the angler of the year trophies. As long as we fish lakes that most guys don't fish guys won't mind saying hey we got our fish over there on this and such. So guys that don't do as good this year will learn and better compete. That is the kind of reward for a guy that does good all the tourneys and shares alot of his info with the guys that didn't do so well to win angler of the year. This also does another good thing. For example a guy and his partner win the first tourney they are both at the top in points so the next tourney they get drawn with different partners well this will make them want to try even more harder to find fish and help their partners catch fish since they combine there fish to help them stay atop of the angler of the year race. Therefore, this would increas the knowledge of the lesser exsperienced members. If a guy who fished great and dosn't really know if he is got a shot for angler of the year I just think that maybe he won't fish or help his co angler fish as hard. Just my opinion. Also maybe twoards the fall once all the big tourneys get over with we could have a classic like a one tourney shoot out to see who is classic champ give them a trophy and the angler of the year trophy so that would be 3 trophies which small club fees would more than pay for.

Hope this gives yous ome ideas.

[Revtro]

These are all great ideas. I too think the draw format and team limit is a good idea. I like the "boat limit" idea because I think you're right about it creating an atmosphere where the more experienced angler will want to help the less experienced angler. Good suggestion.

Although I love fishing St. Clair, I also love fishing small water.

How do you guys think we should do the points system?

I love the classic shootout idea. That way it's a totally competitive tournament where it isn't so much about sharing info as trying to do well individually. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have to qualify for the tournament though by fishing a predetermined number of the normal club tournaments. That way we don't just have some inactive member show up to take it all.

The thing that I still can't figure out is how to have the guys fishing against their scores from the previous year. I agree that this might make a guy who was at the top the year before not want to try that hard because it'll be harder for him to get the anger of the year. However, I think it would be good to attract anglers who would feel a sense of satisfaction in helping less experienced anglers do well. I still don't know how to make this all work and make it fair for everyone. Ideas?

I think what you're saying Northern is that we shouldn't do that. Instead just have a normal points system that is competitive in nature? Is that what you meant? I'm not sure if I understood what you were meaning.

Also, along these lines...even though it will make it harder for the more experienced anglers to win angler of the year, maybe that's not a bad thing. What I mean is that since they're better fishermen, they still have the best chance of amassing points. Just a thought.

Here's another radical idea. It probably wouldn't work, but it's a thought... What if we had partners instead of did draws. The points could be based on how much the experienced angler helped his partner improve. Then there could be two honors at the end of the year. The honor for most points and the honor for best teacher or something along those lines. We could switch up partners mid season or keep the same partners for the whole season. Again, this probably has no chance of really working, but I'm just trying to get the creative ideas flowing.

My biggest concern is that I want it to stay friendly and have a free exchange of info throughout. If we get too competitive, it will likely end up just like the last club I was in where guys are afraid to talk becuase they're paranoid that other anglers just want to "steal their spots". I like competition as much as the next guy, but that's why I joined ABA and why I might get involved with CATT. I'd like the club experience to be more about learning and developing friendships. That's just my 2 cents. But again, I'm open to any ideas you guys have. If most of us think a regular competitive club is the best way to go, then that's cool. We can still probably figure out some way to keep the info flowing freely.

[MBell]

I like the draw team format, team tournaments make it fun and the draw makes it fair. As for a scale, I looked and you can get postage scale that weighs to a tenth of an ounce. They run about $30-$50 on ebay for a 25-30lb scale shipped. You could easily weigh a 5 fish limit with one of these. I have one at work that only goes to 5lbs but it is very accurate. The most important thing is that we all use the same scale. I like the 5 fish limit per team, I think it's just the right number of fish. Also, it would be a good idea to have the draw sometime before the tournament so the team could practice together if they wanted to. Another thought is to have a travel tournament, we have some great lakes in northern michigan that don'tn regularly hold tournaments. This may be hard to do.

[Revtro]

I really like the travel tournemanet idea. Every year 8-10 of my friends go somewhere for a charter and it's always a blast. A tournement would be great. Last year I fished several Northern lakes and had a great time. It would be fun to go stay at a hotel or cabins somewhere and maybe even do a two day tournament.

The postal scale idea could work. If we do this instead of Golden Rule, we should have people who volunteer to release the fish right away so we don't kill them. The other difficulty with this would be a tank to keep the fish alive in after weigh in. We could return the fish to the livewells immediately after they're weighed and have volunteers to release them. From a conservation standpoint, Golden Rule tournaments or using digital scales on the boats is still better for the fish. We should seriously consider all this before we make a final decision.

[MBell]

The more I think about this the more I like the idea of an immediate release tournament. If we are not holding a weigh-in and not too big do we have to pull a permit? Also, you won't burn your fish out especially on St. Clair/Erie where I sometimes fish as many as 15 tournaments a year. Some of my lake spots will take a day or two to replentish themselves after I fish them hard. For a travel tourney, a two day event would be great. In an area like traverse city we could have it on multiple lakes. Fish the bay one day and go to an inland on another. Up there with so many good lakes close together we could fish more than one lake a day. Another thing to consider is fishing areas that are not commonly fished by bass anglers. The best fishing I've found in Michigan is a place very few bass anglers fish, Everyone up there fishes for lake trout and salmon. There are many areas on the great lakes like this. I know you said you had a few people, what does the boat situation look like, I have a boat. What are your goals of an entry fee? Cover expenses, winner wins money etc. I would not be fishing to win money, the only thing winnings would get you is maybe your gas expense, but you may also need an entry fee as a way for people to commit to fishing the tournament.

[Revtro]

Personally I agree with the whole Immediate Release idea. My last club did all our tournaments this way and it worked out great. There are some who have mentioned that this isn't a good way to go becuase the weights are estimates based on Golden Rule's calculations, but I think it all works out in the wash. In most cases, it's actually pretty accurate.

I'm not sure about the permit thing. Our last club was strictly an Immediate Release club and we never had to have a permit except for when we fished on Cass Lake because we needed to get in early.

So far, I know we have at least 3 boats, not including Mbell and at least 3 nonboaters who are interested also. That's a good start. I'd like to see it get up to at least 5 boats to begin with. Mbell would make 4 boats.

Entry fees are definitely something we need to discuss. I agree that entry fees can be a good way to secure committment. But when you factor in the nonboater fees (usually $10-$20 for gas and launch fees), it can get expensive for the guys who are on the broke side of life. One way of doing it might be to make the entry fee double as a big fish pot and payout the big fish pot at the end of each tournament.

Another question to consider... Should we allow women to join? I don't know of any who want to thus far, but should we? I don't personally have any problem with it, but I've known guys who did.

[MBell]

What do you think about the use of digital scales. I have one and it has been pretty accurate for me in tournaments. It always gets me within 0.1lb of what I weigh-in. I would prefer digital scales because I've caught 14" fish that weigh less than a pound and 14" fish that weigh over 2lbs. Revtro, I sent you a pm.

[MBell]

One thing I just remembered, in an immediate release tournament you could hold a tournament in ohio waters of erie before the season opens.

[Revtro]

Personally I really like the digital scale idea. One of the guys in my last club objected because he didn't think all the scales would be close enough, but I'll be willing to bet that if we all had the same digital scale, they would be pretty darn close. Close enough for a friendly club where you aren't fishing for money anyway. If everyone is agreeable, I'd vote for that. I have a Rapala scale that I haven't had any problem with. Come to think of it, I think there are some scales that have culling features as well. That would make life easier. We could also have score cards to keep a written record as well just in case the scale's battery goes dead or something.