CATT to expensive?

[Revtro]

I was considering fishing some CATT events on St. Clair this year until I saw their prices. Am I the only one who thinks a $55 membership fee is a little excessive? Heck, I only paid $25 for ABA and $25 for NBAA. And CATT's tourney prices are higher too. I guess if I were only fishing CATT, it wouldn't be a big deal. Anyone know why the heck the prices are so high? I think I'll stick with the other trails for now. I can't afford it all.

I was bored, so I just thought I'd complain about something. Sorry CATT.

[djkimmel]

Their membership fee is an exception compared to what we see from other sources. They have done some explaining on lakestclair.net about why it's higher such as you get two or three magazines including Bassin' - I don't remember the rest.

Not because I'm turned off or anything, I'm just not in the market for circuits at the moment personally so I haven't committed all the details to my limited memory storage space. A couple have talked to me about considering the tournament director thing, but I'm not sure if I want to do that again... been a long time since I was on that side of the fishing.

CATT says they have a higher payback at the ramp percentage-wise. I don't recall all the details of the the end-of-the-year stuff they put on. That could account for some of the higher fees too, but as far as their actual entry fees, they seemed to be to be in the same ballpark as a lot of circuits, less than the BFLs, federation, some GNT and other circuits that have been around for a while.

I think it always comes down to who's putting it on; how do they run it; what format it is; and what dates/waters do they fish for me.

Maybe someone from CATT will chime in here eventually. A couple of them come on the board off and on.

I hope they allow you your opinion if they do and use it as a way to explain why you should fish them...

[Alex]

d**n it's been a long time since I've been on here ;D

CATT has a 90% cash payback at the ramp. Along with several other giveaways. Including trolling motors, GPS's, baits etc. I don't think there is another trail offering more the 80% and some are much lower. The twenty extra bucks compared to other trails is not much when you consider the hundreds of additional bucks given away at the ramp and the amount of equipment brought to the weigh-ins to release fish in the best possible condition.

[CWINSIII]

Alex

Can you give me the payout at a CATT Tournament with twenty boats.

Thanks

Clare

[Alex]

I don't have the payout sheet handy...but will after Thursday night.

[djkimmel]

I assume there's a difference between the weeknight and weekend payouts?

I remember the first St. Clair weekend event paid something like $2400 for first place with 46 boats (I'm sure Alex will remember ;-).

I was at the dock around 11:30 AM that day having arrived late for my first visit of 2005 to St. Clair and ran into Dave Reault and Miles Hanley. They brought in a few small smallies for a special 11:30 weighin and won a really nice trolling motor. They both told me they had also brought back the first keeper largemouth about 15 minutes into the event and won a GPS unit for a total winnings of over $1,000. Not bad for only having boated about 10 pounds of bass up to that point. I don't know if they caught any bigger bass later to get some cash...

[Alex]

The payout is based on the entry fee. I'll post the Thursday weeknight series payout. It's $50 entry fee and $5 big bass. You can just do a multiple for the weekend and shootout series.

$$2783.34 Dan ;D..... that was for 1st place, 47 boats, $140 entry fee, at the opening day shootout. Plus all the payouts for big bass, 2nd-6th?, and all the prize giveaways Dan mentioned.

[djkimmel]

Gee? You seem to have the first place amount memorized down to the penny? ;D Congrats! And thanks for visiting.

[Alex]

Imagine that...weird