Club Meeting 2/1/10

Twin Rivers Bassmasters had their monthly meeting last night. It was an interesting meeting and there were some heated topics being debated for this years tournaments and the future of the club.

One issue was having the paper tournaments that counted for points. There are 2 paper tournaments in the clubs roster this year. The lake debated was lake Erie. The tournament is scheduled for June 5th and 6th. During that time you can only keep bass that are 18" and over.

A few of the members were arguing that paper tournament takes the fun out of the weigh in, as well as changes the actual weights of the weekend. They argued that you can catch an 18 inch fish that weighs 3 pounds or it can be a fat 18 inch fish that weighs 4 pounds. They also argued that we could have the tournament a few weeks later when the length limit drops down.

On the other side of the argument the other members said that there is an 18 inch length limit because it is one of the best times to fish that area. The bass are everywhere and will bite anything dropped at their noses. It makes for fun fishing and gives the less experienced anglers a chance to catch a lot of fish.

As a newcomer to the club I can see both points. My opinion however is that you are fishing for points to make the fish off and be the club leader at the end of the year. All of the other tournaments are weight not length tournaments. Also, if you are a decent angler you should be able to fish Lake Erie and find bass any time. We should schedule a fun trip for everybody to have fun and catch a bunch of fish at that time. If we are going to do a tournament at that time of the year we should use the length limit that is in effect at that time. Only 18"+ fish should be brought in and weighed. We don't go to lakes around here and say that any fish between 9 and 12 inches should be written on paper so that the less fortunate anglers can have a weighed in fish.

I'm not saying I won't fish the paper tournaments, I would love to get out on Erie and slay the crap out of Bass. There wouldn't be anything better, and the only way I could do that is if the club has the tournament at that time. There were members that are not rejoining this year due to the paper tournaments.

The other issue that was debated heavily is the future of the club. The main topics that were brought up were that there is not an incentive to remain a B.A.S.S. club anymore, and that there is not the camaraderie that there used to be in the club. There were quite a few members that will not be renewing their memberships this year.

All of the arguments seemed to point to one thing to me. This club is set up to fish club tournaments. There is no advancement past that as there used to be. In order to advance to any other level you must participate in the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation tournament trail or the Weekend Series. In the past camaraderie was built as the competition lead to the opportunity within the club to advance to a regional and even further. There are only a couple guys in the club that fish the Federation Nation trail and there is hardly any representation for Twin Rivers Bassmasters within B.A.S.S. besides that. Last year Twin Rivers did not compete at the State Chapter level.

One solution for that might be for the club to help with the dues and try to get some of the members to become active in the Federation Nation or Weekend series or compete attempt to get members to the State Chapter level in order to compete outside the club level. Part of my plan is that once I learn enough that I would feel confident is to fish the Federation Nation trail. I would use the club as a gateway so that I could compete, as you must be a member of a club to fish those tournaments.

The club also talked about switching to a FLW club. The other idea that was passed around was to not be affiliated with either as you have to pay dues each year and most of the guys just want to fish the club tournaments anyway.

I think the B.A.S.S. affiliation is a good drawing point for members still. I do wish the structure was different and the club tournaments counted for something more than bragging rights at the end of the year. I am joining the club to learn and fish with some guys that do well at many tournaments outside the club. I am fishing the FLW BFL series to learn but if I do well I could advance to regionals and even further.

In Twin Rivers Bassmasters, I think the clubs are for competitive fun. If you want to get serious, fish the Federation Nation or Weekend Series tournaments, the club sets up their schedule to keep those dates open. You could also fish the Opens.