Annual tournament

[Mike Noble]

I know there are a lot of issues to be dealt with on getting this all set up.  I understand the "expenses" involved with traveling.  I know we have people up here that don't want to spend the money for a Cross Lake or Cypress/Black Bayou boat sticker.

But we have to consider "all" of our members and since we are growing we are going to have to work with this.  I would not want any group left out.  I believe that this will grow to be a very, very large event each year.

One suggestion for clubs that need to cover expenses - have some sort of fund raiser.  I have already thought of this for our group in doing "pre-planning" on making a long trip.  I think that would go a long way to defer individuals out of pocket expenses.

[Jared LeBlue]

I agree with you Noble, we have to take everyone into consideration. I think a fund raiser to raise money for a club to take a trip is a great idea.

[Wildcat26]

I perfer the vote with the stipiluation that a club can repeat as host only every three or four years.

I also see the possiblity as this grows to holding regional tournaments with representatives from the regional going to a national.

[Jared LeBlue]

Now that would be awesome.

[Mike Cork]

Now WildCat you are talking, and the winning team at the regionals used the tournament moneys to pay the way. I enjoyed the format of the one we just had with no pay out but maybe a region would want to make a small donation to the travel kitty for the winning team somehow.

What about the winning team gets to host the next one unless they decline. But if they win that one two what are we going to do? I would prefer no back to back clubs holding it. SO, if the host team one then second place gets to host if they choose too? Just some ideas...... Whats everyones thoughts?

[Mike Noble]

I have no doubt that this tournament will grow to someday having regionals and championships.  But for now, I personally like the idea of allowing clubs to enter a bid for the tournament and a selection process take place.  Things we need to consider are location of course, but also places that have "rooms" very nearby and the area needed for "feeding" and socializing.

In looking at this area, there are not that many lakes with places to stay and areas for the other activities.

And I definitely agree with no back to back tournaments in the same place.  We need to spread it around to give everyone a chance to host and participate.

[Jared LeBlue]

Here's an idea. We pick the club to host this year either by vote or let the champions host it. At the end of the tournament everyone that is in a club puts their name, ticket, whatever in a hat. Someone draws and whatever person is drawn that club host the next tournament. The current host are not eligible for this drawing. The reason we use members names rather than just the club it will be an incentive to have more members at the tournament. The more members you have at the tournament the better your chances of getting drawn. This way you would also have had to participate in an event before you are eligible to host.

[bocraw]

I like Mike and Wildcats ideas.  The club who finishes the highest place in the UBCS, who hasn't hosted the UBCS in the last three years, earns the right to host the tournament.  This year that club is Twin Cities.  If this thing grows the system can be modified to have regional and national tournaments.

As for travel expenses, each club would need to address that in its own way.  I think a good idea is for the top six anglers in angler of the year point standings win some funding and the honor of representing your respective club at the Ultimate Bass Club Shootout.  But that is just an idea I have for my club.  Again, each club should handle it in its own way.

Let me ask you guys this:  Is the format of weighing the 10 heaviest fish the way to go?  The other way I read about it being done is for the top three bags from each team being used for the team part of the competition.  I can think of advantages and disadvantages to each way.  And my second question is do you want to have a maximum number of teams per club?  I was just thinking that you may want to limit the number of teams one club can have just in case you end up with a situation where it is 20 teams vs 5 teams vs 3 teams.  Maybe limit it to like 8 teams per club?  I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but I couldn't resist tossing it out while I'm thinking about this stuff.  You have to look out once the analytical ball gets rolling in my head.

[Wildcat26]

I do not know about limiting it.  I would hate to tell anyone that wanted to fish that they couldn't.  As far as saying the winning team will host next year that can cause problems.  We tried that with our annual golf tournament but some times the winners did not want to put out the work it took and we had a bad tournament.  I think we are better off letting a club volunteer.

[Mike Cork]

BO and Wildcat both have great points. This is great information, thoughts and ideas KEEP it coming guys and gals. We in the military call it brain storming - writing down all the random thoughts you can and then going back and working them out.

Wildcat, you are right some teams may not want to host the tournament but they could decline and go down the list of places until you find a club that wants to or maybe the draw would be a good idea.

BO, I agree that one, we shouldn't limit particapation and two we do need to look at your point about 20 vs 3 the ten fish per team would work but you are still limited if you only have 6 people fish instead of 40 but that might help draw up particapation in it's self.

Keep them coming guys the are all great points and ideas.....

[Mike Noble]

We in the military call it brain storming

Is that done best with or without beer?

I think we need a list of all the clubs interested in hosting, just to see what the possibilities are.

[Jared LeBlue]

We have been thinking of tweaking the format a little but nothing is in writing yet. One thing we looked at is letting a team fish the tournament even if they are not in a club. Not everybody on the board belongs to a club. They would be able to participate in the team competition but obviously not in the club competition. Like I said that's not in writing but it was one thing we were considering. THe main thing we have to focus on right now is getting a host club and deciding how to do it and keep it a standard from here on out. I like the idea of the winning club hosting the tournament the next year. Like Mike said if they don't wish to do it fine we go down the list from that point. Remember one thing the host club picks the lake or river to fish, it doesn't neccessarily have to be in their back yard. As long as they can provide the accomidations and put everything together that's all that matters. This last tournament we basically lucked out on where the cabins were in relations to the launch and eachother. I had a back up plan but this worked out perfect. My point to all this is we need to get this started ASAP so whoever host this thing has plenty of time to make sure everything is the way it needs to be. Unfortunately we can't always depend on luck. 

[Wildcat26]

A lot of lakes will not have accomodations.  Some times we will just have to settle of less than Lock Jaw provided.

[MotherNature]

I really thing that with a little planning we can deal with anything Just like here there are some lakes that have great accomodations right on the lake and then there are those that have nothing. In my opinion it is important that the members are all able to stay somewhere together otherwise it kind of defetes the purpose of getting together. Again just my opinion but I think that should be consideration when the lake or water way is chosen.

Laurie

[Jared LeBlue]

I agree with Laurie it's just going to get harder as it gets bigger.

[DundeeMike]

Well, after reading some of these posts, I need to put my suggestions in. First of all, why not rotate each year, north, south, north, south, and so on. and, have a special award to the team or club that traveled the farthest to the tourney.. 4th, If you need any kind of help, I am willing to help, Our club holds an annual open team tourney, and it is getting pretty large. We do this for a club fund raiser.We have some good sponsors now and we have some heavy hitters that are going to join our sponsors, like Mc Cormick, Land O Lakes, Busch beer, and progessive insurance. The point is Myself and my club members are willing to help with the planning of the next tournament. Lastly, Me and some club members will fish the next tourney and show you Southern boys and Gals, how to catch fish, as long as it isn't in Alaska....... Ps. The earlier you can set a date and place, the better..

[Mike Cork]

Dundee, woooow Alaska I don't think if will be a problem NOT fishing there. Although we have an Alaska thread on the forum no one has used it yet don't believe there are to many bass up that way 

Sounds like you all have a very strong club going, I love hear that the sponsors are starting to work with the clubs I think that is outstanding.

As far as the north south thing, definately. I am all about fishing new and exciting waters and with enough time to plan we should be able to have a great showing and a great time once again. I can't help but wonder if a meet in the middle wouldn't be the best way to go for the next one.

Everyone keep brain storming, we are going to come up with a fair way to do this yet. I greatly apreciate everyones inputs so keep them coming.

[DundeeMike]

Mike, I think the middle somewhere would be the only fair way to do this. Then if you want to, let the winnig club host it, or do the flip flop thing, satrting the following year. The next tourney should be reasonably accessible to all the members. I think the next tourney could be the catapult to make this tourney a huge success.

[BIG PAPA]

My thought on traveling that far is this. Do we want to do it in only the second year. Do we want to do it if we only scratch up 3-4 clubs. nuff said on that, just my thoughts.
Now I do feel that if we want to go the regional and National thing. we are obviously going to have to have several "regionals" and yes if this is going to take off you are going to have to provide some incentive to the regional team. You are not likely to grow to those numbers if you have to poor boy the tournaments, for the chance to fish a regional and then a national tourney series. I would say it would cost at least a thousand dollars a team to travel 12 to 15 hundred miles and stay 4-5 days,( I would not even consider going that far and spending that kind of money without prefishing) so if I am going to spend that kind of money and I am fortunate enough to win I would like for the tourney committee to pay for my trip to the Nationals I feel the winning club deserves it Before we could do that we would have to have 20 or so clubs anyway and we would simply have to RAISE the entry fee.
I will more than likely fish anywhere (Trey says so) but it would be hard to justify if we only had a few teams.
I know I will hear arguments about how much fun we had , and yes we had a ball, but we all have families and little vacation time. It will take quite a commitment from us and our families to justify that kind of time and money.
So I guess what I am trying to say is this; I am committed to helping this grow into a wonderful tourney, I just think that a little growing time "may" be required before we go traipsing all over the country.
Besides I don't think you will get a huge turnout without some monetary incentive at the end.
I will probably fuss and grouse a little (or a lot) but I love fishing with you guys and Girls so I am there if the clubs are there

papa

[Mike Noble]

I don't think we will be going "regional and national" in the next year or two.  But we have to start somewhere...which we did this year.  But now the we have clubs in Maryland, Florida, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas (and I probably missed some)...plus members in a lot of other states...well, somebody is going to be driving (unless we could use some B-52's to load the boats and trucks in and fly them to the location).

I don't have a problem with traveling.  I agree with Papa that I am going to want some pre-fishing time so it could develop into a week long trip.  And that would equate to $$$$$.

That is why I have been thinking about fund raising or even sponsors.  I believe a club could raise some decent money with a couple of fund raisers.

And Papa...you fuss 

[bassadict69]

My main concern with traveling more than a few hours away is money. I would love to say I could go anywhere to fish but the money thing is what limits where I can go.
Judging by the amout of money it costed me this past weekend  to go to Calcasieu for 2-3 days, I can say I would not have been able to go much further away.

A club fund raiser, open tourney, or something along those lines would really help those of us that basically living paycheck to paycheck and don't have alot of $$$ to spare. Something else that came to mind is maybe either slightly increasing our entry fees or lowering the payout to help save a little $$$ to HELP pay everyones way. This would only barely touch the total costs, but every little bit helps!

[Jared LeBlue]

Everyone has come up with some good advice so far but lets take a logical and serious look at this. First of all this is not an attack on Dundee or the anyone else from the North, but at this point there are quite abit more people from the South registered on the site. I for one would love to see the site grow especially in the Northern region but right now does have a larger group from the Southern region. With that said we need to take a few things into consideration. One this year we had it down South and we had 21 people fish the tournament. Out of that there were two clubs that participated. I'm wondering if we had a tournament up North how many people would fish and how many clubs. I and hopefully several members from my club would fish up North but for now I can only speak for myself. And to clarify things I mean the Northern region,  I'm not talking about North Louisiana. Also remember this year you will have to be registered on the Ultimate Bass  website in order to fish the tournament. Dundee my Northern coonass brother I would love to fish up there but I really don't think we will have a big draw, at least not this year. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think so.

[Mike Cork]

We do have several members from the northern area, I believe there are two or three clubs fairly close to each other, I will have to dig a bit but I am sure there are at least two which is what we had in the south. I agree with everything that was said so far from it is going to cost, to living paycheck to paycheck and a fund raiser would be necessary, to there are that many clubs involved yet, vacation time, family to the trapese move that Papa talked about  and most importantly pre fish time. If I am going to travel I want to have time to enjoy my fishing during the adventure.

Keep the ideas and thoughts coming guys. I realize it may seem like we are spinning our wheels here but it is all starting to add up. There are ideas flowing about how to get the money (fund raisers, sponsors) There are ideas about how to pick the next one (winning club, ticket drawing of those present, north then south). I think I need to break a map out and figure out where dead center is and go from there 

[Ron Fogelson]

I read all the post from front to back, & see that I missed a great time this year in the 1st ever shoot-out, but after just returning from Iraq I couldn't tell my wife I was going fishing rather then go on vacation to see her parents. 

Now that we all know how much fun we can have when we get together, and we know how much work it is to put on a good tournament. (Some of you more then others, like me, never done one) we need to get a club to host the next years.  That's it; we have to decide who is going to host it, period.  We can worry out how far away it is, where are we going to stay, what lake to fish, & so on and so forth, later.  1st is who!  Now as best as I can see so far we have 2 teams ponying up to the plate, DundeeMike's team and TCTC.  I suggest that Laurie or some other competent authority make a deadline for clubs to submit there intent to host.  In the submission to host you would be required to tell us all why you would make a good host. I.E. what lake/rive we would be fishing & why it would be good for us.  Some accommodation options for get together places, sponsors, and so on.  Once that deadline is met and we have all the submissions we take about a week for each club to decide where they would want to go based on all the details, location, price of travel intended turnout, the tournament forum you know, weigh the pros and cons. Once each club votes on where to go then the club submits its one Club vote.  That way it isn't north verses south or east against west.  It is a club shoot out so the clubs should decide, not each member on the board individually.  This will also give us the best foresight on next years tournament cause the clubs will have to put out its intentions and plans well in advance and if a club doesn't make the cut this time it will know better next time on what it needs to do different to get a better chance at making to cut.  Just like the cities hosting the Olympics, they have to sell them selves to get the booking.  What do you think?

Just my rambling Ideas!
Play Nice or Die!
Fogy 

[MotherNature]

Fogy I actually think that is a great  There are three maybe four clubs that I think would like to host the tournament, there is Dundee's Club, TCTC, Bo Crawfords Club, and PJ Lures said they might be interested. Now here is the deal though we have a lot of members but as far as the clubs there are not that many on the board all the time. I know that a few people from each club stop by now and then but they are really individuals visiting the forum.

Geees there are so many things and I think you are right there needs to be a deadline and we need to figure it out. Here's my goal guys I would like to have the host team picked by the end of this month. That way they have a lot of time to think about what they and we can do to make the next tournament the success that the first one was.

I do know what it is like to put on tournaments and I have done so for over 80 teams at one time before so please when I say I know about the considerations, there is nothing like having 80 teams, 160 people comming at you with their ideas and we ran that just like we do this board - with open minds and ears.

I have sent some info to Rattle (Events Team Captain) and lets see what he thinks about it and we will go from there. I do think that we need to set a deadline and I think I just did that