I have been a bass club member since the early 1990s and have seen several styles of operation, but none so far have been like the CA bass clubs near me.
Just to make things clear, I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong here or anything that needs fixing, just different from what I have been used to; a different way of thinking, a different motivation, and a different dynamic. I am a supporter that each club should be exactly what it wants to be, without any kind of interference or direction from anyone outside the club membership. And if any member falls into the minority of that Libertarian viewpoint, well then they can easily start up another club, form it however they see fit, and see how many members they can draw.
I have an earlier article on FishExplorer
from a few years back about how to find a bass club that fits your own style
and needs: Anatomy
of a Bass Club. My
search for a new California club began last year on the day I found out that I
would be moving here, and it has been an ongoing journey.
My
first club was in Missouri when I lived in Kansas City. Missouri is a bass fishing state, to say the
least. In the early 90s there was only
one BASS Federation and the MO membership was well over 5,000 in clubs
everywhere. When I decided I wanted to
join a club it was for one reason only: I wanted to go fishing. Back then I fished several times a year, but
I wanted to go several times a month. I
had a few friends I sometimes fished with but they were also infrequent in
their outings. Joining a club provided
the format, and being a member gave me no excuses, I could go bass fishing
almost every month and meet others who knew how.
The MO club was the Smithville
Bassmasters, so named after the town and local lake just
north of Kansas City, MO. By comparison
to any other club I have been involved with it was gigantic with over 175
members and the largest BASS Federation club in the world for several
years. The membership fee was only $50
per year and a normal club tournament had a $35 entry fee and over 70 boats
with a draw format (boaters and non-boaters would be randomly paired together
for the day.) No one could fish alone
and pairing was required. At first, the
Smithville Bassmasters only fished one lake (Smithville) on one day (a Sunday)
each month between April and October.
Billed
as the working man’s club with no travel, no overnights, low entry fees, and
only one weekend a month, it was very attractive for a lot of anglers for many
reasons. Some like me were new and
working stiffs who did not have the funds or the time to travel. Others liked to fish the big tournaments in
MO with big payouts, so having a local club like this kept the other weekends
open and provided a means of fishing more often locally without the expense of
the bigger events, (though Smithville Bassmasters events were often larger than
some of the regional “semi-pro” operations at the time and sometimes even paid
out better despite the lower entry fee.)
Eventually the club began incorporating visits to other lakes and some
overnight events because, frankly, only fishing one place can get old.
My
first bass club holds fond memories for me; my first tournament check, my first
bass over six pounds, and my conversion from Zebco 33’s and spinning reels to
baitcasting outfits. I used to go to the
lake for a Smithville Bassmasters event with my rods strapped to the backrest
of a motorcycle and my tackle box strapped to the seat! After 6 years in the club I had grown from my
Plano Topsider tackle box to my very own Champion 171 full of more tackle than
I could carry. A year after purchasing
my first boat I moved to bass fishing purgatory, Colorado.
In
1997 I moved to Denver, CO, which caused me to wonder if I would have to sell the
boat and replace it with waders and a buggy whip rod. Thankfully I was wrong. I stopped into a local boat dealer and they
told me about the Denver
Bassmasters. This
club was similar in format to the Smithville club and provided a comfortable
transition since the old-timers at the Denver Bassmasters (formed in 1971)
welcomed every new member.
During my time in Denver I had been a member of several bass clubs, but
always a member of DBM, which also featured a draw tournament format with low
yearly dues and low tournament fees. We
always said that club fishing was for fun and learning and if you won a club
tournament you might get your gas money out of it. Over the next 15 years the club maintained
the philosophy that it was a teaching club and encouraged new members to join
and has always supported its youth club, the Denver Jr. Bassmasters. As a Denver Bassmaster I learned how to
finesse fish from anglers who had done so for a long time, I made the Colorado
State Team several times and attended my first BASS Nation Western Divisional
Tournament, and I held almost every club and/or state federation officer
position.
At
one time a group within the Denver Bassmasters wanted to do things a little
different from DBM, which had consistently maintained about 65 members in my
time there, so the Colorado Bassmasters was formed and lasted for several years
and I was invited to join this offshoot which had about 10-15 members, most of
whom also maintained membership in DBM.
The Colorado Bassmasters was a small club all about having fun with the
buds. Monthly meetings consisted of
about 15 minutes in the living room of one member’s home where ‘business’ was
conducted and any important club plans were made or state federation details
were imparted. After that, the attendees
would adjourn to the basement to play pool, darts, and have what amounted to a
monthly party. Dues and entry fees were
low, club drama was almost non-existent, and having a good time was paramount. Good times will be remembered fondly.
I
used to fish the Bassmaster
Weekend Series when it had a Kansas division. The Kansas Division drew quite a few boats
from the Front Range (east slope) of Colorado and when that Division ended a
group of Colorado bass anglers decided they would start their own circuit
instead of having to drive to eastern Oklahoma or Missouri to find one. Thus the 5280 BassHunters was formed.
5280 BassHunters was
unique in that it basically had two purposes: to conduct a bass tournament
circuit and to support a junior club, the 5280 Jr. BassHunters. The founding members organized a team
tournament circuit and the club joined the TBF Federation resulting from the
recent BASS Federation split. During the
operation of the 5280 BassHunters tournament circuit I learned a lot about fishing
team tournaments, how to conduct bass tournaments, and maintaining a balance
between the organization’s goals,
angler participation and sponsor
obligations. Eventually the circuit
started by the club became independent because, in reality, a club with well
over 60 members was relying on about 5 people who actually did all the work to
operate a 150 member circuit, and staying affiliated with one federation
organization was limiting the participation for a lot of anglers in Colorado. That is how the Rocky Mountain Team Series
became a reality, with the earlier version a testing and learning ground for
those conducting the events.
I
knew of the Ventura County Bass Club
because of its members who had attended BASS Nation Western Divisional events
that I was also at. When I moved to
Ventura County, CA I found the club’s information on the internet and went to a
meeting the first month I was here.
Since I was used to being a member of both bass club affiliations, BASS
Nation and TBF/FLW, I also looked up the local TBF affiliated club, the West Valley Bass Club.
I
joined the Ventura Club and fished my first California Lake, Castaic, in
January, and quickly learned that California bass are as different as
California Bass Clubs, but that is a different article! I will likely join the TBF affiliated club,
too, but this first year, having to deal with the relocation, finding a home,
starting a business, etc., I thought it best to curtail my tournament season
somewhat.
The first thing I noticed is that while clubs I have joined in the past
had a $50-65 membership fee, the CA club fees are $200 and more! What I have learned is that the bass clubs I
know about here do not have club tournaments with entry fees and payouts, so no
portion of entry fees are raising funds for the club. Club tournaments are strictly for fun and
bragging rights and not prizes.
I also gather that lake permits are much,
much higher than the states I have been in before, where permits fees were
$25-30 per event. Some of the fees here
are 10-times that amount. Welcome to
California style regulation and taxation, I guess. In the end, there are more club events but
they don’t have extra fees to attend them, so the yearly fee total seems to
even out in the end.
Three of the past clubs were quite large and were always looking to grow
larger by encouraging new members. The
CA clubs near me seem to be small and happy to stay that way. Not that new members are not welcome, as I
was welcomed and encouraged after attending each of the local clubs near me,
the Ventura County Bass Club and the West Valley Bass Club. But actively seeking new members do not seem
to be as important.
One huge difference in CA from CO is that there are a lot of competing
organizations out here to choose from and a lot of money events with different
formats, pro/am or team or shared weight draw, that I am not used to. Where I most recently came from, heck, we had
to start our own circuit just to have one!
As
I am getting used to my new dynamic I am sure I will discover many more new and
interesting differences about bass clubs.
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