Well guys I am competive more so then many of my friends I don't allways agree with them but they are my friends. Yet in fact it comes to this several times it has been mentioned that we need to get more people involved so I post the reasons none of my friends will get involved. Beleive me if I could find a few guys willing to fish in these tournaments I would have allready been in several. What I really need is some thing to convince my friends to give it a try or some new friends to fish tournament with. As for the same guys don't regularly get into the money in AM and from the GH payouts posted make more money in AM then they might in Pro Spend A Buck placed 3rd at Mi City then won both St Joe and S Haven and compare the results from AM for those tournaments and you will see several boats in the money at most of them. Cut the prise money at the top of AM and more of these guys will move up.

2 thoughts

1) Get your friends together and get involved in the smaller 1 day tournaments that are around. Doing well in these will help you convince them to try the 2 day events.

2) Get in contact with the tournament committees for the 2 days events - volunteer to help out anyway you can or as an observer. Both are great ways to meet other anglers already involved.

Those are both great ideas Jen.

1 MAINIAC wrote:
some new friends to fish tournament with.

Yup, join a local salmon fishing club. You will find some guys that have the same desire as you.

Most my friends just like to fun fish. But when I wish to fish in a larger tournaments, I usually round up some of my fishing friends from my local salmon fishing club.

Thanks everyone seems kinda funny that most of my fishing buddies told me last year how much they hoped I would get this boat and do the tournaments. I guess they all assumed I was gonna pay for everything and if I had not gone over budget on the boat and had the economy not slowed my job down to the point that I took a lay off I might have paid the whole way. Anyhow it appears my tournament season just about closed for me I seriously doubt I can put together a team in time for Muskegon and as such not gonna trailer to the other events I planned on for the year. However if anyone wants to prefish Muskegon let me know I will be out there fishing at least a couple times a week. Unless my job situation changes or I win the lottery I will finish the season fishing for fun out of my home port of Muskegon.
TIGHT LINES

Since you fish Muskegon and are looking into fishing a tournament I would suggest going to www.greatlakesfisherman.com and look for the dreamweaver charity thread. They are having a small one day tournament out of Muskegon with proceeds going to a good cause. It would be a good way to get a crew's feet wet and maybe catch the fever. Also, talk to some of the pro captains on this forum. I believe the Muskegon Tournament requires observers. It is a great way to meet new people and pick up new tricks. I cannot tell you the amount of subtle changes that have upped my catch. You give up a weekend of catching your own fish but you are on the water.

Thanks Hammock I signed up for the rest of Rich's events sounds like fun and maybe can findsome future team members there.

Your Welcome. Have fun.

Here is my two cents. Have a second AM division for smaller boats similar to South Haven. With todays technology there is no reason to ever have any boat run out in a Thunderstorm, that is irresponsible. I think more coverage of the AM teams, not just the winner would help promote more involvement.

Thanks,

Ray VanZytveld
Early Bird

Hi Early Bird welcome.
I don't totally agree that boat size should be the determining issue for a new class to fish in. I also think we should add a class to the Tournaments That is more entry level and based on fun to help build the sport. There are a lot of guys who would like to do this but lack the key ingreediants those being a good team a decent boat and the budget to fish with. The team is the most important part as I am finding out you need a group of friends you can count on to fish with you that can afford to help with the expenses. 3 or 4 guys can do just a well in a 18ft boat as in a 28ft boat maybe not as comfortable but they can move faster and catch just as many fish. My 26ft only runs a couple miles per hour faster than my underpowered 18ft did and so far does not catch anymore fish than the old boat did it just costs twice as much to fish and is much nicer to fish in. Still the only time I miss the old boat is at the gas pump. At the end of the day to me it comes down to this there is very little cost wise differance between PRO and AM and the chances of comming home with money are better in the AM so as long as some of these teams continue to do better in AM than they would in PRO there is no reason for them to make the move to PRO. The first thing I would do is redistribute the prise money and set a cap on AM Class winnings and move the money up to PRO Class. Thanks to Grand Haven for posting the payouts as it shows 11th in the AM pays the same as 7th in the PRO and if you take out the top prise in PRO there is way more money in the AM. So unless you are forced to fish PRO why would you if most of the money is in the AM which pays further down the field. Any how that is more than my allowed 2 cents worth so I will shut up and fish now and again thanks to Hammock for the info on the charity events I am now fishing in 4 small tournaments and will be trying to build a team for next season.
Tight Lines