Bass Club Digest

The tournament format of a bass club usually determines what you are going to get out of your club. Whether federated or independent, most clubs throughout the country run tournaments either in a draw or team format. Both formats have advantages and disadvantages so you must decide which type best suits your goals for fishing.

Two clubs that offer contrasting tournament formats are the Simply Bass Club of Eldon, Mo., and the Ozark Mountain Anglers of Columbia, Mo. Simply Bass is a BASS Federation Nation club that has about 20 members and attracts six to seven boats for its draw tournaments. The independent Ozark Mountain Anglers Club has approximately 100 members with about 30 boats showing up for each of its team events.

Let’s look at the plusses and minuses of each club’s tournament format.

Draw tournaments
Fishing in a draw-format club gives members their best chance to learn about their favorite sport.

“It makes you think. You have to depend on yourself and not somebody else all the time,” says Harold Stark, Simply Bass Club president. “It keeps you from fishing in the same place over and over again. It keeps your mind sharp because you just don’t do the same thing and go to the same places all the time. Plus I always felt it was healthy to have a little bit of competition in the boat. Also, you learn to work with other people.”

Stark believes the draw format best suits new members just getting started in bass fishing.

“I think the draw format works the best because they learn faster from different people since everybody fishes a little bit differently,” he says. “So they have more of an opportunity to learn new things at a quicker pace. If they want to try out some techniques they are not familiar with, there is always someone in the club who knows how to do that or has an idea of what is going on.”

The newcomer usually gets a chance to fish with all the club veterans. “That’s the way it is in our club. You don’t fish with the same partner two tournaments in a row,” says Stark. “When you draw out, you fish with at least somebody different until the new rotation starts.”

The draw format could also be best for longtime club members, according to Stark. He believes the draw format brings in new blood with fresh ideas that keep the crusty veterans in the club from getting too stale.

Some drawbacks do occur when clubs pair up partners though. “Some guys are uncomfortable fishing with new people,” Stark says.

Some pairings fail to work because the partners have trouble getting along or one takes over the boat and never gives the other an equal chance to fish. “That happens on occasions and there are some conflicts,” admits Stark.
Some distrust also arises in a draw format when the boater takes a non-boater to a productive spot and the non-boater shows the spot to his next partner. “It is a learning process,” says Stark, who sees this problem on his home waters of Lake of the Ozarks.

“Everyone is learning that everybody already knows the lake. There is nobody that has their own spot on the lake. We do an honor system in that if we know a guy is fishing a certain spot and catching fish we stay out of it.”
Hard feelings can also develop in a draw situation if a non-boater constantly casts towards the front of the boat. “Casting over someone is not illegal, but everybody in the boat has to work together,” Stark says. “Each guy should have equal time in the front of the boat and if they can’t get along then they both need to go home. The guy in the back has to respect the guy in the front as much as the guy in the front has to respect the guy in the back. It all boils down to a matter of learning to work together, and I think that’s why the draw tournaments work the best.”

Stark’s club sometimes encounters a problem of having an unequal amount of boaters and non-boaters for tournaments. “We don’t have enough non-boaters sometimes, so we have two boaters fish together and they decide whose boat they are going to take out,” he says. “That seems to work out fine because we have very few disputes over that issue.”

Team tournaments
Gene Hinshaw and Ernie Barbee have been partners in Ozark Mountain Anglers team tournaments for 10 years. “We have a good time when we fish our tournaments and every once in a while we get lucky and win a little money,” says Hinshaw, the club’s president.

“But that’s not the reason we fish. We fish because we like it and have a good time doing it.”

The buddy system best suits Hinshaw and his fellow club members. “You don’t have the question about if you are going to get along with the other guy,” he says. “You get to pair up with someone that you enjoy fishing with, and your styles are at least compatible.

It also makes planning for the tournaments easier.”

Hinshaw started in a draw-format club and noticed there were occasional disputes between partners over splitting the cost of expenses. He believes the team format eliminates this issue since club members are fishing with their buddies every tournament.

The buddy system also prevents the hole jumping problem that occurs in draw tournaments. Team partners already know the same spots and are more inclined to share new spots with their buddy rather than a stranger.

The team format gives club members a good opportunity to get their families involved in competitive fishing as well. “We have had several fathers who have had their sons or daughters as their partners,” says Hinshaw. “That is a pretty neat way to spend their time together.” Husbands and wives or guys and their girlfriends have fished together in the club’s team tournaments. The club also allows the team members to use wives, siblings or friends as alternates if one of the team members is unable to fish a tournament.

The Ozark Mountain Anglers get a two-for-one deal when they recruit new members. Hinshaw notes prospective members can join up individually but they are required to find a partner for the season. “That could be a downside though for someone wanting to join the club in that they would have to find a partner to join the club too,” says Hinshaw. If someone in the club loses a partner before the tournament season begins, the club will help the member find a new partner by putting a notice in the club’s newsletter.

The team format has helped the Ozark Mountain Anglers retain members throughout the years. Some members fish with the same partners for years, but Hinshaw notices that everyone gets acquainted with the other club members as well. “Some of the guys in the club do switch partners on a fairly regular basis,” says Hinshaw. “So it is not like everyone comes in with a partner and stays with them.”

Team tournaments eliminate the problem of trying to match up boaters and non-boaters in a club. “I think the majority of the guys in our club have a boat,” says Hinshaw. “They either take turns using their boats or just work it out between themselves.”

Hinshaw admits the team format might not be the best option for a novice. “Your opportunities to learn new techniques are limited because you fish with the same guy all of the time,” he says. “When a beginning angler comes into a buddy situation he is going to learn from that one guy obviously and if he happens to have a buddy who is good, that probably works.”

Choosing the right bass club for you comes down to what you want out of fishing. If you want to learn more about the sport and aspire to become a pro, a club with draw tournaments best suits your needs. If you want to have fun fishing with a buddy or family member a team-format club is your best bet.

Dealing with disputes

In a perfect world, partners in either draw or team tournaments get along well in every tournament they fish. But nobody is perfect and spats over various issues do occur in all clubs.

“We are a pretty small club so we don’t have too much of a problem with conflicts,” says Harold Stark, president of the Simply Bass Club. “It can become an ordeal in some clubs because people will get mad and quit the club.” Stark believes building a club with strong leadership is the best way for draw-format clubs to resolve disputes among the members.

His club requires its members to attend the pre-tournament pairing meeting so partners can discuss their plans. This requirement helps the non-boaters know what tackle and gear to bring and how much they might be charged for expenses.

Ozark Mountain Anglers President Gene Hinshaw believes the team format virtually eliminates bickering among members over hole jumping or expenses. “If you and your partner can’t come to some sort of agreement about expenses that is okay with both of you, then you are just not going to fish together,” he says.

The club usually prevents partners with irreconcilable differences from splitting their team in the middle of the season by requiring the team to compete in seven of the club’s 10 tournaments to qualify for the fish-off. The disgruntled partners can fish by themselves in the remaining tournaments, but only one team member can claim the team points from previous events to qualify for the fish-off. “I don’t know what we would do if they both wanted to try that,” says Hinshaw.

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