Atlanta Saltwater Fishing Club Mtg 2/12/08

Next Tuesday 2/12/08 at 7pm will be the first Atlanta Saltwater Sportsman's Club meeting of the year.

If you love Saltwater fishing and are anywhere near Atlanta, check out this club. They have 7 tournaments a year ( just competing for a plaque and bragging rights). They meet every month Feb - Nov with guest speakers and "How To sessions".

There is no cost to come to a meeting, so drop by and see what the club has to offer.

http://aswsc.org

Here is the 2008 schedule: (most trips are 2 or 3 days of fishing)

January 9 - 12 Sailfish Classic Tournament
West Palm Beach, FL

April 9 - 12 Venice, LA Tournament
Venice, LA

May 8 - 10 Apalachicola Tournament
Apalachicola, FL

June 1 - 7 Florida Keys Tournament
(week long)

July 17 - 19 Orange Beach Tournament
Orange Beach, AL

August 28 - 31 Duel at Destin Tournament
Ft. Walton Beach, FL

October 2 - 4 Pensacola Tournament
Pensacola, FL

Monthly Meeting
2nd TUESDAY of each month, February - November
Winfield Hall, 3890 Satellite Blvd, Duluth, GA

How does this work?

I may attend Tues. meeting. However, I assume you are a member and hope you have time for a few questions. In the past I have put together a several charter fishing trips and one of the biggest problems I have getting a group together is simply the cost. Have you attended any tournaments? What the average cost of the tournament?
Does the club reserve charter boats in the area or are these members boats? Are you randomly assigned fishing
partners or can you choose? Thanks for your time.
And even if you do not have the time thanks for the link.

I'll be there. Thanks for making me aware of this club.

Skip

The Atlanta SaltWater Sportsman’s Club (ASWSC) is made up of about 100 families.

The majority of the members have their own boats, but there are definitely others who do not.

The tournaments are where members bring their own boats. I have heard of times where people arranged charters.

The good part about the club is that they try to put together people who need crew with people who need boats for every tournament. They have a board of who is looking for a boat or who is looking for crew posted at each meeting. People are not randomly assigned to boats.

The tournaments are not huge and there will be about 7-15 boats per tournament. Some boats will have 1 member and his friends and other boats will have 4 or 5 members on them.

When I first joined the club, I did not have a boat but went to Destin, West Palm, Venice La, and Orange Beach multiple times on other member's boats.

I know when I fish an ASWSC tournament, I want to have 3 other people on my boat to not only help fish/drive/gaff/clear the lines, but to also share expenses. The more I can keep costs down, the more trips I can afford to take.

The club charges about $110 for a boat to enter a tournament. (includes the Captain and 1 other angler, with additional anglers being $45 each) The cost covers awards given out, shirts for every angler for each tournament, food at the Captains Party, and and food at the award dinner.

As far as other costs, a lot depends on the location. When I take my boat with myself and 3 other anglers, we split all costs by 4. ( food, rooms, bait, ice, fuel for truck, gas for the boat, etc) I have been fortunate enough to fish with some people who own places at the beach, so we save money on rooms.

The club also does save members money by arranging discount rooms at hotels for each tournament or arranging for free dock slips.

In addition to the tournaments, many club members put together side trips. One year I went on 5 trips but none of them were tournaments. These trips may be charter trips, international trips, or just trips to the ocean with member's boats. One club member even owns a charter business in Cabo and is trying to put together club trip.

The tournaments are for fun and we compete for bragging rights and a plaque. The good part about it is that information is openly shared. I have been called on the radio and told to come over to a spot where they were catching yellowfin tuna.

The club even tries to make sure that if a captain has never been to a location, they have someone assigned to be a point person for all questions.

Hopefully this answers your questions.

Feel free to come to a meeting and see what the club is about. (no cost to come to a meeting)

The membership is only $50 per year per family.

Also a club member here. There is usually room on boats for anglers to participate in tournaments. The club would be a good place to network for folks wanting to arrange trips and split costs on charters.

Just to be clear however, charters aren't allowed to participate in tournaments as utilizing a local professional captain would be an unfair advantage over regular folks trailering in from Atlanta.

Hope to meet you at the meeting Tuesday night. If you want some flavor of the previous tournaments, look at previous newsletters available on the club website, and I have some reports from them posted on my website also.

Answered very clearly. Thanks for the info.
Sounds good. I'll try to make the meeting.
And thanks again for the link.

I hope you can make next Tuesday's meeting. If not, we meet the 2nd Tuesday of every month from February to November. (no mtg in Dec due to Christmas party and no mtg in January due to the tournament in West Palm for sailfish and the boat show)

Looking forward to meeting you both at the meeting tonight.
PM sent.

re: Meeting Tonight, ASWSC

BTW, we have the privilege of having Brian Evans of RDO Marketing speak that meeting at 7pm tonight. Brian will be speaking tonight about saltwater lines he represents including Eagle Claw's saltwater tackle and Seagar Fluorocarbon. Hope to see you there.

If you need directions ... http://www.aswsc.org/Directions%20to%20Meetings.htm

I went to the ASWSC meeting last night. Joined. Met some folks. After only one meeting, I would have say if you are into any kind of saltwater fishing the ASWSC could benefit you in some way or another (from new rules & reg.s to just networking w/ other anglers). I will try to post again after wetting a line with some of these folks. Thanks again
Saltwaterfish & $ea $ickne$$.

Thanks Ironman. Sorry I was so distracted running things. Hope we can wet a line soon!