Thursday Trail - Oconee, Sinclair, and Jackson

[CRBass]

We had a lot of requests for a weekday trail, so we made it happen. If everything goes well, we will keep it going next year and may even expand. Let me know what you think.

 

[bigbass07]

i will be there on the 16th. so how will it work if there is only one man is it 50.00 or 100.00 per boat. if its 50.00 for one man in the boat by himself it may cause a problem with the teams that pay 100.00

 

[CRBass]

It is 50.00 for a Single Angler, 100.00 for a Two Angler team. I did it this way to level the playing field for the amount of anglers that will be fishing this alone. It makes the teams put up twice the entry to have twice the number of lines in the water. This was the only way to allow teams to fish and still be fair to the single anglers. The only other choice was to allow co-anglers (non draw) to compete against the guys in the front of the boats (like a club tournament). I am just not down with that.

 

[CRBass]

This is our pilot season for this series. So input is welcome.

 

[bigbass07]

thats cool with me . your only negative feed back is that there gonna say that he put up 50 to win 1000 and they put up 100 to win 1000 . i like it cause i have a chance to win as much as they do for half the money

 

[CRBass]

That is what will happen, but the teams that fish should realize it is the only way we could make it fair for single anglers.

 

[Hunter Haven]

I more than likely won't be able to attend any of these, but I don't see it working as it is. The one man $50.00 entry versus a 2 man $100.00 will not ever draw you a good crowd. It simply just doesn't work. Think about all other tx.'s. None of them are setup like this for that very reason....

Every entry fee must and needs to be the same in order for it to work and draw the crowds that come back to you. Think about it this way... Let's even use your summer weekend tx. let's say your next tx. is Saturday on ?Oconee, ?Sinclair, ?Jackson, whereever, and you have an angler show up to register before blastoff. let's just say his partner suddenly couldn't make it for unknown reasons.... you still have to charge the one angler the same entry fee as all other anglers to make it fair and allow the system to work........ you can't and don't tell that angler, well I know your partner was supposed to be here, so I will let you compete for all paid places if you only give me half the entry fee...????

Clay, not trying to stir the pot, but in order to draw a good Thursday crowd with tx. hours from daylight to 1 pm(which by the way already will limit your boat numbers drastically), you will definatly have to keep the entrie fees the same for all "boats" present just as any other organized tx. schedule will do.... just food for thought. I also personally do not think you will draw very many boats no matter if you do indeed make the entry fee the same per boat on any given thursday with tx. hours of daylight till 1pm tx....???? No way the demand in this day and time could possibly be there in order to draw a heavy crowd...

Goodluck with your trail. I think you have a payout structure designed that will attract fisherman in the long run, but gaining the exposure and getting them on board will be the hardest ppart of it. Keep it fair, stick it out, get the fishermen aware and comitted, run a honest and fair tx. everywhere you go and it will work, but it takes time to build a trail and it will not come easy....

 

[CRBass]

Haven,

Thanks for the input. However, there are quite a few tournaments that are set up with entry fees like, they just are not on major bodies of water. Many of the small water trails are set up just this way.
I am putting on this trail by the request of many of the older anglers, retired anglers, and anglers that don't llike to fish weekends. This was not meant to draw 100 boats. This was meant for the anglers who by choice or by schedule can not fish weekends. There are about 25 anglers that I know of right now that have requested a day trail through the week. They had first approached someone else about organizing this, but they were not interested. I am lucky enough to work from home with my wife running our two businesses and have the time to put something together for these anglers. I asked a lot of people about hours and they did not want to fish past 1pm. I may adjust times with different seasons next year.
The reason for the split entry really boils down to most of these anglers wanting to fish alone with a reasonable entry fee. However, I did not want to make it where a team could not fish together. So, it came down to co-angler vs anglers or a split entry fee. I have fished under this format before, and it works quite well.
I will say that this is a pilot season and we will see how it goes.

 

[Hunter Haven]

"The reason for the split entry really boils down to most of these anglers wanting to fish alone with a reasonable entry fee".

Are you are implying other one man (since there are so many other one man trails) entry fees are not reasonable... hmmm

If this is a question you are asking me, I'm not sure I understand you.... to me your question makes no sense at all

 

[Hunter Haven]

Haven,

Thanks for the input. However, there are quite a few tournaments that are set up with entry fees like, they just are not on major bodies of water. Many of the small water trails are set up just this way.
I am putting on this trail by the request of many of the older anglers, retired anglers, and anglers that don't llike to fish weekends. This was not meant to draw 100 boats. This was meant for the anglers who by choice or by schedule can not fish weekends. There are about 25 angler that I know of right now that have requested a day trail through the week to the week. They had first approached someone else about organizing this, but they were not interested. I am lucky enough to work from home with my wife running our two businesses and have the time to put something together for these anglers. I asked a lot of people about hours and they did not want to fish past 1pm. I may adjust times with different seasons next year.
The reason for the split entry really boils down to most of these anglers wanting to fish alone with a reasonable entry fee. However, I did not want to make it where a team could not fish together. So, it came down to co-angler vs anglers or a split entry fee. I have fished under this format before, and it works quite well.
I will say that this is a pilot season and we will see how it goes.

I wish you the best Clay.... goodluck and hopefully I will see you at some of your other tx.s down the road

 

[mike c]

great idea clay i fish alot during the week when theres not as much boat traffic and there usually moving water i will be there for these.

 

[livewire328]

Thursday tourney...

I think it is a good concept Clay. And yes it will work, the entry fee is fair and the ones who don't want to pay 100 when some oneelse only pays 50 then they dont have to fish the tourney. I'll be at some of them, thanks for putting on a weekday tourney.

 

[firefighterfree]

So, it came down to co-angler vs anglers or a split entry fee. I have fished under this format before, and it works quite well.
I will say that this is a pilot season and we will see how it goes.

So Clay is this a one on one style tournament the guy in the front of the competes against the guy in back basically every man/woman for theirself.

 

[Laugh44]

I'll be at most of the tourneys. I fish alone and don't want to pay a lot for a tourney. I like the idea. I hope it works as I'll be there to try to win everyone elses cash (whether they pay $50 or $100, it doesn't matter. It all spends the same).

 

[youngers]

thursday is my off day most of the time, Ill fish as many as possible

 

[CRBass]

What other areas would you like a format like this in?

 

[Laugh44]

guntersville and west point

 

[Eugene Stinson]

I more than likely won't be able to attend any of these, but I don't see it working as it is. The one man $50.00 entry versus a 2 man $100.00 will not ever draw you a good crowd. It simply just doesn't work. Think about all other tx.'s. None of them are setup like this for that very reason....

Every entry fee must and needs to be the same in order for it to work and draw the crowds that come back to you. Think about it this way... Let's even use your summer weekend tx. let's say your next tx. is Saturday on ?Oconee, ?Sinclair, ?Jackson, whereever, and you have an angler show up to register before blastoff. let's just say his partner suddenly couldn't make it for unknown reasons.... you still have to charge the one angler the same entry fee as all other anglers to make it fair and allow the system to work........ you can't and don't tell that angler, well I know your partner was supposed to be here, so I will let you compete for all paid places if you only give me half the entry fee...????

Clay, not trying to stir the pot, but in order to draw a good Thursday crowd with tx. hours from daylight to 1 pm(which by the way already will limit your boat numbers drastically), you will definatly have to keep the entrie fees the same for all "boats" present just as any other organized tx. schedule will do.... just food for thought. I also personally do not think you will draw very many boats no matter if you do indeed make the entry fee the same per boat on any given thursday with tx. hours of daylight till 1pm tx....???? No way the demand in this day and time could possibly be there in order to draw a heavy crowd...

Goodluck with your trail. I think you have a payout structure designed that will attract fisherman in the long run, but gaining the exposure and getting them on board will be the hardest ppart of it. Keep it fair, stick it out, get the fishermen aware and comitted, run a honest and fair tx. everywhere you go and it will work, but it takes time to build a trail and it will not come easy....

I think I have a solution that would make it fair. Keep the enrty fees that same for one or two person teams. But only allow one angler to fish at a time for the 2 man teams. That way the number of lines in the water at any given time will be the same ONE.

 

[Hunter Haven]

I have not and will not bash this post Clay. I wish you the best of luck as stated earlier, but now I do wanna comment on the sarcasm below.....

I think I have a solution that would make it fair. Keep the enrty fees that same for one or two person teams. But only allow one angler to fish at a time for the 2 man teams. That way the number of lines in the water at any given time will be the same ONE.

Dang. That is it! I wonder why we couldn't think of that... but see now you have an extra man in the boat that can retie your lines, net your fish, cull out your fish, fetch you a water, fix you a sandwich, etc. etc. and all during this time you can just keep on fishing... you know, your on "marshall"...

 

[CRBass]

Haven, Thats funny.

Hey Pat, where did you get the idea for that chart. Seems I have seen that before?.....Geez.