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Guys this is one of the best things that I have done! I thought fishing tournaments was alot of fun. Being a director is just as much fun as fishing them. There is a lot of hard work that goes into it, very time consuming also. Very rewarding! I know that there alot of you out there that have thought of running your own tournaments. DO IT! You will not believe how rewarding it is. To have folks come up to you and thank you for the time and effort that you put into the tournaments means everything in the world.

I have to say that I was pretty worried at the first of the year knowing that everyone was counting on me to put it all together. Well it has worked out great. The weather has not been the best to us but the fishing has been great.

For those in clubs that have a hard time filling the tournament directors spots, Put your name in for it! Its great! I think that you will find that its a wonderful thing to try.

Thanks

Hi Conley,

That's great. I heard the hardest part is getting the permits and scheduling the tournaments so that they don't conflict with other major events and holidays, etc. What do you feel was the most challenging part of the job?

Brendan

Thumbs up for you! Did you have to raise money? My club has open every year, and the amount of work that goes into it is amazing. I'd like to hear more on what you had to do. Congrats. Carl

It is very rewarding and very challenging.

I fished the same trail for 9 years so it made it a little better because I knew everyone fishing, and what other trails that they fished. Scheduling is a nightmare at times. Holidays, major events all come into play. I sat down with a calender and marked as many as I could and started working on the lakes and dates. You cant win them all, but you do the best you can. The tournament this weekend is Mothers Day Weekend but hey it was the only date I could fit it in. Momma was a little upset but I told at least we get to spend the weekend together. My Daughter was also upset with me because I scheduled one on her 16th birthday! I will be trouble for a while for not remeberig that one. At least I didn't schedule one on our anaversery (I missed it by one day)

As far a permits not many lakes here require one. I called all of them to make sure. Except the first one!

Raising money? I started from scratch! I had nothing, no scales, tables, bags or idea what all I would need. The directors before us kept all their stuff. I contacted Equalizer for the scales and these folks were awsome. They helped me out so much that I would recomend them to anyone. Then a suprise Bubwieswer and Ben E.Keith distributing company made a very good donation to help us out with buying door prizes and paying for some of the equipment that I needed, and all the trophies. I was able to obtain some other sponsors that helped with prizes and discounts. Then we were ready to tackle the first tournament of the year.

This was the most challenging part Brendan!

You know how you plan on what your going to say and do, then when its time all that goes out the window and you wing it. Well thats what happened. The wind was howling and everyone was cold, gift cards were flying off the table, weigh-in table blows over, mega phone batteries are dead thanks to the bag pulling on the trigger and me not turning it off. Not to mention that only one couple caught a fish and everyone else zeroed. Then I take pictures and forget to hand out the trophies. Then after everone was gone and the wife and I are cleaning everything up the park ranger comes over and says "You know you cant have tournaments here in this park don't you?" while tapping her ticket book on your leg. I told her we have had our tournament here every year that I can remember fishing the lake. She bust out laughing and told me she had watched the whole weigh-in and with all the trouble I was having with everything else she just could not write me a ticket. Seems the city had just passed an ordence that no tournaments could be held in a city controlled park, problem was they did not tell any of the tournament organizations! She let us slid and told us who to contact in the future. So it was a learning thing.

Writing the news letter is were I have my fun. Thats were I get to pick back at some them that picked on us. Plus as you can see I love to write.

After the third tournament I sent out a survey to everyone to see how we were doing and what we could do to make it better. This is one thing I learned! If you let them come up with the idea's they except changes alot better. NEVER, EVER FORGET your working for them. Without them you have no tournament.

I'll be glad to help anyone that thinks they want to step up and become a director in any way that I can all you have to do is ask!

Glad you're having some fun-that's what it's all about. Keep up the good work. Johnnie

That's a funny story... If you got a ticket on top of all the other stuff, it would have been unbelievable. If it were me, I might have thrown in the towel after a day like that.

Well best of luck with future events...

Brendan

Ok the regular season is OVER! What a year! Everything worked out great! I made a survey sheet for the folks to fill out for me, things like were they happy with the way the tournaments were run and so forth. Not one negative comment! The only complaints were the weather and there is nothing I can do about that.

All the directors fish the regions that they run. We did also. I know that most folks have a little heartburn over that but not any that fish in our tournaments. Think about it, the directors are the first to arrive, last to leave out in the mornings, first back to set up, and the last to leave at the end of the day. When do we have time to fish? No its not that bad, we did still manage to finish 4th overall even with our limited time of fishing.

We qualified for the Top Six Shootout, and the Championship. This will be our 10th year qualifying for the Championship. That feels better than any of the other stuff combined. Our Championship fishing times will be limited also since we have to help with launching of the boats and at the weigh-ins. I am still looking forward to it.

I almost can’t wait for next year to come so that we can kick this thing off again.

I may even have a fall tournament to boost membership.

Again if anyone ever thought about running tournaments it is a blast and very rewarding. I don’t mean money either, its just a lot of fun if you like dealing with people!

Good fishing to everyone!

Conley, glad you had a great year! My bet is-next year will be even better with your leadership and skills. Good luck, in advance. Johnnie