I hope we all survived the long Wisconsin winter, its now April and the lakes have opened up and its almost time to tournament fish!!! The winter meetings have concluded, it was great to see some familiar faces at the meetings, and some new ones. I wasn't able to attend the first meeting, but from what I was told about 50 members showed up, and some club business was handled. The second meeting I was able to attend, I would say there was about 75 members present, and several of our tackle sponsors had their products there for sale. We were treated to a great seminar by Greg Kizewski of Skeeter Boat Center/Super K Jigs who gave about a 45 minute seminar on the Hummingbird side imaging system. Thanks again Greg, I heard nothing but good feedback about the seminar!!! The 2011 classic lake was voted on and chosen....it will be Sturgeon Bay, pending permits. There was a very large raffle at the end of the night with tons of product from our sponsors including: Hawg Pours, Super K Jigs, Get Bit Baits, Pole Pouches, Asakura Baits, Dobyns Rods and Custom Crafted Tackle. Skeeter Boat Center and Greg Kizewski donated a Hummingbird 798si($1,000 value) that was raffled off at the end, and was won by Dan Triplet!!! Dan was also presented a new prop from The Boat Doc and Mercury Marine for being the highest finishing Triton Boat/Mercury engine owner for team of the year. The Koch brothers were presented with their team of the year jackets from the 2009 season, good job guys!!! There was plenty of pizza to go around, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.
May 8th starts the 2010 WABTA season on the Madison Chain, we will be taking off out of The green Lantern at 6:30 am. The website states 6:00 am, but thats a type o, and the brochure has the correct time of 6:30 am. We will not be limiting the field to 61 boats like we have in the past, in fact the only lake that will be limited to 61 boats this year is Okauchee Lake due to launch issues and the size of the lake.
Something new this year will be contingency money offered by WABTA sponsers, here is a list of contingency offers:
Optima Batteries $750 if you win a tournament(and you have all Optima batteries on board),$250 if you are the highest finishing Optima Battery owner...there will be more info available soon on this program.
Pole Pouches: If you have at least 6 Pole Pouches on board, and you win a tournament you get an extra $50, if you have 6 on board and you win the classic its $250.
Asakura Baits: if you catch the big bass of the tournament on an Asakura Bait you win $100.
Triton Gold: if you are a Triton owner, and win a tournament its up to $1,000, and if you bought a new boat from The Boat Doc its an extra $250.
Please check Tritons and Optimas websites for rules pertaining to their contingencies.
Remember, you and your partner must fish at least 4 WABTA qualifiers together, and finish in the top 20% of a qualifying tournament to be eligible to fish the classic this year. If you or your partner misses a tournament, and you use a sub, you must fish another tournament or you will be considered a single qualifier for the classic. Both members of the team must have paid for and fished 4 tournaments. If you fish all 6 WABTA qualifiers you will automatically qualify for the classic.
Have a safe fishing sesaon,
Jason
