Still fishing tourneys or club stuff?

[Oregon Native]

Well I'm bored waitin for the wife to get ready so we can go do the Christmas stuff with kids and thought of this question.  How many of you who are over 65 still enjoy fishing tourneys in any capacity....club...opens etc.

Tight Lines

I DO........

[scaleface]

I'm 60   and havent fished a tourney in several years because I no longer have a tourney caliber boat . I've had chances to go as a co angler but always had schedule conflicts . I had some success in tourneys  and a cousin and I won the largest event ever held at Mark Twain lake , as far as I know. A buddy tourney with almost 500 boats . After that win everybody started fishing deep on  points . I cracked a few top fives after that but never another victory .

[Catt]

At 66 yrs young & retired I have the ability to pick & choose which tournaments I fish.

 

Gone are the days of marathon (12-14 hr) tournaments & having to fish during foul weather.

 

These days I mostly fish Team Tournaments  ?

[WRB]

Haven't fished club or money tournaments is decades, enjoy a few night charity events each year with my son when he is available. Enjoy fishing when and where I prefer.

Tom

[flatcreek]

3 years shy of 65 but still like fishn the club but not many state trails lately.i enjoy the fellowship

[Mike L]

I'm 67 and it seems that's all I do.

BFL and Bass Nations now,  but up to this year I also fished the TBF but gave that up..The 2 day's plus those other 2 in the same month just wore me out too much.  Been thinkjng about entering an Open or 2 this year but haven't decided.  

When those are over I fish a team club and a few charity ones when I have time. 

All as a co angler.

 

I always wanted to fish more competitively before I retired, so as they say...If not now, when?

 

 

 

Mike

[HookRz]

I gave up tournament fishing at about 41. I was very successful bit after a few years got bored with it. I missed having  the time to fish for other species, and do things like wading small streams for Smallmouth, IMHO the most enjoyable form of bass fishing. Might get back into it when I retire. 

[Johnbt]

Still enjoy? I'm 67 and have been fishing since I was 5 and I've never fished a tournament. My buddy fished bass tournaments for 15 years, but hasn't fished one for at least 20 years. He got tired of practice fishing, tournament fishing, running his business and then having to work a show the next weekend. The free stuff was nice, for me anyway, but they worked him to near to death. He was younger then.   I still have two of the original Shimano baitrunners he got me for next to nothing. I surf fish, too.

 

We talk about it sometimes and then forget about it. Like Wednesday, we mentioned it Wednesday morning after we got my boat over the bank into the pond. Thirty acres and two trolling motors - both ours. Even the great blue herons didn't object much as we drifted around. 

[contium]

I'm 51 and gave up tournament fishing about 15 years ago. Tournament/club fishing ruined the fun for me. Didn't regularly fish for almost a decade. Got back into it and now it's just about the passion and fun. I would rather be the only one out on a lake. I avoid fishing weekends as there is just about always a tournaments going on. Plan to keep it this way.

[.ghoti.]

Absolutely not.

[ww2farmer]

I will be 42 when tournament season rolls around in 2018. I have had enough.

 

For 10+ years I have fished just about every open team tournament that has been on my home lake. And quite a few on other area lakes as well.

 

Have won a lot, cashed a lot more. I have nothing to prove, and I just don't enjoy the grind of it anymore.

 

I have given up running team opens, and evening tournaments. Someone else's turn.

 

From now on, I will only be running my "single angler" opens. These are cheap, low stress, and low turnout. Usually it's an 8-12 boat field with my close friends and guys I know/trust well. Most of whom are all great anglers so the comp. level is still challenging. It's kinda like club fishing. I hold one or two a month, bouncing between Silver and Conesus, and I hold them on weekdays, or on weekends later in the season when boat traffic is gone. 

 

I will pick and choose my spots for any and all future team opens I fish from now on. And I will only do so as the non-boater. My boat is getting long in the tooth, and I just don't enjoy having to be there if I don't want to any more.

[Oregon Native]

20 hours ago, scaleface said:

I'm 60   and havent fished a tourney in several years because I no longer have a tourney caliber boat . I've had chances to go as a co angler but always had schedule conflicts . I had some success in tourneys  and a cousin and I won the largest event ever held at Mark Twain lake , as far as I know. A buddy tourney with almost 500 boats . After that win everybody started fishing deep on  points . I cracked a few top fives after that but never another victory .

Wow...awesome....I got to fish that lake many years ago while waiting to fish a Wrangler Nationals.  Met a gentleman at a boat ramp and after some talk he invited me up to his summer home to fish for crappie.  Was awesome....first time I ever used a minnow or ate crappie.  Was an awesome memory.

Thanks for bringing that back to me.....

[N Florida Mike]

I fished tournaments for 2 years in the 80s and haven't since. I wouldn't mind fishing a few a year now as a co-angler . Strangely enough ,as a lifelong fisherman in my area, I have lost touch with friends and acquaintances that tournament fish. Just doesn't seem to be as big around here as it once was.

[Basseditor]

I’m turning 65 in 2 months. Will continue Club tournaments until I retire when I’ll have time for PRE-fishing and practice. I hope to fish team events with my son, but he’s a CPA so spring and fall are his busy times.