"Fun" Club possibility in Northern Va

JCrzy4Bass · November 9, 2007

Hey guys,

Maybe a stupid question or a repetitive question you guys have seen before. However, I think that this may be something cool to do. How exactly would I go about starting a club in my specific area? I'm not talking a bunch of guys who are interested in cash and bragging rights, but more so a fun and family or friend type orientated club. I have met a bunch of cool guys who I talk to pretty frequently on this forum that would probably be interested in doing this. What I was thinking...

Not many of us own boats, so... for a fun day I don't think 30 bucks or so is a bad investment every other weekend or what not. We have a reservoir in town (The Occoquan) where you can rent jon boats at two different locations. One being Lake Ridge, the other being Fountainhead. I was thinking we could use these two locations for our events. If we get there when gates open on these weekends, all of us should be able to get a boat as there are quite a few for rental.

I was thinking since it would probably be hard to rent a boat and put in cash for prizes each event maybe just having an end of the year trophy for the first, second and third place finishers. Anyone have an idea of how much it might cost to have a couple of small trophies made? I'm sure if I got cash from each person at the beginning of the season for it then plenty of folks would be ok with pitching in for that.

I figure we could do 6-8 tourneys. Two a month starting in late March or early April dependent upon temps and the spawn. This would put it though to about the end of June or July when the fishing gets a bit tougher. I was then thinking the top five of the year or so maybe compete in a championship sometime in August or so in a two day championship type event.

I think this would be primarily for beginners, amateurs, or weekend type guys who aren't into the huge tourneys but want to get out with another person on the boat and be competitive but also learn.

I think we could do team meetings once a month at a restaurant close enough to everyone to discuss the two events held that month, what went well, what didn't, new things people are learning, patterns that got put together on the water, etc.

As you can see I've already put quite a bit of thought into it. Just wanted to get other peoples thoughts and if they have done similar things or how hard it is to put something together like this. I don't really care about being "official" or any of that mumbo jumbo, just something to be a part of. Friends, Family, and most importantly the fish tugging at the end of your line. What do you guys think? Am I in for a long road or is it something manageable?

Where should I start if I decide to do this. Any documents I should make up for folks? Flyers to put up at local tackle shops or such in case anyone else may be interested? Any restrictions I should know about in Virginia as far as getting a club started and such? Would I have to let the marinas know about the number or persons coming in for rentals the weekend before or anything? Any info would be appreciated.

I can honestly say I would probably have at least... minimum... of 5 guys so far with 4-5 probables on the side. I figure if I do some looking around in the offseason and try and get a few more guys to consider it and give it a go, if I can get a 8-10 man roster I think it would be fairly fun. Only a 4-5 boat field to start off but maybe each season build on it or try and find others who were interested.

The only thing I am having a problem thinking of is how to do "catch and release" but record fish at weigh in. Maybe use digital scales, or maybe go by length and take pictures of the different bass and such. Have length regulations as far as fish must be 12" or something to be a keeper. I would think maybe at the end of the event we could do a quick overview of how the day went, who caught what, how many, etc. We could have pictures submitted to a webpage designed for the club (that I would be designing) and then do official results at the meeting at the end of the month. I'm just trying to get it started and come up with an easy approach the first year if I decide to do it. Any help guys...

Jeff_NHBA · November 18, 2007

Looks like you want to keep the tournaments close by, which is fine. I belong to a club that fishes tournaments (most on the Potomac, but some not so close) but the goal is to have fun more than win a bunch of money. Not everyone in the club owns a boat and there's always room for more members.

Check out this site if you are interested: http://www.nhbayouthfoundation.org/