FLW Tournament Perspective!!!!

[Fisherwoman]

Now that I have had a few days to recover I figured some people might be interested in how the tournament was actually run and how well we thought it went.

Friday night was the captains meeting, as we all showed up but Greg, we had preregistered online which was fairly simple to do. It was hard to find out where they were set up with the FLW trailer as there were no signs anywhere. Keep in mind this is just our observation and not knocking the tournament as they are still working out the bugs.

Finally find the trailer and go over to check in. They had many FLW staff there to help you find your way around. I thought it was a little strange how the tables where set up, but again this is the 1st time we have done this. But you would go to one table and check in, then sign a release form, which needs to be signed by all team members. then go to another table and do something else then go back to the other table to rent your keep alive.

On a side note, It does mention that the release form needs to be signed on there web site but only says either the team captain or 1 member need to be at the meeting. Well Greg had to work late, so we had to have him come by and sign or else he would have had to go to the trailer in the morning by 5 and sign the day of the tournament which would have put a little crunch on our game plan of getting to the start on time from our marina. So it is something they need to change on there site to let everybody no they should come sign at the meeting.

After we were completely checked in we were given our Keep alive box and the staff informed us how to use it, We rented ours for $50 or you could buy one for $250. We went and put it in the truck and came back over to the staging area.

So the meeting got started, all the rules were gone over by Bill Carson, Bass had to be 28 inches from the tip of the mouth to the tip of the tail, larger size was 34 inches to the fork in the tail, which actually gives you a bigger slot, which I think is great.

They also talked about handing out transponders to go in every boat, Why so they can track were you are at any minute so if you go out beyond the 3 mile limit as ruled by the state to try and cheat, you are disqualified. This is a pisser move by FLW as these fish are coming back alive and they can keep track of where every boat is.

They went over a few more rules and then they draw random numbers for your boat, you go pick up your number, your trasponder
a copy of the rules and a sheet that lets DMF know you are fishing this tournament and can Kull fish. They Infored us there would be a boat set up in the moring outside the marina and we all had to be at the staging area by 6:30, teams 1-19 left at 6:30 and teams 20-39 left at 6:45. End of tournament was 3:30 for the 1st group and 3:45 for the second group.

When you come back in at the end of the tournament you have to once again check in with the boat in the staging area. You come in and dock and you are responsible for loading the fish box keep alive onto a cart and someone we assist you and you have to have 2 team members capt and one other take the fish up and weigh them in.
I really wish the whole team could go but I am sure they do this because of dock space while trying to get everybody in to weighin ontime.

So you weigh in your fish and now the waiting game is on, I was surprised that the time went rather swiftly for them to get all the boats in in a timely manner and get those fish up to be weighed in.

Then while you awate the final tally and your heart is about to jump out of your chest they announce the winner!!! They call you up on stage for photo's and a little chat with Bill Carson on how you worked your day. Then you go off stage and have to talk with some reporters and do a few more photo ops for FLW and the local papers and magazines. While we are doing that we are also awaiting the word on when we would have to go take the Lie detector test.

Now keep in mind we have been up since 3 am and it is now almost 6pm, so Bill Carson had a gentlemen fly in for MS to give the lie detector test so he would be at the hotel at 7, so we drove the boat home, cleaned her up and had to go back for the lie dectector test, which by the way lasts about 1 1/2 hours.

But I commend FLW for doing this test, It will keep everybody honest and if you do not pass, I have to tell you, you will not get your check. After I completed the test the gentlemen giving me the test called Bill Carson and told him I passed with flying colors, Bill Carson met us in the lobby and handed me a check for $20,000. and also gave us a the actually Bill Board check for $35000.

The reason the money amount got messed up was that I registered everbody online and I was paying with my credit card so my name went in 1st as the team captain. Well the bonus for having Yamaha engines was $15000. Well when they sent the serial numbers from the engines they didn't match up with my name as they are in Bill's name hence the problem. Well no problem, We brought the original title certificates for the engines to the captains meeting and it is all resolved and we should be receiving the other check soon.

Overall we felt that this was a very proffesionally run tournament. The staff was very helpful and tried to accomodate everybody as best they could. I am saying this either because we won, but I would recomend any body to go fish this tournament as you have just as good a shot as any of those big fancy boats out there to win. You can't beat a $500 entry free if your winnings is $35000 or maybe more if you also have a sponsoring boat.

The way they did the slot limit and keeping these fish alive is one of the reasons we participated in this tournament. I have heard alot of comments about whats the big deal with catching fish of that size, well I suggest you go ask the 39 boats that just participated how easy it is to get those size fish. We fished almost the whole time, caught 15 bass and only had 4 in that slot limit, and only 10 of the 39boats weighed in fish so you tell me how easy it is. In my opinion anybody can go get live bait and put them over fish and take a big fish, thats a no brainer, but try and get the ones in the middle range and only on artificials and we will see how good you are. Luck will play a role in any tournament.

SO thats my scoop on things, we will definatly be fishing it again whether it be this year or next as we still have to sit down and make a team decision. But if you are thinkin about doing it my suggest would be to go for it, You have nothing to loose. I would like to also thank all of the FLW staff for there hard work in putting these tournaments on and best of luck with them in the future. IF you have any more questions about it, just drop us a line or email and we will let you know as much as we can. The nest tournament is in Sept. Out of the bass river so go get um!!!!