Welcome to the Michigan B.A.S.S. Chapter Federation

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

by Doug Hedberg

Once again we have made it through another tournament season. Muskegon Lake came alive, at least with wind and rain for the State Championship that kept the big lake closed both days. The weather forecast for Friday night had the waves subsiding from 7-9’s down to 5-7 footers. Both mornings, small craft warnings were in effect by the Coast Guard which helped to direct the decision to close access to Lake Michigan. Phil Jones earned himself the title of State Champion with a two-day catch of nine fish that weighed in at 20.38 pounds. Congratulations to everyone that made the team, it was hard earned by all. Going into the second day the cut was 5.28 pounds, which effectively kept everyone in the hunt for one of the thirteen spots to make the trip to Ontairo’s Georgian Bay in September 2003.

By the banquet clubs had to have designated their five person teams that would be fishing for club weight. The top three clubs for the event were: Western Michigan Bassmasters with a team weight of 28.24 pounds, Macatawa Bay Bass Club with 27.24 pounds and Red Cedar Bassmasters with 25.54 pounds. For those that were able to stick around may remember second and third being flipped when announced. This was due to a weight not being counted which should have been counted for Macatawa Bay Bass Club. Congratulations to these clubs for there effort and catch over the two days. An improvement in reporting of the club weights will be made for next year. Clubs will be provided a form to will fill out prior to submitting your team weight. What this will do is to standardize what we get from everyone and I feel that will make things better, or at least easier for the people having to do the review.

Randy VanDam (D&R Sports) and Pat Kleppert (Ranger Boats) were each able to bring a Ranger boat to the banquet which made for an impressive entrance into the facility. Pat brought a Ranger 185 which is being raffled off by Ranger at their June 2003 dealers meeting (need not be present to win) to establish a college fund in Mike James name. Anyone interested in tickets should contact Pat. Dave Vorderburg (Dave-White Chevrolet) was also on hand for the entire event and helped out as he had done all season for the Classic Series. Without the support of them and the rest of the MBCF sponsors we would not be where we are today.

Pat and John spoke at the banquet while the club changes were being made from each of the teams by Burnadette. Speaking of changes in rosters, everyone needs to be reminded that again this year that was a hold up in getting the parings announced. Individual clubs come in with just a couple of changes and think that it is no problem. What they are forgetting is multiply that by the 30-40 clubs that each have a couple of changes and it is now around half the field!

How can we make that part of the event better? There have been some suggests to establish a cut off date for changes. Teams that have made their changes prior to that date would be rewarded by being put into the earlier flights, and those teams that had a change (even if only one change) after the cut-off would be put into a draw after the people without changes. Another idea was to charge each club an additional set fee for the event. Then, after the tournament is over to reward those clubs that had no changes by splitting that pot among only them. The idea of a cut for the second day was also brought up again. It was suggested to take the top 120 people (60 boats) for day two. The feeling was that consistency in a multiple day event is just as important as well a single good day. I am sure that there are other ideas or some combination of ideas that you may have that have not been brought up yet.

I think that everyone will agree that the banquet this year was a significant improvement to what we have had in the past. Everyone needs to thank Dave Elmblad who lives in that area for his help in doing the scouting to find the location and some lodging sites. When someone comes forward to say that “I know of a good spot to hold the banquet” that is a big help compared to going in blind trying to find everything out on your own. Each year the State Championship seems to be better than the last, and I hope that with more suggests from you next years will even be that much better.