SAN DIEGO BASSMASTERS Page 1 January 2013

Newsletter

March 1, 2015

Presidents Corner:

Greetings Bassmasters

Finally we are heading into the spring thaw, after enduring another harsh California Winter. The first points tournament of the season is behind us, not sure just how it turned out because this is being scrawled out before it takes place. I am looking forward to hearing from the top three and find out what I should have been doing.

Not much Council news to report except there is $11,516.54 in checking, $5,055.48 in savings (earmarked for the Hall of Fame) and $12,955.06 in the Fisherman’s Fund. The Council was asked to request that the Float tube fishermen safety rules be enforced by lake staff, particularly at Lake Otay, where the occasional fog and the fisherman’s low silhouette creates a potential hazard at the back of Harvey’s in the early mornings. Council President, Bill VanWulven, is still on the mend after breaking his leg at his Barnacle Bill’s Tackle Shop in Lemon Grove. Bill is now dealing with blood clots in that leg In Bill’s absence, Vice President Keith has been doing a fine job filling in. The San Diego Bassmasters wish Bill a speedy and complete recovery. The Councils Tournament of Champions will be held at El Capitan March 14th and 15th. Weigh-in will be 3pm Saturday and 12 noon on Sunday. Our Champion, Greg Gardner, will represent us at the TOC, giving us an unfair advantage in my opinion. Greg carries with him the respect of each San Diego Bassmaster member. I am confident we will all do what we can to cheer him on at the Sunday weigh-in. Hope to see you there, a lot of us will be there Saturday.

At this General Meeting new member Jim Sleight will demonstrate the scale system that was introduced at the February meeting. This upgraded system offers ability to set the weight of the friskiest large jaw in under 5 seconds, produce a weigh slip, record weight in order instantly and produce printed results of that tournament as well as year to date before we go home. Brent Benish is the chairman of the New Scales Committee and will have some further information for us at the March Meeting.

All Bassmasters join together and give Donalea Brant a thumbs up and support during her current medical issues and a complete end to her continuing battle.

Now before I shut this thing off, last year, or the year before, I posted in these pages a secret word that when said would get those responding a ticket to the raffle. At the March meeting can we do that again? This could be thought of as a little mean but what the heck, it’s a little fun to. Those not reading these pages has an opportunity to get their own tickets. (Bless their hearts). When you hear the word “soakage” without saying why, please come forward, if you would like, for a raffle ticket. I will dress up the raffle a little so it could pay off.

See you in line…

Ron Overman

Vice President ~Greg Gardner

Hello, San Diego Bassmasters! I am so happy we finally have a contest to fish this coming Saturday. I have been ugly sick these past four days and cannot wait to get past it and back on the water. I have missed two prefish days, but I still feel that I am ready. You never know how strong you can be, until being strong is your only option. I hope you are all feeling as good as I do about finally getting back to work on our tournament year. Change your line, throw out all used hooks, stock up on all your favorite tools and get ready to rock and roll.

I want to thank Cheryl Byrd for doing another excellent job on our annual Chili Cook-off. It was held February 7th at our meeting hall and was a very successful event, Cheryl always comes through! We had 7 pots of chili and Victoria (soon to be) Meyer knock all of our butts in the dirt. Excellent chili, Victoria. We got to spend the evening with some of our very good friends, I enjoyed it very much. This year I made a pot of chili and really had fun doing it. I will get better for next year, and I think I’m looking for my first win. Is that confidence or what?

The next event will be our annual Family Tournament April 25th at Lake Murray. This one will be organized by Ed Marr. Ed always does an outstanding job on anything he does, so this one should be good. It’s open to anyone in the club and their family members. Ed hasn’t said yet, but weigh-in will probably be 12:00. This is not a tournament for points – just for fun. We really like to see wives, girlfriends, and the kids come out to play. We will have lots of food; you will be asked to bring some, and prizes for the kids. It is a fun event, and we would like to see you there.

The first person that comes to me at the meeting (not on the Board) and says, “Jerk baits at Havasu” will win a prize.

See you at the meeting,

Greg

Tournament Director – Josh Buller

It’s Sunday night, the night after our first point’s tournament of the 2015 and I am very pleased with the showing the San Diego Bassmasters put on at El Cap this past weekend. As seems to be a new tradition, our first tournament of the year was held under rainy conditions. The fish did not seem to mind as we had 45 anglers weigh 146 fish, along with 20 of those anglers bringing a 5 fish limit to the scales.

Scott Ashley was our winner in impressive fashion. He weighed 5 fish for 13.56 pounds, out classing the field. New to the club, Brent Kearney took second place with a good limit of for 10.85 followed to Terry Forman with 10.39. Josh Buller, Frank Morrin, Cody Billock, Ron Overman, Bud Brant, Nick Meyer, and Matt Barksdale rounded out the top 10.

Our next tournament will be at the hallowed Lake Havasu. This is a tournament where big fish and big weights are the norm. You had better be on them if you want a win. Everyone should have this tournament circled on their calendar because a win at Havasu takes two days of near perfect execution. I am looking forward to a busy two days at the scales.

If you have not done so, please make sure your boats and gear are prepared. Havasu will test you and your equipment. Make sure all of your safety equipment is handy and you have a game plan if you were to need help out on the water. I will have one of our Havasu locals give us a quick rundown of resources and equipment we may need or want to be aware of at our next meeting.

Finally, I want to thank everyone in the club for a smooth weigh in. Everyone had weigh slips in hand and variance numbers written in. We weighed 41 bags of fish and everyone worked together to make it an uneventful experience. A special thanks to Victoria for helping us tabulate the weights and assist in the important behind the scene details that we all depend on each month!!

Sincerely,

Josh Buller

From the Treasurer’s Desk:

Hello Everyone,

It seemed like Mother Nature had been waiting for us since the end of last year. Not only has she been rather stingy with the desperately needed rain in San Diego since December but she decided to show us what she has been holding back all winter: cold, rain, and lots of wind. And everyone that fished our first points tournament today was able to get their fair share off all three items.

Even with the very nasty weather conditions, and in typical fashion, there were some that were able to break the code and find the fish. Congratulations to Scott Ashley on the win and catching the big fish in the tournament. I am sure that helped Scott warm up at the end of the day. A couple of other guys that did well were one of our new guys, Brent Kearny who came in second in his first points tournament, and the always formidable Terry Foreman who came in third. We will be visiting Terry’s backyard lake next month when we travel to Lake Havasu.

We are in good shape financially as almost everyone has been pretty diligent in paying their dues. We have reeled in a couple of those that were taking out a lot of line. Please remember, if you are three months behind you cannot fish in a tournament. If you are four months behind you cannot participate in club activities. We talked at the last meeting about buying new scales. This will be a big expenditure for the club. Any ideas about how we should approach this should be submitted to the Board so they can be considered and brought up for discussion.

Well, it is time to vacuum the water out of the boat and get ready for what should be much warmer conditions at Lake Havasu. It will be fun to revisit our small mouth friends and their warmer environment. And it is always good to get out of town with a bunch of your fishing friends.

See you on the water,

Frank

Membership Chairman - Regina Seaberg

March 2015

Currently we are at 48 active members.

Brian Schler has requested to become active in the club again; Brian attended the club meeting for January and will have the opportunity to become active at the next club meeting.

2015 San Diego Bassmasters

Active Members 2015: 48

Inactive ~ Ryan Boulware ~ Lynn Brown ~ Ken Louis ~ Scott Garber ~ John Schwartz ~ Marshall Martin

Vicki Becker ~ Jeff Manning

Lifetime Members ~ Doris Cook ~ Les Mar ~ Harold Stephens ~ Darryl Crippen ~ Lee Chapman ~ Jim Davis

Family Members ~ Cheryl Byrd ~ Regina Seaberg ~ Cody Billock ~ Bobby Forman~ Barton Hegeler Jr.

Honorary Members ~ Larry Bottroff ~ Donalea Brant ~ Regina Seaberg ~Jim Cavanaugh ~ Mary Gray ~ Ben Massey

~ Kathy Stephens ~ Don Williams ~ Linda Williams

At-Large Members ~ Brandon Hoffman ~ Kevin Kerr ~ Rowan Stone ~ Mark Thomas ~ Dave Mack~ Josh Rhodes

Friends ~ Debe Crippen ~ Chris Mineo

Prospective members ~

Regina Seaberg

San Diego Bassmasters General Meeting

President Ron O.-

Called the Feb 3 2015 SDBM General Meeting to order at 7:01PM at Oakdale Retirement and the Bassmaster greeting was held.

Minutes from previous meeting were questioned because of the date of the Otay tourney. At the time the notes were recorded the date for the Otay tournament may have been different from the latest date. Some tournaments have changed from their original dates for multiple reasons. In light of this clarification about the Otay tournament date, the Jan notes were approved by Cesar D and Jim P seconded them.

There was a boat crash at Otay with an Olympic rowing boat and a bass boat. Members are reminded to steer clear of the rowers. Those boats don’t always focus on who is behind them. If one is coming towards you announce yourself, blow your horn, or move out of the way.

Thanks to Ron O, Ed M, and Gene E for bringing snacks to the meeting.

Ronnie will be handling bassmaster clothes this year. He plans to order white and blue shirts that should cost ~20 each. See him to order your shirts. More info to come at the next meeting.

Ronnie gave an extensive update from the bass council that included getting all the clubs involved in council activities. Clubs that only have a few members should get together with other clubs to handle some activities like the TOC. An update on the El Cap Kiosk was provided. The membership was asked if they favored a 12 or 2 pm weigh in for the top 6. 2 pm was favored. The relief fund has been established and now a format for accessing the funds is being drafted. This includes a relief fund request form. Last of all the council requested the personal info from all members in bass clubs, but we voted and decided not to provide SDBM member’s personal info to the council.

Membership-Regina S.

This month we voted on 4 prospective members (Jim S, Brent K, Micah S, and Boomer G). All spoke about their interests in the club, backgrounds, and mentioned they could fish out of town tournies, and would consider helping out with club activities. Regina and members who prefished and tourney prefished each candidate on each prospect’s behalf. After much careful consideration all were approved! Jim, Brent, and Boomer all have boats (Ranger, Skeeter, Skeeter) and Micah is the only nonboater in the group and he mentioned he is eager to get off the bank! Jim is a construction manager and tournament director, Brent is a fire protection engineer, Boomer is an auto body tech, and Micah is a college student studying mechanical engineering.

Kenny L and Brian S requested to be active in the club again and they were welcomed back from the inactive list.

Treasurer- Frank N.

$ dollars in the club’s bank account. Frank paid for several bills (Insurance and Council dues etc). Frank reminded members to be up to date with their payments in order to fish the Feb tournament.

Vice President -Greg G.

Upcoming club events and organizers.

Preliminary Events Summary-

Date / Event / Location / Organizer
Feb 7 / Chili Cook Off / Oak Dale Retirement Community / Cheryl B. / Starts 5pm
Apr 25th / Family Tournament / Lake Murray / Ed Marr
Jun 21st / Picnic / Santee Lakes on the Island / Nick and Victorria Meyer
Aug 8th / Bunco / Frank and Gerie’s Church / Frank&Gerie M
Dec 13th / Banquet / Sycuan / Greg G
2015 / Meeting Raffle/Drinks / Oak Dale Retirement Community / Jim R/ Ernie

Signup sheet was recirculated for the chili cook-off, and Cheryl provided an update on the event. It will be at Oakdale –the Club’s general meeting room. Bring a pot of chili or a side dish and 5 dollars per person. Starts at 430 and eat at 5. Prizes for top 3 chili dishes. People can come earlier to help set up if interested please call Cheryl.

Tournament Director Josh B –

Josh was unable to attend this meeting since he was in Brazil.

Greg spoke on his behalf and circulated a sign up sheet for the Feb 28th tournament at El Cap 3pm weigh in, 5 fish, 13 inches, off limits are across buoy line and 100 feet of dock, launch and go. Partners were drawn at the break. Greg also reviewed/discussed the tournament rules (that can be found on the club website), and let members know the permit number was 15-5-088. He provided weigh slips and Zoe helped out collecting big fish pot money.