Central Pro-am Or Heartland?

[gabe]

Great input. Thanks guys.

[focused fishing]

I have hesitated to post on this thread because I now have a greater interest in Central Pro Am.

Anyway, for a co-angler I would suggest you look at fishing a pro-am first and foremost as a learning experience. Take a look at the anglers that fish a circuit, the lakes they are fishing and the time of year they will be on each lake. Then ask yourself which circuit offers the best learning experience. Are there particular lakes that I need to focus on to improve or are there particular times of year I need to improve? Take an honest look at whom, what, when and where of the circuit before you decide.

As to my interest in Central Pro Am; as of last week I accepted the Tournament Director position with CPAA. I will be managing tournament operations for the Pro Am and Buddy events.

To Bill's point Central Pro Am will not put up with any of the shenanigans of which he spoke. The new ownership and management is committed to the anglers fishing our circuit and we will do everything we can to restore CPAA to position it once held in the area.

To Troy's point; CPAA has changed it's payback since the kick off; Payback will be a true 80% cash payback going forward paying one spot for every five entries.

Whichever circuit you choose to fish do your best to focus on learning something every time you are on the water, even if you draw someone that may not be as accomplished as they need to be. You can still learn from how and where they fish.

Hope to see ya next season.

EP

[S&M]

Congratulations Eric on your appointment as Tournament Director for CPAA.

They couldn't have picked a better person for the position. Your experience and enthusiasm for bass fishing is well presented, you're an asset to the industry.

I have one question for you and one piece of information for you.

Question: will you still participate in AIA tournaments?

Information: You had made mention of my username S&M in a past thread ( something like, nice handle ) It's not what you think, lol.........it stands for Susie and Mike. You see, when you want to buy a bass boat, all you have to do it put your wife's initials on the engine cowl and you can buy as many boats as you want

[techo]

I also wanted to add my congratulations or condolences on the new task! I have nothing but respect for you and your even keeled ways. If you have room for rookies.....Adam and I might pitch in some money to fish with the big boys!

The Skeeter Tour sounds extremely interesting.

[focused fishing]

Thanks Guys,

Pretty excited about the task, we've got a lot of work ahead of us.

Yes, I will still be fishing the AiA tournaments, there are no conflicts and Kory and I really enjoy fishing them.

S&M, was kidding about the handle, a few years back Mike and Sherry Webb were buying a rental house and decided to start a new LLC, originally Mike wanted to call it S&M Investments until Sherry, the attorney and I mentioned it. LOL

Techo,

We'd love to have you and Adam at the events, you ain't no Rookie. The Skeeter Tour is gonna be big; $10k guaranteed first place 120% payback on a $200 entry fee. Should be even bigger now that the OMTT has revised their payback and lowered the first place prize money.

As of right now I won't be the T Director for the Skeeter tour so I plan on fishing all of them.

Thanks for the support guys; everyone in the organization is committed to returning CPAA its previous stature.

EP

[Don House]

Eric congrads, nice to see you get into the action.. Maybe I can get away and fish a few, but you know fishing tournament and guiding just don't mix that well..

Good Luck and Have Fun

Don

[Jeremy Rasnick]

I really enjoyed fishing the BFL. Its a good time. The fact that you can weigh in 5 fish as opposed to the hearland was appealing to me. Unfortunately i only did that a couple of times last season. Im sure for a co-Angler they are pretty much the same.

[Jeremy Rasnick]

Eric congrads, nice to see you get into the action.. Maybe I can get away and fish a few, but you know fishing tournament and guiding just don't mix that well..

Good Luck and Have Fun

Don

Quick Question? Why doesn't guiding and Tournaments mix that well? A Flexible Schedule, lots of time on the water practicing,? Sounds to me like a good combination.

[Champ188]

Quick Question? Why doesn't guiding and Tournaments mix that well? A Flexible Schedule, lots of time on the water practicing,? Sounds to me like a good combination.

Jeremy,

Capt. Don surely has his own answer, but having worked as a guide myself in years past, I can offer a couple of reasons why the two don't mix.

First, guiding and tournament fishing are two polar-opposite styles of fishing. More than 90% of my guide clients were interested in catching numbers of fish. Size mattered little. So they weren't willing to wait hour(s) between bites. It's all about action with clients. So whether I was actually guiding or out fishing alone locating fish, my objective was to find and catch the most fish possible regardless of size. Now I did fish tournaments with reasonable success, but it was in my favor that tournament limits back then were seven fish (yeah, I'm old). Now that limits are five fish, there is a bigger premium on quality.

Secondly, a guide's mechanical skills can suffer when he spends days on end keeping clients away from prime bass cover. Why? Imagine taking the most casting skills-challenged person you know out fishing for a day and keeping them in the middle of boat docks (think cables), overhanging limbs and flooded cedar groves all day. Yeah, you get the picture. With a nod to Mr. Babler here, the term "numbnuts" comes to mind. So guides can get a little rusty themselves at pitching jigs to boat docks or any other tactic that requires a high level of mechanical skill, simply because they don't get to do it very often. Repetition is required to stay sharp.

Anyway, that's my 29 cents' worth on why guiding and tournament fishing can be like oil and water.

[Don House]

Quick Question? Why doesn't guiding and Tournaments mix that well? A Flexible Schedule, lots of time on the water practicing,? Sounds to me like a good combination.

Well it comes down to making money. When you get a good business going most of the time your clients want to fish on those same weekends and they don't want to pre-fish with you. They want to catch as many fish and as big of fish as they can. Next do you want to give up the clients, because if you turn them down to fish a tournament those clients will find someone else to fish with them and you have lost a client now.

Next fishing that tournament you will spend the money for entry fee, gas, tackle for a chance to hit a home run and maybe win 1000.00 dollars or just break even with a top 5? For alot of us down here that is how we make money for the whole year, we don't have a full time job plus guide and Unless you get like some of the local guys around here hitting that home run does not happen all the time. So it is a choice a I guess, if you notice alot of the guides around here really start fishing the tournament in the fall when the business slows down..

Plus guiding and tournament fishing are two different horses for sure. With guiding you are trying to find active fish that will keep your client happy and catching fish and if you get into some big fish thats even better plus! But Tournament fishing you are looking for those really big fish all of the time and down here on the rock this year if you can't get a 18 plus pound bag in most local tournaments well break even or go home empty handed.

So it goes back to your choice...

Good Fishing

Don