Federation Qualifiers

First off let me start by saying that this post is NOT meant to start any political crap about brand A vs brand B. I truly wish the best for all the anglers fishing either Federation, or both for that matter. The point I do want to make is how great the opportunies are for fellowship, competition, and advancement. For any of you who have never fished the Qualifier Series Tournaments I would like to take a few minutes to fill you in on how the formats are set up and to encourage people to participate, especialy first time series anglers who may be starting out as back seaters. For anglers who are not yet members of a club what you need to know is that there are two seperate "Federations" in the state and most clubs are affiliated with one or the other, although it is possible to be affiliated with both. What seems to get people a little confused at first is the levels of meberships and the teir structure of dues... Both of our Federations have basicaly the same structure with a national sponsor, national federation, state federation, and member level clubs. You must have all your meberships current in order to compete and advance.

My personal experience is with the WSBF, both when we were BASS, and now as a TBF affiliate, I believe the BASS WA series still operates the same way but if I miss a few minor points I'm sure someone will set the record straight. As a general rule anglers qualify through their clubs based on end of the year points from the year before, with top points earners having first right of refusal for boater spots on a clubs team and going down the standings to fill out the back seater positions. Anglers must sign up as boater, back seater pairs, and often times the struggle is to find enough people to fill out the back seats as most hard core tournament anglers want the boater spots. The other option is to go as a "Buy In" you must still be a member of an affiliated club, but will not count as a member of your clubs team. Buy Ins must still sign up as pairs. When it comes to the actual tournament you WILL NOT be fishing as a team with the person you signed up with, these tournaments are "Draw" tournaments and anglers are not allowed to fish with members of their own club. The draw format helps to keep any appearance of cheating down as each angler is fishing for his/her own points and for the overall standing of their clubs team. At the end of the series of tournaments a state team is formed to go on to represent the state at a divisional tournament, after the divisionals top anglers from each state move to a national championship and a chance to win their way into either the Bassmaster Classic, or Forrest Wood Cup and fish head to head with top tour level pros. Bryan Kerchal won the Basmaster Classic in 1994 as a Federation Angler.

So thats the how it works section... Now on to what I feel is the bigger point. These tournaments are a blast to be a part of. Entry fees are low, around $200 buys you into the whole series. Now of course at that low of entry fee there is not alot of prize money, but there are option pots and big fish pots. These tournaments are more about the chance to move on than they are about the prize money. The fun part (in my opinion) is that we all have the chance to get together, not just with our own clubs, but with all the clubs of our federation. We have a bigger opportunity to network, share our ideas, share a few laughs and generally have a good natured club vs club style competition. Because of the draw style format you will get to fish with people who you would not otherwise have a chance too, and learn from each other. Although you are fishing for your own points I have never encoutered a situation where your days "draw" partner wasn't pulling for you to do as well as you can. Every time I have fished one of these events it has been a very positive experience. Now dont get me wrong I have heard stories of the "nightmare draw" but have never seen it first hand. I feel that fishing these events as a back seater has gone a long way to improving my skills and knowledge. I always learn something from my draw partner, event if sometimes its what not to do. Most days both anglers work together to figure out the pattern for the day, talk it out and come up with a plan, it really can help. As a backseater you need to think ahead, what do you need to bring, what colors for the particular lake, what species will you likely target, what if the weather changes... All these things and more to consider and very limited room to bring along what you will need to compete... I think these limitations really help to focus your attention and think through the reasons for your tackle choices. You need to focus ahead of time on things like line size, rod selection, etc. When the tournament day is over you can reflect on what choices you made and what would you change if you had to do the same day over.

I would really encourage all of you to consider fishing these tournaments, support your federations and your clubs. For all of you considering that this may be the year for you to test the waters as a back seater, or as a first year boater dont let fear of the unknown hold you back, there are a lot of great people willing to show you the way and together we can all make 2009 a great year for WA federation anglers...