From The
President's Boat
02--2-05
Written By Teddy Reim -
President
Hello Again Hawg Hawlers,
I hope 2005 is
starting off well for all our members. Without a team in the Super
bowl, the NHL locked out, and Baseball still months away, I’m sure we
could all use a good day on the water right? Well, we are getting
closer and closer to our 2005 kickoff at Clearwater so here is your
chance to get after it. Last years event brought out 44 boats and
yielded the two largest bass in the clubs history (Right Josh and
Dave?) and a few other huge bass as well so we have the incentive.
Remember, our largest turnout ever is 45 boats so let’s try to best
that this year and see if we can track down those Hawgs again. I can
tell you that one of them had a distinct “scar”. He’s still in
Clearwater somewhere and he ought to weigh 8Lbs
or more by now….. find him again and you just may have a few prizes
waiting for you at this year’s awards dinner. What was his favorite
lure again? We’ll all find out at weigh-in so make sure you all get
down to Clearwater and we will get 2005 started right.
One additional
incentive note: After all the big fish last year at Clearwater, we’ve
decided to expand the Big Bass competition and will award both 1st
and 2nd place big bass (At Clearwater ONLY). Your 2nd
place Big Bass will be worth 4 points and top honors still gets 5
points. You’ll all want to stay close in the points race this year as
the officer group has also agreed that special recognition of our 2005
top 10 anglers is in order. Stay tuned for more details on that.
Schedule Change
The officer group has been staying busy working out details, tying up
loose ends, and even making some adjustments to our schedule. Yes,
we’ve made a schedule change. Our apologies for the late change but
after adding Kinkade Lake in Illinois to our calendar we were informed
that the lake has self-imposed regulations that only allow tournaments
of 25 boats or less during the months of June, July, and August. This
was put in place to help protect the fish from the stress of warm
weather tournament handling. Rather than limit our entries, we have
decided to bring our members back to the Show-Me state. Loved by some,
not really liked too much by a few, Mark Twain Lake is back on tap.
We’ll be going out of our traditional Hwy U access ramp again this
year. Although the past few years on Twain have been tough to say the
least, it has been slowly improving. In 2001 we had 28 boats and a 4
fish total In 2002 we had 32 boats and 8 fish total, then in 2004 18
boats caught 23 fish total so at least its on the upswing and if
nothing else, It’s relatively close. For those of you that may have
made reservations for Kinkade, we have explained the situation to the
fine folks at The Apple Tree Inn and they understand. Make sure and
call in your cancellations to Apple Tree Inn. Just so everybody knows,
they were all set to give Hawg Hawlers a 10% discount across the board
and on top of that they agreed to give the club one free night’s stay
valued at $60 to give away at our tournament. Special thanks go out to
The Apple Tree Inn and we hope that any anglers headed that way will
support our new friends in Murphysboro.
Stay For Free ?
Speaking of favorite resorts, this year Rob Cook, Club Secretary, has
been making arrangements and deals with resorts at nearly every lake
on the schedule. Some resorts have agreed to give a Hawg Hawlers
discount and some have donated a free night to be given away at our
tournaments. A lot of work is going into getting a good deal and a
prize or two from our favorite resorts. With that in mind, remember to
try to support these establishments when we can. They are marked on
our schedule page in the notes column. As always, the club will be
awarding terrific attendance prizes at tournaments but in addition to
these, the free nights stay (when available) will be drawn for from a
pool of members staying at that establishment. Certain other
conditions may apply such as a 2 night stay requirement but in all
instances it will be a prize worth sticking around for.
Mail it in !
A reminder to make sure and send in your membership forms to Lori.
Folks, these forms are CRITICAL with our new insurance provider. From
those forms we have to make a list of members to send to our agent. As
our insurance will be renewed in March, its imperative that we get
these all mailed in before Clearwater (rather than hand delivered at
the ramp) so we can get the correct list to our provider. PLEASE
INCLUDE A COMPLETED AND SIGNED MEMBERSHIP FORM (along with the fee if
applicable) WITH YOUR FIRST ENTRY THIS YEAR. Also remember that all
tournament entry forms must be received by the Wednesday before each
tournament so get em’ in on time folks. Late and “pay at the ramp”
entries are subject to a $10 late fee, are not eligible for attendance
prizes, and will be last take off position each tournament day.
A final word on your
2005 entry correspondence. When sending an entry, remember that the
official slip is not necessary but we MUST have:
1) The Boater and
Non-Boater names
2) Which lake the
entry is for (include dates if lake is on schedule twice)
3) Correct entry fee
(and membership fees for first tourney only)
Note: Fees can be
combined on one check. We only need to know what the total submitted
is targeted for. I.e. Membership and Entry fees can go on a single
check.
2005 Tournament directors
As always, we need volunteers to act as tournament directors. As
positions are filled they will be posted on the schedule page. Please
send an e-mail or phone message including Boater and Partner names, to
our Tournament Chairman, Dave McGarity, with the lake and date you
would like to be a TD. Please be aware that volunteers will be posted
to the schedule ASAP but no TD position submitted is guaranteed until
we have it posted. In the events of multiple volunteers for one spot,
we will award spots to the first request. Additionally, no second
request may be made until after our June tournament in order to give
all members a fair shot at serving. WHY BE A TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR?
Hey, good question. First off, on two day tournaments, you and your
partner will be the first boat out on the day you are not directors!!
As if that’s not enough, you receive 2 points toward your angler of
they year total (maximum of 4 points per year per angler). It’s also a
good chance to get to know club members and make yourself known. And
most importantly, you can use it as an excuse to eye ball what
everybody has tied on!!!! For details on duties or volunteering, get
in touch with Dave McGarity.
Info is also available in the points section of our web site.
News on Club gear
New in 2005 Hawg Hawlers gear will be easier than ever to get your
hands on. We will make the club logo available through the Bass Pro
Embroidery shop. The club is paying the fee to have the Logo put on
file at the store. Soon members will be able to get Hawg Hawlers logos
on nearly anything they like. More info and details will be coming on
this as we confirm details with the Bass Pro Shops. In addition, our
established relationship with Terry at Bee Creative Embroidery in New
Haven Missouri is open to direct orders from our membership. We’ve all
seen the terrific work they do on club jackets and hats. Contact Terry
directly at 573 459-4008 for more info and pricing if no answer just
leave a message.
Thanks Everyone.
More information as we get closer to Clearwater.
That’s all for now
so go fishing!
Teddy
