How to Start a Bass Tournament
Posted by Jack “Bo” Johnson on Oct 24th 2017
Organizing a bass tournament takes time, money, and patience. Anglers are always looking for a tournament to fish. The tricky part will be finding the right time and place to hold it without conflicting with other tournaments. Marketing to tournament anglers is generally easy to do.
You can advertise by handing out fliers at local lakes and to local businesses, such as sporting goods stores, hardware stores, and local restaurants to post on their walls and doors. Social media will probably get you the most attention. Target fishing groups and other local well known groups that fishermen would look at. Make sure to make your tournament is well known, but don’t over do it. Too much advertisement can hurt you.
Tournament anglers are usually loyal to their original tournament trails or clubs. To pull them away, you need to differentiate your tournament from the rest or hold it on different weekends from the main ones. Start with a 100% pay-out tournament to get people to come out for the big cash prizes. You should try your best to get to know all your anglers before and after the tournament and weigh-in.
Ensure that you have all proper licenses and have paid all fees to be able to hold your tournament. It would not be a good start if you got shut down on the first tournament due to some technicalities. Make sure that you have all the equipment and paper work that you need also. You will need forms for all the new anglers, waivers for each boater, tables and baskets for the weigh-in, and most importantly your scales. Without good scales, your tournament might give off the impression of “thrown together”. Don’t be out there using a luggage scale to weigh in your angler’s bags. “Good enough” scales just won’t cut it. Give your tournament the professional look and feel, get your scales from Tournament Scales.