Downtown Bass Anglers of Durham Region

One week into the New Year, I thought it would be good to recap the 2009 season, and talk briefly about the upcoming 2010 season.

We started off the 2009 season with the First Annual DTBA Tackle Swap that was a huge success. Tons of gear and tackle exchanged hands. A ton of members showed, and with coffee and donuts, everyone was in the right mood to buy gear. It set the tone for a great 2009 season.

In February we held our First Annual Basstalk @ Downtown Bass anglers Club that brought 50 anglers together to talk fishing, and set the stage for an even better event next year. I’m definitely looking forward 2010.

February was an extremely busy month, not only did we hold The First Annual Shimano @ Gagnon’s Event. Over 40 of our members showed up enjoying Pizza and great deals. But we also attended The Spring Fishing Show and held our first ever raffle for a rod and reel combo generously supported by Bob and Lee of Shimano. This was an excellent opportunity to promote our club. The Fishing Show helped us boost our membership , and we gained some great members like Chris Chappell, Greg King, The Thompson’s and Stephen Raynard to name a few.

2009 also saw us making good on a commitment to launch the website, www.downtownbassanglers.com , a project on our book for a while. By the time you read this, we’ll have 10000 hits on our site. I want to thank everyone involved with making this site a reality.

We also launched our clothing line and freshened up our logo. The DTBA Tourney Jerseys turned out great. It was awesome seeing everyone wearing them to the tourneys.

Many of our members have been supporting local volunteer events such as, 7th Annual Uxbridge Youth Fishing Event called Huck Finn Day, The 2009 Shimano Take A Kid Fishing Day @ Bellwood Lake Conservation Area, The 2009 Angler Young Angler Event in Port Perry, and the Catch A Dream event held in Orillia, Northumberland Big Brothers Big Sisters Event , and the Tim’s and MS events as well. It’s great to see so many of our members leading and giving back to the community.

Our 2009 Tourney was a real success with six well attended tourneys culminating at the final event, The DTBA Fall Classic held at Limerick Lake Lodge. This is the first year since I started with the club that every tourney attracted 10 boats or more, congrats guys! I would like to congratulate the following team for their wins.

1. Simcoe Perch – Mike G and Basil

2. Dalrymple Pike – Shawn and BJ

3. Rice Walleye – Chris, Peter G, and Terrence

4. Scugog Bass – Darryl and Ryan

5. Quinte Bass – Jeff and Greg

6. Limerick Bass – Lou and Greg

Special notes, the meeting after the Scugog event at CW Coops was a great time. As well, the Fish fry at the perch event, and the BBQ’s at the Quinte and Limerick event were great ways to finish off a great day of fishing.

The Angler of the Year was one of the most tightly contested to date. At the last event, four members had a shot at clinching the title. In the end, Mike Graham narrowly edge out Andrew Jamison to capture this year’s title. Great work guys.

2009 was the DTBA club bring in one of the most diverse line up of guest to date. The year started of with;

 January’s guest, Dave Johnson speaking about the Perfect Practice

 February, John MacDonald Q & A

 March, Mike and Mary from Bass Magnet.

 April, Cory Johnson Q & A

 May, Jocelyn Leung from Angling outfitters speaking about Lowrance

 June, Jay Martin and Planning for Success

 September, no guest but great discussion on the past season

 October, Curtis Richardson on his experience on the pro circuit

 November, Joe Figurea on Dock Fishing

 December, Barry Grave on Smallies in Simcoe.

Overall, a great line up of speakers!

With a club of this size, it requires many people in the background volunteering their time to run this club. I would like to thank Bill Clarke for this help with 2009’s tourney schedule. Not sure how he scheduled the perfect weather for each tourney as well, but we always seemed to have it. Glenn Meek, Bob Hoy, and Bill Clarke for running the tourneys, never an easy job at the best of times. Overall, the feedback was that the tourneys were better run and organized than in past years. Glenn Meek for launching our Website. Jay for organizing our guests for each meeting. Bill Clarke for his support at the Fishing Show. Bucky Tytler& Pete Seto for the Gagnons event. Jeff Thompson for his donations to the Bass Tourneys. Chris Tieber for his guidance every now and then. Mike Smith, who stepped down as a Director this past summer, for his support and guidance as well. I would also like to thank Chris Chappell for his support at the tournaments. At almost every event this year, he unselfishly volunteered to carried two non boaters in his boat to ensure that no one was left behind on shore. Thanks guys!

We also had the support from the following vendors;

The Iroquois sports bar and grill for giving us the run of the joint on Monday nights and supporting the Basstalk event.

Gagnons, for their continued support of our club.

Andy for the great deal on the booth at the Spring Fishing Show, that allowed us to attend.

Shimano for giving us the Rod and Reel combos and swag at the Gagnons event.

Edmund Wong at Siltec for working with us, doing a number of jersey designs, and giving us a great deal in the end.

Jack Van Buuren of Adventure Fishing Maps for donating prizes for our tourneys.

Rosa and Charlie of Lures & Tours for allowing us to use some of their images on our site.

Also the Kawartha Anglers, Big Fat Bass for letting me tie up so much hard drive space /lol

Going forward, 2010 looks to be no less busy for our club and certainly no less challenging.

This January, we will be holding our first ever executive election. Our club has grown to a point where it will need a coordinated effort from many members to drive it forward in the future.

We will again be attending this year’s Spring Fishing Show in February.

We are again hosting a Basstalk event at the Iroquois in March.

From a guest speaker stand point, to start off this year, we have Brad Arnott, Joe Ford & Live Target, Mike and Mary & Bass Magnet, John Noel & Humminbird Graphs to take us into May.

Throw in a tackle swap and another Vendors night or two and we’ll be busy as hell until the fourth weekend in June LOL.

Looks like it will be another great year for the Downtown Bass Anglers Club of Durham Region.

Finally, I want to let everyone know what a true pleasure it has been running this club. In the beginning, we set out to achieve a bunch of goals and I’m very proud to say that we achieved almost every one of them. I feel very fortunate to have been associated with such a great group of guys. I look forward to work with the new executive team that is coming in and attending the meetings from the back of the room with Bucky & Billy!!LOL

Thanks guys.