Downtown Bass Anglers of Durham Region

Hi Guys.

I hope everyone has had a chance to take advantage of the great weather that we have been blessed with these past few days. Myself, I had a fantastic time ice fishing this weekend with a fellow club member, Tom Brandon. We had a chance to take our kids out fishing the they had a great time. Hopefully, we?ll get a chance to do this in the future. This is a great lead in to our first item.

Downtown Bass Anglers Young Anglers Initiative

The Downtown Bass Club was formed under the idea of sharing, teaching and having fun with a sport we love. As a club, we have always tried to offer the members great guest speakers and club events.

To continue with this and engage kids to participate in fishing, in 2009 the Downtown Bass Anglers Club will continue the Downtown Junior Anglers program. This program is incorporated into the Downtown Tournament Trail.

The Junior Anglers program will allow those who sign up as boaters the opportunity to bring one of the kids under the age of 13. The boater will still draw a non boater for that day. As we have seen in the past with fellow anglers, the excitement both Harry and Harrison Jr. had fishing together, we wanted to give the young kids a chance to fish and spend time with their parent.

Boaters will be the only competitors eligible. We see this as a thank you and little perk for bringing out your boat.

Simple Guidelines:

Ø      Children under 13

Ø      One child per day

Ø      Exclusive to boaters

Ø      Still draw a non boater

We look forward to another great year of tournaments.

Ok, now for a quick recap of the March meeting and a chance to highlight a few events that are going on.

First off, I would like to welcome our latest club members, Chris & Nikoias Papanikoias, Chris Chappell, Steve Stinson, Peter Gos, Al Russell, Greg King, Dave Hircock, and Jacob Zavitz. Welcome to the Downtown Bass Anglers Club of Durham Region!

March 9th, our guests were Mike & Mary Nabulsi of Bass Magnet Lures http://www.bassmagnetlures.com/2008/default.asp . Judging by the response from the club, everyone was extremely impressed with the latest offering from Bass Magnet. I don?t think there were too many people leaving empty handed. And to top the evening off, both Mike and Mary share some of their experiences from last year?s tournament trail. On behalf of the club, Thanks Mike and Mary for a great night!

Following a massive spending spree, the club had chance to look at our new website ?Downtown Bass Anglers Club of Durham Region?. Here?s the link www.downtownbassanglers.com . Hopefully everyone has a chance to use the site and Glenn is looking for feedback, so please feel free to use the forum and other features of the site.

Last Monday saw a dozen members sign up. Tournament time is just around the corner, so if you haven?t had a chance to register, what are you waiting for! J Many club members have emailed me wondering if they could still take advantage of the early bird tournament fee. Also a few of you have expresses interest in putting a deposit down on our tournament jerseys and swag. I will be at Hirk's tomorrow, Thursday March 19, 2009 @5pm to 7:30pm to take deposits on the swag or the tourney fees. Here's the Google link for Hirk's http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enCA303CA303&q=Hirk's%20Fishing%20%26%20Marine&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl <http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enCA303CA303&q=Hirk%27s%20Fishing%20%26%20Marine&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl> , and here's the address in case the link doesn't work, 1561 KING ST. UNIT #8. COURTICE, ON. L1E 2G5. 905-576-8600. I may be available next week as well, but that is still up in the air.

With regard to the boater?s card, one of our members, Glen Pickering - glenpickering@rogers.com , is organizing an exam only night April 1st @ 7pm at the Iroquois. If you are interested in writing the exam only, I would suggest that you take this opportunity to write the test. For those that would like to take a refresher before writing the exam, please email me and I?ll arrange a separate test for those individuals.

Thanks to all those that have volunteered for the Huck Finn Day on the last Saturday of April in Uxbridge. As I get more details, I will email everyone separately. Thanks again.

Just a reminder, due to Easter, we?ll need to move our meeting up to April 6th, 2009. Our guest speaker will be Cory Johnson, and he?ll be speaking on ?How to be a good consistent tournament angler?.

Our First tournament of the year, Perch on Lake Simcoe, is fast approaching. I toyed with the idea of have everyone back to my place for a fish fry. I live 20 minutes south of Simcoe in Uxbridge. I would like to ask for volunteers to clean and cook the Perch. Please email me if you?re interested in helping. Hopefully we get enough interest and we?ll have a great finish to the first event of the year.

That?s it for now, if anyone has any comments or questions, please don?t hesitate to contact me.