President’s Message 

2010 is almost here and I hope everyone is making plans to attend the Ohio Bass Federation Open Meeting. It will be February 6^th from 9 AM until 4:30 PM. with the doors open at 8AM. Also don’t forget about our Winner Dinner and program from 5:00 until 8:00 PM. The cost for the dinner is $27 with $10 for those 8 yrs. and younger. This all takes place at the Rhodes Center, Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH. This is the north side of 17^th street across from the fair grounds. Dinner forms are in Buckeye Bass and on the web site.

One item being raffled  this year is a 3 day 4 night guided fishing trip to Mexico. The lake is on the west side near the Gulf of California. Air fare is not included.

We will have the 50/50 raffle again this year with all of the drawings at the meeting. There are only 300 tickets so if all tickets are sold then we will give away $3000 and the Regions will get $3000. This is where the Regions will get their Regional tournament payouts this year. Each Region only has to sell 50 tickets to get their $500. The less tickets you sell the less the payout so contact your Regional Director.

 We will not have the $500 member attendance drawing this year. We did it for two years in hopes of raising the attendance at the Open Meeting but this didn’t happen so it won’t be there this year.

Also the Board is discussing having the winner from each Regional Tournament advance to the Championship. 

Beginning with the 2010 membership year all clubs must do their reafilliation and new member additions on the TBF membership web site. Also the Ohio Bass Federation, TBF and FLW membership fees are all due at the same time. The checks must be sent in to the State Secretary by November 1^st. The membership year for all three will run from January 1 to December 31^st.

Robert Cartlidge TBF President or a TBF Representative will be at the Open Meeting to present a Power Point Presentation on the TBF Membership Roster and how it works. All club Presidents and Secretaries should be there to see how it works and to ask questions.  

There are 15 clubs with 177 junior angers starting the Junior program for 2010.

Our Youth Director Mick Sturgill applied for a $1500 grant from TBF to help grow our youth program. There were two grants awarded. One went to Virginia and the other went to Ohio. “CONGRATULATIONS Mick.” 

Ohio also received a Berkley Prize Package for $1000 worth of merchandise for our youth program. This is a result of Daryk Eckert being the 11-14 age group winner at the National Guard Junior World Championship. It was held on the Allegheny River July 29-August 2, 2009 in Pittsburgh, PA in conjunction with the Forrest Wood Cup.   

Our 2009 State Team competed on the Mississippi River at Ft. Madison, Iowa and finished 4^th. Our top two finishers on the team will represent Ohio at the Federation National Championship April 21-25, 2010 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tony Waugh was the top man on the team and will be the angler or boater and Kevin Wells will be the co-angler. 

As most of you know our Vice President Steve Pearson passed away shortly after the 2009 Open Meeting. He was a Region 1 Director and was also on the Tournament staff for several years as well as being Vice President. He has certainly been missed this past year. I appointed Jeff Vogel the Region 3 Director to fill out Steve’s term.  

President’s Message

April 4, 2009

 ·        I attended the Federation National Championship in Branson, Missouri from March 10 through the 14^th. Pat Walker, Region 4 Director, also went and attended the Conservation meetings. Some highlights and information from the trip are:

·        Ohio’s two anglers that competed in the Federation National Championship were Boater Jeff Melsop from the Buckeye Bass Pro club and Co-Angler Dave Fogle from Shelby Co. Bassmasters. Jeff finished 30 out of 44 boaters and Dave finished 29 out of 44 co-anglers.

·        On Wednesday the 11^th we went on a tour of the Ranger Boat factory which was very interesting. They have cut their production on boats way down.

·        TBF has split the Western Division into a North and South and along with the new additions of New York and Ontario, Canada there are Federations in 45 states.

·        We have a guaranteed Pro or boater entry into the Stren Series for the State Champion. Must enter all tournaments in series. Can offer to top man at either SQT or a State Team member if State Champion isn’t interested.

·        TBF paid out, to the states, $35,000 for Youth and Conservation for dual TBF/FLW members.

·        Majority of states have required membership for FLW but some are not following through on it.

·        The 2010 Federation National Championship has a tentative scheduled date of April 13-18. New location to be announced.

·        FLW sponsors the Tuesday night banquet at the Divisionals and they have raised the money towards the banquet from $1500 in the past to $2500.

·        Ohio will be the host state again for the Northern Divisional in 2013.

·        FLW will give a $250 donation to a youth club that does a Reel Kids event at a Tour Event.

·        Sponsor packages are down sharply from 2008.

·        TBF reminded everyone that dues are due January 1^st This means being paid by then not registered online by then.

·        In most cases TBF will no longer accept paper rosters. All updates and new members must be done online.

·        Also must keep a check on invoices. If not followed up on they set there as a pending invoice that is not acted on.

·        TBF dues remain at $15 per year but TBF also has three Premium memberships starting in 2009 which are purely optional. They are Silver membership which includes 2 years of TBF and 2 years of TBF partner membership (FLW) plus various discounts for $300. A Gold membership with 3 years of TBF membership and 3 years of TBF partner membership (FLW) plus more discounts than Silver membership for $450. Last is the Platinum membership which includes 5 years of TBF membership and 5 years of TBF partner membership (FLW) with considerable more discounts for an initial cost of $600 but is expected to rise to $750. All 3 Premium memberships will have a money back guarantee that the member will save more than the cost of the membership.

·        TBF will, in the near future, have a members only online store with all proceeds going for Youth and Conservation. There will be 6 levels to the store. Standard TBF members, Silver members, Gold members, Platimum members, State Team members and State federations. Each level will have a higher discount and the higher you go the more discount.

·        At the state level for future consideration we will be looking at collecting all three dues, OBF, TBF and FLW at the same time.

Jim Doss
President Ohio Bass Federation

2008 Summary & Survey Results PDF

Attached is a document from the Division of Wildlife with all of the information that was discussed and presented at a meeting that Steve Coulter and I attended back in November, 2008. The meeting was sponsored by the Division of Wildlife and was called  Bass Regulations Forum. The document also contains a list of the participants. This is a very interesting and informative document and I hope you read and study it closely. There will be another Bass Forum in the fall of this year to further discuss strategy for the lakes and rivers in Ohio as they pertain to bass fishing.

Any comments or suggestions on the document or bass regulations should be sent by email to myself and Steve Coulter.

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
January 2009

2008 is finally over and the 2009 fishing season will be here before you know it.

We gave away a lot of money at the February 2008 Open Meeting. We had  the 50/50 raffle and gave away a total of $2,000. We had given away $1000 at the December 2007 board meeting. We also had a $500 attendance drawing in which the member had to be present with all of his dues paid to win.

Randy Conrad, who belongs to Coschocton County Bassmasters, name was drawn but was not in attendance to win. Sorry!

2008 was the year of our first dues increase since the mid 1990’s. Dues were raised $10 and along with budget cuts from lower mileage rates to watching our meals and motel expenses to cutting expenses from our tournament staff we have gotten back to having our head above water.

Our 2008 State Team competed on Lake St Clair in Michigan and we finished in 4^th place. Our top two finishers on the team will represent Ohio at the Federation National Championship March 10-15, 2009 in Branson, Missouri on Bull Shoals Lake. Jeff Melsop was the top man on the team and will be the angler or boater while Dave Fogle was second and will be the co-angler or non-boater.

Charley Hartley from Grove City, Ohio and a previous Ohio Bass Federation member led the 2008 Bass Master Classic on day one but dropped in the standings when his areas ran out of fish. Charley belonged to the Alum Creek Bassmasters in the 1980’s and early 90’s and was a founding member of the Walnut Springs Junior Fishing Club in Westerville, Ohio. This Junior club has been operating for over 30 years.

Our 2009 Open Meeting and Winner Dinner will be February 7^th at the same place as last year, the Ohio Expo Center- Rhodes Center – across from the fair grounds. We will have the $500 attendance drawing again this year with the member needing to be present with all dues paid to win. We will also be drawing all tickets for the 50/50 raffle at the Open Meeting. I’ve heard guys say they would like to see more payout money at the Regional Tournaments. The 50/50 raffle was started last year to do just that but the members in some regions didn’t want to make the effort to sell the tickets. If each region sold their allotted amount of tickets, which is only 50, then each region would receive $500 for prize money. Remember this is a 50/50 drawing with half the money going to prize winners. Last year 3 Regions sold 50 tickets or more and 3 Regions didn’t. I hope everyone does better this year. The board also voted last year to give each Region an extra $400 as prize money but gave them a percentage number in how it had to be paid out and this will be in effect again this year.

The Division of Wildlife opened access to several lakes owned by the Division to motorboats greater than 10 horsepower as long as they operate at idle speed. These lakes include Knox Lake in Knox County, Lake La Su An in Williams County, Oxbow Lake in Defiance County, and Rupert Lake in Vinton County.

The Division of Parks is doing the same with Burr Oak lake and they hope to have it open to this provision sometime in March , 2009.

Beginning immediately and starting with 2009, FLW dues will run a calendar year January 1 to December 31. Now your TBF dues and FLW dues will be paid at the same time. See the full article on this elsewhere.

TBF also has a new dues structure and a new online store so see that article elsewhere in the magazine.

Our 2008 Ohio Bass Federation Championship was a big success in qualifying our 2009 Ohio State Team. It was held on the Ohio River, Gallipolis Pool at the park front in Gallipolis with 283 fish caught weighing 352 lbs.. We were able to payout over $7,500 and were able to feed the contestants both evenings. Each contestant filled out an angler survey on their expenses for practice as well as the tournament. A total of $62,000 was brought into the community.

I believe we showed them what a well organized tournament is worth. 

I was elected to another 2 year term as President at the November board meeting and reappointed the same board with the exception of Vice President.  Karl Guegold who was V.P. resigned back in August after many years on the board and I appointed Steve Pearson to this position. Steve has big shoes to fill as Karl always did an excellant job but I know Steve will be up to the task.