What's the Value of Joining a Fishing Club?
By Andy Cleveland, Green Bay Bassmasters

My wife and I started Bass fishing on a regular basis last summer. While we enjoyed being out on the water, we struggled to consistently catch fish. We spent the entire summer fishing by trial and error based upon all of the misconceptions that had been passed on to us by every friend and family “professional” angler. We knew that there had to be more to consistently catching Bass, but had no idea where to begin.

One day we were flipping through the channels on the TV and saw the Bassmasters Elite series. From there we logged onto Bassmaster.com and had our first look at this whole new world of fishing. We immediately became members. We read every book and article and watched every video we could get our hands on. We also subscribed to every fishing magazine that came our way. We spent the entire winter learning as much as possible about Bass fishing. We also spent the winter upgrading our equipment to better compliment all of the new tips and techniques we were learning about. We replaced our small fishing boat with a used Bass boat so we could start fishing bigger bodies of water.

Near the end of winter I felt pretty confident about my newfound knowledge and I wanted to start fishing in tournaments. Through Bassmater.com, I contacted our states Federation Nation president. He then put me in contact with a local club in the area. When I first started talking with the local club president, I was very hesitant to join. He told me about all the different benefits of becoming a member and that it would speed up the learning curve. I just wanted to become a member so I could enter tournaments, not to learn from them. I just spent an entire winter studying all of the different aspects of Bass fishing. I also thought the cost of becoming a member was too expensive. I wanted to move forward but was worried about all the things I didn’t know. Click on Andy's picture to read more...

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