Booking Lakes - Reservations for 50 Boats Please
January 2020, Volume 109
In the mid 90s I was enrolled at Northwestern State University getting my undergrad degree. I had the availability of recreational sports on campus and frequently used the gym, basketball courts, and the swimming pool. The swimming pool is located at the golf club house at NSU and I would drive through the course on my way to swim with little or no interest in golf. No interest whatsoever, that is until Tiger Woods started winning and winning easily, making golf look so easy. I would watch him on television and see the effortlessness it seemed he put into the striking of the ball and the pinpoint accuracy and control as he guided the dimpled ball towards the hole. The more I watched Tiger, the more I thought I could do that and soon I was the owner of a new set of golf clubs.
Bass fishing has recently gone through a similar transition as the “Tiger Woods Effect” had on golf. Now with the bombardment of around the clock bass fishing on television, YouTube, FLW, BASS, and 10,000 other media sources we can watch our favorite professional anglers as they “make it look easy!” I watch Kevin VanDam sling a crankbait out and entice a bass to bite as he reels it in or Gerald Swindle fish that famous “brown jig” of his and all I can think is “I can do that.” Heck I watched Jacob Wheeler’s win on the 2019 Major League Fishing Championship on my home lakes and don’t think for a minute I haven’t gone to those spots thinking I can do what he did. I can’t.
With all of the coverage, with all of the media hype, and with the building of interest in the sport there come many positives. One is that I am writing a bass magazine which I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined. Moreover, the sport is good for industry, especially in a state like Louisiana, the “Sportsman’s Paradise.” There comes a few negatives too and perhaps the biggest negative we hear is the overcrowding, overbooking, overfishing of our lakes and rivers.
How many times do you go to Facebook to check the tournament schedule or group page and discover your club is 1 or 2 maybe 3 clubs fishing a lake out of the same landing? It happens. It’s frustrating and many areas try to plan around one another as best the clubs can but occasionally there are just more tournaments than bodies of water. The popularity of the sport has made us all believe, “I can do what Jacob Wheeler does all I have to do is pay my money and get on the water.” Well trust me it is not that easy, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds and thousands of anglers hitting the local waters every weekend, and more and more clubs fishing on top of one another.
We fully understand this frustration, and for a few months now we have had a solution on our website. At Bassin’ in the Boot we offer a scheduler for tournaments on our webpage where you can enter your club’s tournaments and search for other tournaments in the state. It won’t fix every scheduling problem but it is available for everyone’s use, for free! I thought I’d take the time to walk everyone through the process.
Go to the homepage Http://www.bassinintheboot.com and click on Register Tourney.
Once there, click on the Gray Button in the middle of the page as instructed to open the form. Fill out the form with as much detail as you can, but make sure you have at least the basics, which are all the “required fields."
Once you complete and submit the form, return to the webpage http://www.bassinintheboot.com and click on Tournament Schedule and view your entry. That’s it!
The process is very simple, and was setup to allow anyone and everyone to enter their details, rather than relying on any one Facebook group, or any one person to try to keep a schedule. Best of all you don't need anyone else to do this; this process is totally self-service!
This may not solve all of the issues with lakes and tournaments but if nothing else it will serve as a tool to help you or your club decide when and where to fish. If you would like more information don’t hesitate to give us a shout at bassinintheboot@gmail.com and get out there and Geaux Bassin!
