A Bass Club vs. ABA District: What Is The Difference?
Are you considering joining a bass club or tournament organization? Maybe you already are a member of a club, but you are wanting an opportunity to advance in the world of bass fishing. Your club could be looking for ways to offer more to its members. Is there an organization that offers these opportunities at a reasonable cost and without a lot of travel expenses? The American Bass Anglers Tournament Trail is that organization. Let’s compare what a bass club can offer to the wealth of opportunities at your disposal through ABA.
Bass Clubs:
A club is typically a close group of friends that get together, have meetings for fellowship and also hold club tournaments. Each club elects officers, creates by-laws, collects membership dues, conducts their tournaments and typically has a year-end event/championship for their club. Clubs are a great way to learn about bass fishing through the opportunities afforded by fishing with different anglers and on a variety of various lakes.
Club tournaments typically have low entry fees–a part of which is kept for the year-end tournament and the rest is paid back to the participants in different ways. This keeps the competition highly competitive, but also friendly.
Clubs typically have different rules and structures. Some fish team, some fish draw, and some even have solo events.
With a club there is no real national recognition unless one of their anglers makes it to the end of a very long journey. There is no tie to other clubs as far as who are the top anglers in the country. We all know the odds of an angler making it to the end of this very long road are astronomical at best!
ABA Districts:
An ABA District is an open group of ABA members in an area. Some districts have meetings and some do not. The ABA determines a leader/president (Director), but the general membership typically lets us know who the right person is to run that district.
The ABA has one yearly membership fee and each district has at least 6 events per year that includes a two-day district championship.
Every ABA Tournament is conducted by the same set of rules. This is really important because it makes the playing field level from coast to coast. A tournament in your area will be run the same as in any other area of the country.
ABA started its “Bring your Boat, Use Your Boat” policy in the 1990’s. What does this mean? If you bring your boat to an ABA Tournament, you are guaranteed the use of your boat. If there are not enough non-boaters to go around, the remaining boaters are given launch positions and may fish alone. The “draw-format” is an open draw. Boaters are paired with non-boaters until all the non-boaters have a partner, then the remaining boaters draw for launch position and fish alone.
One of the best and most convenient features of our district qualifying tournaments is that you do not have to belong to a particular district to fish any ABA event. Meaning, if you live in Ohio, for example, and in the wintertime you are in Florida on vacation, you can fish a local Florida ABA Tournament. Our members like this aspect of being able to fish anywhere, anytime. It is a great way to learn new waterways and experience fishing with different anglers. Just like in the clubs, you can learn a lot from and enjoy great camaraderie through fishing with different anglers.
The ABA provides national exposure for every angler that fishes ABA Tournaments.
As soon as tournaments are reported back to the ABA headquarters the tournament results are posted, and each angler gets a personal “points’ page” on the web. This allows each member to see how he or she is rated compared to anglers from all around the country.
The points system is set up to ensure everyone is scored equally. No ‘points-plus-pounds’ that will give one area of the country an advantage over another. Meaning, the guys in Florida might be catching 30 pound strings, but do not gain an advantage nationally over districts catching strings in the teens. It provides a level playing field nationwide.
The ABA point system is set up to capture the ABA members’ best 4 one-day tournaments plus their best two-day district championship to determine their point standings. ABA members can fish as many one-day tournaments and two-day tournaments as they wish in any district they wish; however, only their best 4 one-day tournaments and their best two-day finish will count for their point year-end total. This means you can have a bad tournament and fish another and do better and the bad tournament does not count against your final point standings.
ABA provides a national office and a national staff.
The ABA National Office is located in Athens, AL and you can call the toll free number from 8am – 5pm CST Monday – Friday, and get a real live person to talk to. Our ‘member services department’ is more than you might expect. In most cases when you call, you can even talk to the President of ABA, Morris Sheehan. We challenge you to find this kind of personal member services with any other another national organization.
Sponsor Bonuses and Promotions:
Many ABA sponsors offer either a bonus for tournaments or have special promotions through which anglers can get involved. With the Triton Gold Bonus the payout at local district tournaments can be over a 100% payback. Starting in January, 2006, with a 30 angler field, if a Triton Gold member wins, he or she is eligible for a $500 bonus. With a 60 or more angler field, if a Triton Gold member wins, he or she is eligible for a $1,000 bonus. With either bonus, Triton Gold winners are eligible for the Triton Gold Championship. Other sponsors offer various bonuses like Anglers Advantage Insurance who offers a $100 bonus on Big Bass for AAIP customers. AiRRUS Rods, Bayou Outdoors, and Secret Weapon Lures each offer special ‘ABA only’ discounts on their products. Sponsor promotions not only thank the sponsor for being involved with the ABA, but reward members as well.
ABA members are ranked nationally, and they are also ranked within a special grouping called Service Teams. ABA has seven service teams: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Non-Military, and Lady Anglers. If you were ever in the military, you are placed on the appropriate military service team. This allows ABA to reward and recognize ABA members for their accomplishments within their service team. Example: Who is the top Army angler in the US? This is tracked and updated weekly on the ABA website and is also reported in the ABA Magazine.
ABA also publishes the American Bass Anglers Tournament Trail Magazine. It is published 6 times per year and, from cover to cover, features stories about the weekend angler– not pros. These are articles from weekend anglers for weekend anglers.
What about the year end?
The ABA Championship is like no other championship you have ever attended. It is about the members and the Championship. If you speak to anyone that has attended, they will tell you it is the best run event in the fishing industry. With over 1,000 tournaments nationwide each year, it is impossible to distribute sponsor products at all of the tournaments. Instead, the ABA sponsors really pour it on at the Championship. The odds are better than 2 in 3 for an ABA member walking away with a prize at the National. For example, at the 2005 National Championship in Shreveport, LA., AiRRUS Rods gave away 100 rods! That is a 1 in 5 chance alone.
At the 2005 Championship, 3 Triton 21X Series Bass Boats, each with a 225hp Mercury Marine Optimax Motor, Lowrance Electronics and a MotorGuide Trolling Motor were awarded. These boats are fully rigged and ready to put in the water. One of the boats went to the winner of the Championship, one to the ABA Angler of the Year (the top point holder after the Championship) and one by draw. For the draw boat, names are drawn from all ABA members that have fished 4 one-day tournaments and a two-day district championship. The awards at the 2005 ABA Championship totaled over $300,000, and were all for American Bass Anglers members, the weekend angler. This makes the payback on the ABA tournament trail over 132% by the end of the season.
The entry fees for a one –day tournament is $55 and $110 for a two-day tournament. So, if an angler fishes the 5 required events of 4 one-day tournaments and 1 two-day tournament, the total cost to the angler is only $330.00. Compare this to fishing any national circuit, and you can see that this is set up for the true weekend angler. The total season entry fees are less that fishing 2 tournaments in some circuits, and in some cases, only 1 of another circuit, and you get more from the ABA in return.
Advantages of ABA over a club
• National recognition for all members
• Low entry fees
• A Huge SAME-YEAR National Championship
• 132% payback by the year-end
• No Pros or Guides allowed
• No dress requirements (Wear & display your sponsor logos)
• One set of rules
• No meetings to attend
• Fish in any district, not just locally
• Bring Your Boat, Use Your Boat
• Sponsor Programs
• Sponsor Bonuses
• Service Teams Bonuses
• Fish an entire season for less than the cost of fishing only 2 of the other national circuit events
Can a club become an ABA District?
Of course they can! If the nearest ABA district is more than an 1.5 hours from your home waters, you need an ABA district closer to you.
If you are interested in taking your club in a better direction, call our toll free number 888-203-6222 and we can get you started on becoming part of the ABA family!
I have been thinking about trying something different than the club that I fish in.