TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF BASS CLUBS

 

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

 

To all members of the Texas Association of Bass Clubs:

 

Over the past several weeks I have personally received e-mails and calls from many of you expressing concern over us having our State Tournament on Falcon Lake.  After much though and I might add a lot of prayer, on Saturday the 12th we had a board meeting in Lufkin and have came to the following conclusion:

 

  1. It is just not safe to have a tournament at this time on Falcon Lake

2.      The information about pirates is NOT baloney, but for the most part true and I   cannot place any member of TABC in jeopardy.

 

As most of you know, in order for us to put on a tournament requires several month or preparation and many dollars.  However, this year will be somewhat of and exception.  So here goes. 

 

In order for us to move the tournament, we have lost support from the local chamber of commerce we would have received from Zapata as we did last year from Lufkin.  However we believe that we can still have a great tournament.   This year’s State Tournament will be held on CHOKE CANYON on the same weekend that we would have been at Falcon.  Registration will be held at Calliham Park on Friday night just as we always do with captain’s meeting to follow.  Tournament will go out of Calliham’s boat ramp with weigh-in at the top of the ramp on both days.  There will be no Saturday evening meal.  After weigh-in on Saturday contestants are allowed to leave and they are on their own.  On Sunday after weigh-in, while waiting on tournament results, there will be some sort of meal for the fishermen so they will not have to stop on their way home for food.  This year there will not be Tee Shirts given out unless we can find sponsors to completely pay for them nor will there be caps unless we can find sponsors for them.  There will still be goodie bags for all contestants.  We still have our national sponsors Minn Kota, American Rodsmiths, Yeti, and they have still given us prizes for our people. 

 

Now comes the bad news, some of you know what Eagle Ford Shale is and some of you do not.  For information this is oil and gas boom in the area around Three Rivers and what this means is that room are going to be hard to find.  There are still a few in the Three Rivers area but most of you will have to travel as far a Pleasanton or George West or Beeville to find lodging.  I urge you to consider the Cabanas in the State Park or camping areas and there is Choke Canyon Lodge between Three Rivers and the boat ramp.  In the next few days our web page will have every motel/hotel we can find and their numbers. 

 

 

For now, this is all of the information I can give you.  I know that the guy who said you can please some of the people some of the time, and most of the people most of the time, but you can’t please them all wasn’t thinking about a bass tournament, but I know it applies here.  Your board members fretted over this for weeks and this was a very difficult decision for us to make but we believe that we have made the right choice. 

 

In closing I would personally like to thank Speedy Collette and James and Tom Benedele at Falcon Lake Tackle for helping us set up at Falcon and I hope everything works out so we can maybe go their next year or certainly soon.   It is unfortunate that we can not go there this year. Most of all I would like to thank my staff for their input and loyalty to us all.  If there are questions or comments, please call or e-mail us.

 

Regards to you all

 

Ed Calderone

President TABC