How many were at Arlington John?

19

How about a Sunday trail, since all the tournaments being held now are on Saturday? Just a suggestion. I have no preference but maybe to combat the problem of overlapping events.

You guys are on the right track. I see a lot of similarities between where you guys are now and where we were at one point. As mentioned, start off grass roots and keep it going no matter what. If 85% of attendance is he same 25 guys over and over again for a year or two, so be it. Build that core group of anglers and expand off of that. Anglers will come and go for one reason or another but as long as you keep adding to the core group, slowly but surely, you will be there. Put ego's aside and be respectful to one another. Act professional but at the same time, have a freaking blast at the events. It is impossible to make everyone happy so keep that in mind BUT it is imperative that you guys work together and listen to the anglers. Don't be afraid to take chances and try new things. It is ok to fail. It's better to try and fail, then to never try at all. If you fail, get off of your butt, make a change and move forward. You will not grow unless you able to do this. Get the youngsters involved. Community outreach is huge and we have seen several youngsters fish events with us. Some of those guys are starting to grow up and it's just a matter of time before they start really having success. Have a beer with your buddies afterwards but have respect for others, youngsters included, and don't get trashed or get high around everyone else. Keep that in your personal life. Sorry if this sounds like a corny motivational speech but when it all boils down to it, it works.

Just keep on going guys and you'll be there before you know it.

I've only read through the first page of comments but I'll add some insight from my perspective.

KATS was built over many many years. It was only recently that it grew to 100+ anglers and even that turnout is only for the first few events. Don't lose sight of these facts and dont get discouraged over a 20 angler turnout.

Your events need to start out with someone local heading things up. Someone who is in touch with the fishing community on a personal level. Whether this person(s) works with a store or alone I don't think matters but they need to connect with the people and understand what is expected out of a series. Make no mistakes, its a full time job and grass roots is the best way to grow the scene.

Bite your tongues. If you're not going to give physical or monetary support to the tournament director, dont criticize what they are doing. This is especially true if you arent even fishing their events. Nothing discourages people from running events more than moaning and groaning, especially if you are paying money out of your own pocket to host things. I know because I ran and helped run our thursday nighters. As of now, our thursday nighters are non existent in part due to a few people who offered nothing more than complaints. Flat out I have better things to do than listen to a bunch of grown men complain about a $10 tournament and offer no real assistance.

You have to be willing to travel. With the exception of Town Lake and Decker, all other lakes are a minimum of 1 hour from austin. For 90% of everyone, Town Lake and Decker are at least 30 minutes with no traffic. With the recent "green" movement Bastrop doesnt stay hot in the winter either since the plant isnt generating. Decker has a power plant but it rarely gets used, and fayette is at least 1.5 hours from austin. True our lakes dont get as cold as DFW's but we still fight the cold and its not always like shooting fish in a barrell, trust me. Anyhow, our guys are willing to drive 1-4 hours for a tournament. No excuses, no complaints, just passion for tournaments and competing.

Also, dont think that ACK is dumping endless funds into KATS. For the most part they supply the labor and thats about it. Its really growing because of the anglers. When was the last time you saw an ad for KATS on the ACK website or facebook page?

Chris P. brought up motivation. What does motivate you guys? I can tell you most of the guys I know would fish KATS even if it was just a simple payout and no sponsors or raffles. Most of us honestly just enjoy being able to brag that we were the best for that one day, hanging out with friends, and having fun. Money, prizes, awards, are simply a bonus for us. I find it hard to believe a majority of guys in Texas are in it for big payouts but it seems to be a deciding factor for some. Look at the Texas turnout for the KBS event at Rayburn. Only a handful of guys from Texas even showed up and only I showed up from the Austin area. This could have been a HUGE payout event, so I dont get it. Im not bragging about us that showed, Im just stating my extreme disappointment in that turnout and the frustration it probably caused KBS.

Dont think a tournament scene will appear just because. You have to put in lots of hard work, hours, money, and thankless effort. Good luck fellas, I'd love to see the north texas scene explode.

Great response Marcus!

Without Dennis, starting and running KATS, it would have never gotten off the ground...yes, he had some help...but it was his vision and his hard work that made it work in the beginning, and if ACK had not taken over from Dennis...KATS would not be around in it's current form today. I think you have a better chance of getting a budget through Congress than getting 5 different stores to agree on a tournament series. It is hard enough to schedule and run a tournament series with one store, let alone 5 different stores. You need one store in charge that is willing to agree to put the time and resources into developing a tournament series and that includes getting the sponsors, providing the tournament staff, developing the tournament website, coming up with the resources to run the tournaments including how to collect the money via a secure website, the computers, the e-mails...all the necessary things for running a successful tournament series.

One store has to be in charge...if all stores are in charge...than no one is in charge...and nothing will become of this other than talk and wishful thinking.

He has the wisdom of a 100 year old Flathead......that's for sure.

Ha Ha.....sometimes I make myself laugh.

Sorry to the Dallas crew for us stinky Austin guys muddying up your thread. Carry on.

while I wont be accepting a nomination for speaker of the house or anything similar in congress anytime soon, I can confidently say that many positive steps have been made in the last few weeks. I would like to thank the pro-staff representing their sponsored stores for meeting and presenting to the local retailers. Without their hard work and dedication none of it would have been possible. I expect some details to be released soon, so stay tuned.

Ya'll aren't stinking up the thread Ryan we all appreciate the input ideas are what we are looking for

Let's keep this going. I've seen a ton of new faces his year. I think part of it is a credit to the Facebook site DFW Kayak Fishing. We excluded those stinky ATX guys lol. In all seriousness we are growing.

I want to see bass at the scales keep your cameras at home

How do you propose that to happen without live wells?