Saturday our club had our very first "Day on the Lake with..." event with our first guest of the year, Dan Kimmel. It was awesome. The weather stunk and the fishing was tough, but Dan was a real sport and the guys all had a fun time. Basically a "Day on the Lake" consists of having a pro spend an hour on each boat throughout the day explaining techniques and helping coach the anglers. We broke for a short lunch on shore and had a chance to ask a few questions before finishing out the day. Our club has a mix of experienced anglers and some beginners. Everyone said they picked up something useful from Dan. I'm not sure if this has been done before, but it was a cool format for sure. Next month, we're doing a similar event on St. Clair and one in the fall at Kent Lake. Who knows, if this type of event becomes popular, we may do even more of these next season.
Bigtime thanks to Dan for coming out and spending the day with us. You were great as evidenced by just about everyone catching fish on what was a tough, tough day. And everyone enjoyed meeting and talking with you. Lots of smiles were had by all.
What club are you in?
Rev - I had a great time too. You have a friendly, fun and very generous group of anglers in your Eastside Bass Club.
I'm doing a follow up write up on what we did and why. Put some pointers down in writing so everyone has a better idea what each of us talked about in the various boats.
It will be kind of long and indepth - I'll break it up somehow into 'chapters' or something. I'll post it over on your club forum in the next few days when I'm done. I'll do a write up on it for this web site a little later.
The weather kept me from getting many pictures during the day and I didn't want to cut into anyone's fishing time any more than we had to with the approximate one hour per boat exchange.
I still can't believe we did 3 on-the-water boat moves (2 shoreline exchanges - not quite as tricky) and I didn't fall in once! Amazing. I was sure I'd take a dive sometime during the day.
Here's a couple pictures from the end of the day:
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/webccass220060513.jpg)
Some after the fishing boat clean up and follow up discussions among some of the Eastside Bass Club anglers.
(http://www.greatlakesbass.com/images/webccass20060513.jpg)
Most of Eastside Bass Club members who participated in the 'Day on the Lake' seminar: (L to R, nine total members participated, some had to leave a little early)
Mark, Steve, Tom (Revtro), Shane, Jack and Tom.
Thanks again for a great and fun idea Rev. I hope between day and my follow up write up that you will all feel you got some value from it, and it will help improve your success.
Dennis, we're the Eastside Bass Anglers. We will be fishing St. Clair, Kent, Cass, Halfmoon, Portage, Orion, Ovid, Maceday, Lobdell, and TIpsico. Not necessarily in that order. We usually meet at the Buffalo Wild Wings on Hall Road at Mound. Come check us out some time. We're not the biggest club in the world, but man what a great bunch of guys. I feel honored to be associated with such fine guys.
Dan, I can't wait to see the write up. You can come and hang with us anytime you want!!!
I think total, we had 5 boats and 9 guys make this event. There were 2 or 3 more that couldn't make it.