Tournament Sponsorship

[Fishtails]

I wanted to give some recognition, as well as a call out to all our tournament sponsors of the past and future....IMO, If you want us to buy your products, a great place to start is to give out more quality product through our tournaments. I say this not to get "free stuff", but because I personally discovered two "new to me" spoon manufacturers that will be taking more of my spoon orders for next year.

I received several Savant spoons at the FairHaven Challenge and I am beyond impressed with them. The paint is superior quality and IMO blows away many other brands I have used. I caught 4-5 big kings on one last week, plus several drops and it still looks brand new. The colors and patterns are top notch and they don't rely on tape that will fall off. They are a thicker spoon as well, and don't bend like most when a big fish has it sideways in it's mouth. I'm not affiliated with Savant at all....just a new fan! I would not know this had I not gotten a few at a tournament.

The Savant Double Trouble has been a hot glow spoon for me.

I received a Yeck spoon at The Wilson Salmon Slam that I forgot about until two weeks ago. I only have this one spoon from Yeck, but It was a hot spoon for me next to the above mentioned spoon. So much that I went shopping for a few more in the same pattern but couldn't find it. It took numerous kings for me the past few weeks, including our largest. I will be buying more spoons from Yeck.

A-tom-mic has been onto this for awhile now. Tom leads the pack with giving out product and supporting tournaments. I applaud him for this and I know my boat always has over 100 A-tom-mic flies on board, as well as other products I purchase from him. What better way to get fishermen hooked on your products than to give out a couple "quality" patterns for them to dabble with. We'll catch a few fish on them and bam...we need the whole product line!!

I have lot's of product manufacturers I'm a big fan of besides the above mentioned, like Sigg's Rigg's, Big Weenie, Dreamweaver, Pro Troll, Luhr Jenson, Stinger, NK, etc, etc, etc.

My question is....why don't more of the sponsors offer up more free product at tournaments? I know some kick in $$, and that's most important. We owe a big thanks to those who do, but product is what gets us to spend money!! The Pro Am's ....Please...I'm lucky to get a cut bait head or maybe one spoon.....that's it!! Keven Jerge gave out a huge entry package for the Wilson Salmon Slam, as did Fat Nany's at The Fat Nancy's Shootout. The FairHaven challenge gave away quality product through extended awards and raffle tickets. I missed The Little Salmon Challenge, but I think they had a good giveaway also.

We fishermen benefit by getting new products to try out, but ultimately the sponsors are the big winners by gaining new customers who spend big money and love to spread the news when we find a new "hot product".

[Billy V]

There are literally hundreds, maybe even over a thousand, tournaments on the Great Lake each year, and if a manufacturer was to donate to all of them I could see that costing them an awful lot of money. There are lots of great companies who DO choose to donate to an awful lot of those tourneys, some of whom you've already named. But I can't see how a company could donate to all of them. Most tourney donations are raised by someone who's involved with the tourney asking someone they know at a particular company to donate. I know for a fact that Sigg's Rigs, Dreamweaver, and Northern King donate tons of product to the Pro-AM's and other events. My guess as to why you didn't see them donating to the various one-day Challenge tournaments is that they weren't ever asked to donate. I know that when I asked all of them to donate to the now-defunct Shawn's Marina brown trout tournament both of them sent me plenty of donations.

[Fishtails]

I absolutely agree Bill, and maybe I maybe either made my point unclear, or perhaps you misunderstood what I was saying. Kudos to all the sponsors who donate products, and by no means would I think All should donate to every one. That's silly and I'd never meaningfully imply that. I simply expressed a couple examples of how donating a few lures can turn into big returns on sales when those lures put fish in our boat.

I can only speak of those tournaments and examples I have fished. There are many brand names out there I have not fished. Why...because there is a comfort level of using what I'm familiar with. I'm only expressing "my" opinion on how I think lure manufacturers can increase their sales through our fishery via route of our ever expanding tournament series. You know as well as anyone the power of promotion.

It benefits everyone, not just the manufacturers. For Example, I'm now thrilled to have Savant In my arsenal. I now know his spoons are first class and those three spoons I received will have a return of probably 100 spoons in sales to me alone, not to mention everyone I spread the word to.

That's all I'm saying

[ray koziatek]

Rod , we all would like the sponsers to grow ,i bet if we hired a few of those hooter girls to go door to door to diff. mfg. for donations we would all walk out with a armfull of prizes.The pro/ams must bring in close to 1000.00 for each boat to the local economy.thats 80,000.00 in a weekend and probly closer to 100,000.00 figuring in beverages.Im shure a huge problem is getting volenteers to do the legwork needed for P.R...for these derbys.So maybe the towns involved could use some of there resorces (people) for this,as im shure they all do now.Us talking about it is the first ,step someone reacting to it in a positive manner will be step two, and mfgrs reacting to the request will be the final step.so if any of the derby organizers have ideas as to how we can help let us know,many of us own our own buisness or have run fundraisers or been involved in such matters and may be a good asset to the programs or derbys. LET US KNOW WHAT WE CAN DO AND IT WILL GET DONE.

[Billy V]

My question is....why don't more of the sponsors offer up more free product at tournaments?

I was just answering your question Rod. I'd like to see more tourneys have packages like the one we got at the Fat Nancy's event too! That was a sweet deal. It's a matter of economics for the manufacturers. I agree that if a manufacturer wants to get the word out about their product that donating to these events is a good way to do so. But so is advertising in magazines like GLA, trade shows, visiting tackle shops, pro staff, etc. They gotta make a decision about where to spend their time & money.

Shoot, no one had even heard of Savant spoons a few years ago let alone run one. They made a lot of headway in the Great Lakes via the tournaments. So I agree with you; it works.

[muskybob]

Ray, when the hooter's girl comes knocking for a donation, give her some:

[ray koziatek]

No ones home mam im just the plummer !!! try muskies house next door..Ya know bob i dont post pics of my wife cause of people like you, i shurly dont need to see pics of your girlfriend after your post.

[Fishtails]

Gotcha Bill... . I know with my business I totally changed my way of advertising to coincide with the changing times. I now advertise on the internet only....I was one of the first in my business to do so and It's paid off for me.

If what I'm hearing comes to fruition, next year will be the biggest year for tournaments on Lake O ever. I've heard there will even be two Scotty's on the US side next year? Us tourney fishermen spend huge bucks on tackle....right there with charter captains. We're also very internet savy.......hmmmm

Ya know bob i dont post pics of my wife cause of people like you, i shurly dont need to see pics of your girlfriend after your post.

That's pretty funny Ray!

[alloutdoorsman]

I heard that Scotty is doing tournaments the same weekends as the pro ams in oswego and sodus!!! Anyone hear that too??? That will kill the pro ams and so be it, seems like oswego is goin down hill anyway!

[Jeff J]

Rod,

Glad to hear that those Savant spoons worked well. You are right about getting and using product and then buying more. I will be looking at getting some myself. We all hear about different brands of products and don't always buy them to try. Got to stop somewhere. You get something to try, it works, and you buy more. I want to chime in here and THANK all the sponsors of all the events that I participated in with you. Hopefully it will get better and better!!!

Jeff

[Tall Tails]

They are not the same weekends as the pro ams from what I am hearing. Sound like the wilson one will be before the Olcott proam and the Oswego one will be in Aug!!!!!! Cant wait. I will wait until official annoucement of the dates to get really excited!

[Fishstix]

Anyone know anyone that works for Citgo or Sunoco?

I would like to try their gas.

Ill tell you my spin on LO fishing its a little off topic but it affects us all.

I have a close contact with the DEC. Licence sales are down.The state is putting more money in bike trails,canoe launches, hiking trails stuff like that.less into fishing ,stocking etc. So people come to lake o they must catch fish. If they dont they wont come back.

Hey you got a hot spoon goin? What is it? You going to say it on the radio? Im not anti tourny or derby but I do notice how quiet the radio is when one is on. Other people are listening also. People that need to catch a fish or they wont be back.

Im just as bad. If someone askes me directly I tell em. Im not 100% reveling in my posts either. [i used to be] But my posts are honest.

Bottom line is everyone that fishes LO must catch fish. We all stand to gain if they do.

Ive probaby got two years worth of untried spoons ,dodger,flies in the boat now.Three boxes as of last count. Still buying more.

[Fishtails]

OK....I found & added a picture of the Savant spoon I had great luck with