As a fairly OLD "newbie" backseater I like to fish with new people and learn or improve techniques.  I have learned many things (about fishing) from everyone that I have gone out with, even Jim   DOH!

But now that I have the "cruiser" and the wife is interested enough to go with me when we go on the smaller lakes I try to include her whenever I can.  But iffin' it is a BIG lake that I won't be able to use my boat on then I really appreciate the backseats that are available and the front seaters that I learn from.  But I also always ask "How do you plan on fishing?"  That way I also can prepare to fish whatever styles the front seater is using and also learn from him.

Also Glenn is probably right about some inevitable personallity conflicts.  Heck, when I go out by myself I will sometimes curse myself for being stupid or clumsy or...oh well you get the point.

So the once a year Draw tourney is probably enough for most of us even though I will be fishing with my wife this time since Silver is within the scope of my ability with my boat.  Also, a good chance to get her first fish.

Rich

Good point Glenn, I like to fish slow with alot of plastics and when I get paired with someone who like to cruise with cranks and spinnerbaits, while I might learn something I will still have the disadvantage of fishing out of character thus out of confidence. I would rather study and plan with someone who fishes like me and we can troubleshoot through things and I just mix up my year so as not to fish with just one or two folks but with multiples to get lots of teaching/learning done.

Good points.

I know my wife, for one, would never fish another tournament again if she knew she couldn't fish with me (i.e. had draw for a partner).  I'm sure that rings true with many of the wives/girlfriends.

In addition, part of the reason the tournaments are fun is because you get to pick who you're going to spend the majority of your time with.  This club is huge, which means invetibly there are some personality conflicts.  It wouldn't be much fun for anyone to be paired with somebody whom you don't get along with - especially with points at stake. 

We have one draw tourney as of now and from what I have learned is that past years folks have shown they like to know in advance who thy're partner is so as to get things planned and organized as to strategies and logistics since not all of our schedules jive together....the one draw tournament we have is intended as a mixer to let people see different folks, boats and styles.

Has it ever been discussed to draw partners before every tournament? Having boaters pick their partner from a hat or something?