To All,

Anyone interested in fishing this series? Lets get some guys from the club and fish this and caravan down. I might be fishing all three. I know it is a long ways off , however planning for me takes time and of coarse our wives have to be onboard with these dates as well.

Check you schedules and lets do it!!!!!!

Larry,
Thats awsome. Lets see if we can get Kirk, Lyle and a few other hardy soles to compete.

Larry,

You nailed it $750-800. Lets see $400/entry fee, some food and gas. I didn't pay for hotel this time because I paid for all the gas. So yeah that number is correct. I filled up all tanks here before departing. My partner paid $108/Night  plus tax for suite at Shasta. However if I do the three tourneys I will more than likely camp.
I'm in agreement with you about meeting in the future to try to plan and reduce costs if at all posssible.
Russ

Is $400 the boater entry fee, or is that non-boater?

Chris

Yeah,

Thats' the non-boater fee. Are you sitting down- The Pro fee is $1000 smakaroos.
Russ

You have just stated the exact reason I have not yet weighed in on this thread Chris.  I'm waiting to see what BASS does with the rules.  If my hunches are correct and the Open's follow the lead of the Tour events, then fishing as a non-boater is little more that a VERY expensive guideed trip with a guide you don't get to choose.  There are several variations of shared weight formats that can be used, and some are actually pretty good.  However, the BASS formula for the Tour doesn't fall into that catagory .
Having fished down there before in several large events such as the Yamamoto Open on Oraville and the Stratos Regional Championship at Clear Lake, I think I'll defer paying to fish under those (BASS non-boater) conditions.  As for the Delta, $400.00 will cover more than a day with several guides I could choose.
In an earlier thread there were discussions as to the cost of a tournament.  Last year when I fished the Clear Lake regional and fuel was $1.97 per gal., the cost for the trip excluding entry fees was about $550.00.   Now take that figure and split it since it was a team event, then throw the entry fees back in and you have a cost of about $475.00 per person, or $900.00 for the event.

Smitty

We do have options... WE need to be a bigger voice At the tournaments as well as with e-mails and letters to the directors of BASS. I also think the ESPN days are limited as I predict this Basscenter program coming in January will not be aimed at US but rather become another Bass boat racing phenomenon and ESPN has jumped the shark with that program....I do like the ESPN programs now but they keep tweaking it as they do with BASS.

Sorry for the Tangent Airlines thing there but
YOU KNOW ME!

I'm not trying to split hairs with you over the value of fishing a BASS event Russ.  After all who am I to argue with a BASS Pro?
I just think that for the cost of a week long trip to CA. to fish, more value and knowledge, plus all around fun can be had in a more economical way.  I could easily spend the amounts we are talking about and get several days on different bodies of water with the likes of Larry Hemphil, Andy Cucia, Dee Thomas, Dub LaShot, or Mike Folkstead.  What woud the return be?  Hard to quantify an experience with those folks in terms of fun and lessons learned, but certainly more than a gamble for 25 large. 8)
If the adrenelan rush of competition is what is being saught, then fishing a couple of WON Bass or 100% Bass "T"s against the CA competition can easily fill that nicth without the prospect of being "backseated" by someone who is an unknown advanced club angler from Fresno. ???
I guess I'm fortunate that my early experiences fishing with BASS back in the midwest in the late 70's was a good one. However, in watching how the BASS tournament events have progressed here in the west,  I find them to be  lacking in many of the rewards we look for in a tournament venues.   
For a big name circuit out west, I would actually lean a little bit toward the FLW, more correctly the Everstart series as it is currently fished in the west.  They just have to move a couple of their tournaments a little farther to the north.
For now I'll concentrate on the "T"s I think can give me the fun I really like.  WBC club events and the occasional Stratos Regional in CA or Angler's Choice on the Columbia River.

Smitty