I have the idea to start a local bass club. I haven't much of a clue as to what to do. I've never been part of a club, and only read about them. As far as I know there isn't one anywhere local to me. I'd appreciate some suggestions and direction.

Clubs in general are fading in popularity. My last fishing club had over 500 members at one point but over the last 10 years, membership has declined drastically. If you start the club, be prepared to do almost all of the work by yourself. Web site, treasury, membership, marketing, scheduling, itinerary you’ll have to do everything unless you can convince someone else to help you. You should look a little harder to find an existing club to join so you can get some experience in what it takes to run a club. 

Open the ‘MENU’ tab at upper left corner and go to ‘FISHING ARTICLES’.  Scroll down and there is a category devoted to clubs.  This should be a good a start to exploring starting a club.

Thanks @Scott F. Sounds like I could also make some money from it eventually?

 

Right now I'm thinking just a group of like minded folks and getting together for some informal tournaments. Throw in $20 bucks and winner take the pot.

If you started a club what would your goals be?

The best club I was ever with had 3 main tenets, comraderie, competition, and community...probably focused in that order.  The amount of work involved is hard to imagine.  Until you are able to delegate all aspects of a tournament, acknowledge that you will likely not be participating.  You will need to be tirelessly communicating, marketing, planning, bookkeeping, moderating, appeasing... members, potential members, sponsors, potential sponsors, conflicting 'groups', local (and maybe state?) authorities, etc.

  I know that FB can be a stupid, frustrating platform, but unless, until a club is well known, it is IMO a necessary evil for all the communication and outreach necessary.  Once armed with outline of a plan, I'd start there to recruit, meet, gauge interest etc.

Not trying to discourage... just acknowledging how much I recognize, appreciate and admire good club presidents, because I see what a commitment it is.

14 hours ago, Bazoo said:

Thanks @Scott F. Sounds like I could also make some money from it eventually?

Clubs are generally not for profit - 99.9% of anglers would turn away once they found out the founders/officers were taking a rake.

14 hours ago, Bazoo said:

Thanks @Scott F. Sounds like I could also make some money from it eventually?

 

8 minutes ago, Logan S said:

Clubs are generally not for profit - 99.9% of anglers would turn away once they found out the founders/officers were taking a rake.

Agreed with Logan. Unless you're setting up a major tournament trail, I wouldn't expect to make anything. And if you do start trying to turn a profit, you're done fishing that trail due to the conflict of interest. Seen plenty of guys try to fish in a trail they run and there's always issues and drama with it. 

@Lottabass said, "If you started a club what would your goals be?"

 

Well, my goals are all personal I reckon. They would include making friends, having informal tournaments, getting together to eat pizza and talk bass fishing.

 

My idea for a club, since there isn't one around here (or at least one I can find), is to have a group of folks that like fishing as much as I do, we'd just talk bass fishing and go fishing a couple times a month. Share spots, share techniques, share ideas, show off our gear.

 

Honestly, I ain't got a clue as to what @Choporoz said about: "You will need to be tirelessly communicating, marketing, planning, bookkeeping, moderating, appeasing... members, potential members, sponsors, potential sponsors, conflicting 'groups', local (and maybe state?) authorities, etc."

 

My idea doesn't involve much or any of that. It involves just a group of guys to get started and see where it goes from there. If I'm not mistaken B.A.S.S. started in similar fashion. So I suppose it's possible it could get big.

 

So I guess the question is, does my idea have any merit? Is it feasible? Or is it something that just won't work without having a formal organization?

----------

 

Next question is, how do I find a local bass club? I've looked online via google and on facebook.

 

I seen a few posts where someone mentioned a club that was semi-local, and in that post, they displayed a person of interests email. I sent several emails, but they all came back as non-existent, as they were from 20 years ago.

 

I recently found out one of the local highschools has a bass club. I sent the guy in charge a message on facebook asking him if he knew of any clubs around. He hasn't responded yet.

Unfortunately, the mindset among most tournament anglers these days is sort of 'get in and get out'...They are looking for low or no commitment, they just want to signup, fish, and go home.  This is a big reason why the traditional club format is dying out....

 

The clubs that remain successful are the ones like mine where we essentially make it so that's all people have to do to fish, once they become a member.  Meetings, non tournament events, and other stuff is all optional.  We have some guys who remain at a distance but most guys that come in, eventually get more involved in all the other stuff.  

 

Your biggest hurdle is just numbers....It's a snowball effect thing because guys aren't going to want to jump in a 4 boat event, you've got to build around a core group and then add more and more until you're up to a point where outsiders think it's worth jumping in.  

 

Then you'll need to manage it effectively, because tournament anglers are NEVER happy .  You need enough rules on the books to keep order but not too many to where it's micro managed, it's a fine line.  

 

Take a look at our site for reference, you won't need all of this from the start but should give you some ideas about all the things that go into a club...You can probably pick and choose aspects that fit what you want accomplish.  

 

https://www.fishonbassanglers.com/

Around here there are legal considerations.  You may have to have some kind of articles of organization along with liability insurance.  We had one and had to set up a not for profit corporation.

 

There is a lot to getting organized and operating a club.  One thing you will for sure have to have is a good set of rules both for tournaments as well as meetings.

I appreciate all the input. It's certainly a lot to consider.

@Bazoo  "They would include making friends, having informal tournaments, getting together to eat pizza and talk bass fishing."

Sounds like my kinda club but I don't think you're gonna find many who are interested in that.  Everybody hears that the stepping stone to the "pros" is starting in a club and they all want to emulate what they see on TV.  

Your idea is admirable, and I wish you the best.

17 hours ago, Bazoo said:

 

Honestly, I ain't got a clue as to what @Choporoz said about: "You will need to be tirelessly communicating, marketing, planning, bookkeeping, moderating, appeasing... members, potential members, sponsors, potential sponsors, conflicting 'groups', local (and maybe state?) authorities, etc."

 

My idea doesn't involve much or any of that. It involves just a group of guys to get started and see where it goes from there. If I'm not mistaken B.A.S.S. started in similar fashion. So I suppose it's possible it could get big.

Honestly, you may find you don't have to get all that big for any of that to come into play.  However, if you really do find 8 or 10 like-minded guys and gals who mostly just want to fish on the same days, with a few bucks of skin in it, then it may be awesome. Like a poker group, perhaps.   

On 9/15/2025 at 6:13 PM, Bazoo said:

I have the idea to start a local bass club. I haven't much of a clue as to what to do. I've never been part of a club, and only read about them. As far as I know there isn't one anywhere local to me. I'd appreciate some suggestions and direction.

It’s not that easy I tried last year and had a handful of guys interested but couldn’t get anyone to agree to a day or time to fish. Plus you need permits for some lakes in my area it was a hassle. I ended up just giving up and joined a local club.

You may be better of starting a Facebook group and try to organize outings and meetups from there.

Any more, formal clubs are more headache than anything. As mentioned above, starting a Facebook/social media group for the local area and setting up some informal outings is a good way to start.  
 

The group I fish with has completely disorganized “derbies”, running the gamut from $20-$50 buy ins,“loser buys lunch”, random stuff wagered (rods/reels/etc), we have the traveling big fish trophy, which is a thong bikini bottom that someone snagged at the marina, and “tastefully” mounted in a display case (my wife loved the few months that it graced our living room).  
 

By keeping it all catch/weigh/photo, and minimal rules (or weird rules made up by whomever decided the ‘derb), we pretty much fly under the radar of permits and have a lot of fun. 

I just Google'd your location. You're near Louisville and have large lakes/rivers all around you. I'm willing to bet there's clubs everywhere around you... You're just clueless to them. I would recommend you do some Google research or look around maybe on *** for local clubs. 

 

As far as starting a club, there's a ton of legwork just to get one going. You need an insurance policy on the club, a high end scale, bank account, permits with your local parks/marinas that you plan to host events at, a set of rules/guidelines, and much, much more. 

 

Edit - Looks like I can't mention another popular message board on here. 

I have google searched and facebook searched, but I haven't been able to find anything semi-local. Perhaps I my googlefu is lacking?

Years ago when the KFS site was up and running we would just put out a location and see who wanted to join us and we would all fish for the day. I think it would be fairly easy to get a facebook group going for informal meetups.

15 hours ago, Bazoo said:

I have google searched and facebook searched, but I haven't been able to find anything semi-local. Perhaps I my googlefu is lacking?

 

One Google search gave me the following:

 

Renegade Bass Tournaments

Louisville Building Trade Fishing Club

Anglers Outpost: NTBA Division

Iroquois Bass Club

Bluegrass Kayak Bass Fishing

Oldham Country Bass Club

Louisville Metro Bass Club

Stump Jumpers Fishing Series

Northern Kentucky Bass Hasslers

 

Need me to keep going? 

If you need a 2nd on the boat drop me a line. 

Thanks @fishballer06 My google skills suck lol.

 

@LokiDawg I'd be glad to... except I don't currently have a working boat. I have a 16' v hull that isn't water worthy, and I have a 10' 2 man bass buster but I hit a snag registering it.

 

I started a facebook group, in hopes to get something going. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ironjaws

 

 

I don't have any social media. I do have a fishing kayak. If you get something together that a kayak can join let me know. 

Tight Lines 

On 9/16/2025 at 12:54 PM, Bazoo said:

@Lottabass said, "If you started a club what would your goals be?"

 

Well, my goals are all personal I reckon. They would include making friends, having informal tournaments, getting together to eat pizza and talk bass fishing.

 

My idea for a club, since there isn't one around here (or at least one I can find), is to have a group of folks that like fishing as much as I do, we'd just talk bass fishing and go fishing a couple times a month. Share spots, share techniques, share ideas, show off our gear.

 

I fished in a club like that when I was a teenager about 30 years ago.  There isn't much of that around anymore. I fish a local evening tournament here and there and an occasional Saturday morning one but for the most part I could care less about the other competitors. I'm friends with some but not because of the tournaments. I (as well as most of the other competitors) aren't in it to share spots, talk tackle or have pizza...were there because we're on fish and can make a little money. 

 

The best way to find any kind of local club is to join the locals lakes around you Facebook pages. Around here they always post all the tournaments each week. Some require a member fee and call themselves a club but it's just a means to gain a little loyalty and increase their championship payout.