Hey all....

I am from the New England area (Rhode Island) and fished my first tournament this past fall. I really enjoyed it and learned from the experience. My questions is this.....

How do I get into more tournaments for the upcoming 2008 fishing year? I found my first tournament with the help of a few new friends on this forum. I am wondering where to start. Do you need to belong to a private bass club to get into alot of tournaments? Are there many "open" tournaments in the new England area? (Right now, I am talking NH, CT, MA)

I am a member of B.A.S.S. but I don't see where they have any local level tournaments. It's NOT about money (making or spending) just finding some more good people to fish and be involved with and some friendly competition.

I would appreciate any positive advice or ideas.

Thanks in advance!!!

bassinajr

RI BASS Federation can keep you busy every weekend and just about every night during the week. We are just working on finalizing our 2008 schedule and will pass it over to you ASAP. Even with out becoming a BASS state level member many clubs or individuals have many open tournaments with varying entry fee's.

First one will be April 6 2008 back at the park to help benifit CAST For Kids. just about every couple weeks there is a open from early MAY thru June.

Next is a BASS affilated club many are open to new members both with and without boats. A small annual dues $$ are norm and they fish another 6-12 tournaments a year. By beloning to a local RI BASS club entiltles you to all the State level events and BASS quailifiers. RI BASS FED also runs aTrail for partners that has 6 T'ments through out the summer. In mid Aug we send 30-50 boats and teams to our SQT for a 2 day tournament and this year it look like Lake champlain out of Apple Tree. (north of Burlingotn VT)

We have aprox 250 members in our Federation in RI

Just about every Tuesday, Wed, Thurs & Friday all summer long, small pickup tournaments are held from 5-10 PM or so and entry is cheap $10-20 bucks These are the real low preasure fun T's

We start the season 1/13/2008 with a huge banquet with some great prizes and all u can eat meal come on down meet some clubs and start gettign ready for 2008.

Need more just call & sign up for our message boards @ www.ribassfed.org

If you have any interested kids RI also has a Jr Bassmaster Program were we fish 8 + tournaments and a 2 day campout/tournament

Mike

 Best thing I ever did. Ask him who got him into the Fed stuff. lol

You might also want to check out the www.teambass-usa.com circuit.  Marcia Rubin (Reelady) and Mike Iaconelli fished as a team in one of their tournaments last month here in PA.  I know they have tournaments in CT and MA/RI.  And some proceeds go to help children.