Hey my name is Ej Thomas and I am currently involved in club tournament fishing and fisher of men in va I want to advance my fishing into bigger tournaments and was interested in fishing the bws next year in va. I am a co angler right now and wanted to know if anyone out there had info and ideas on how to get into the series. I am trying to do more networking to find boaters that would like to link for the series and just talk about it in general. This year is a full season with club tournaments and Fom but I want to start learning more about the bigger series like bws. I also want to get into learning about sponsorships because I want to advance my fishing into a career. I think being in sales and marketing product would be a fun and exciting challenge that I know I have the passion for. I have fished as a co for two years now and have done well. I have been in the top of my clubs two years straight and placed 12th in our region federation classic as a co against boaters. Would love to learn more from anyone that has fished the series as a boater or co. Thanks to anyone that reply.

Win tournements.

I am fishing in the Maryland Division of the Weekend Bassmasters series this year as a Co-angler. All you have to do to fish in the Bassmasters Weekend series is pay all of the membership fees and entry fees. You can be a co-angler or boater. Here is the link to the website:

http://www.americanbassanglers.com/BWS/

If you are in Northern Virginia you would probably want to fish the Maryland division because all of the tournaments are on the Potomac. The Virginia division is better suited to people that live in the southern or western part of the state. The Virginia tournaments are on Kerr, Anna, James and Smith Mountain.

Memberships:

Join Bass $25

Join ABA $25

Tournament fees:

Boater $200 (Must have $300,000 liability insurance that allows fishing in tournaments)

Coangler $100 (Should expect to pay 1/2 gas and oil)

Linking is where you find a boater that has registered in the tournament and link with them. That guarantees that you will both fish in the tournament. ABA is trying to ensure that they have exactly the same number of boaters and coanglers. If they have too many coanglers, the ones that do not have a link don't get to fish. If they have too many boaters the last ones to sign up without a link will be forced to share one of their boats and each have half a day to control the boat.

Winning tournAments can help but isn't necessary to be sponsored. I know of multiple people that have not won so much as a club tournament and are sponsored. These people are called "Patch Collectors" in our area. What companies want is someone that can sell their product. You need to find small companies and volunteer your time to try and sell their products at fishing shows or even drive around to tackleshops and get them to sell your sponsors products. One guy I know pimps his sponsors products on a Facebook page. If you can demonstrate that you can sell their product, they may give you a sponsor shirt, free baits to use or give away or maybe just a discounted price on their products.

Tpayneful thanks for the info I am in Richmond va the Kerr bugs James Anna tournaments are the waters I fish but I love the Potomac. If I could fish one water every tournament it would be the potomac. My challenging is finding a boater I can link with so I would have a spot. Hopefully throughout the year I can network with some anglers to make a run in it next year. Keep me posted on how you do. you can find me here or on facebook "ej thomas"