Splinehead

I wish to thank and congratulate the Big Red Classic Committee for putting on a great show. These hardworking people have a lot of class!

Once Again, I would like to congratulate the Big Red Classic committee for putting on a great tourney. They are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gary

I would like to congratulate the 2012 Big Red Classic committee for putting on a great show. Can't change Mother Nature. Great Job! Gary

I agree with Jim, can't wait! Looks like the weather will hold and NOAA predicts 2 to 4 footers all weekend "beyond five nautical miles". Not to bad. It still early, but NOAA is usually pretty close. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of the participants and the Big Red committee a safe and uneventful tourney. Good Luck To All, Gary

Here too, as I have stated before, I would like to weigh all of my fish. Whatever the number is. I don't feel my team is at an advantage or disadvantage with the current rules. The so-called "better fishermen" will have the odds in their favor and will rise to the top as they did last year and always will. I won't worry about someone getting "lucky". So I will fish the BRC, I will have my team vote, and then I will vote on the ballot in the BRC captains bag accordingly. If I don't fish I can't vote and won't be part of the process. I feel the idea of letting the actual participants vote is a good one. I’m sure the committee will take note of the votes and go with the majority. Letting the blogisphere try to run or influence the tourney isn't going to work either. Espically when many on the blogisphere don't fish the tourney anyway. I sure that as far as the committee is concerned the "masses" are the people that fish the tourney. So again, if the committee keeps it fair, I will keep fishing and sponsoring the BRC. You don't sponsor an event like this to try and get your way. If a sponsor leaves because they couldn't get their way, so be it. You sponsor for the good of the community, the camaraderie of the people in the event and hopefully advertise your company. Therefore, I will heed the words of one of the worlds greatest fishermen, The American Sportsman, Curt Gowdy...... “SHUT UP AND FISH†... That is all. I have said enough.

As I have stated here before, I will fish the BRC as long as the committee keeps it fair. And again, weigh 5 gives no one an advantage. The better teams will catch more fish, put two days of “more fish†together and have a better chance of getting the five fish they need each day to beat the guys that only catch 5 and weigh five. Let’s look at this year’s Grand Haven tournament. Everyone’s favorite team, BC2, weighed in ten fish the first day and only posted about 7.7 LBS. 10 dinks! To me, this begs a hypothetical question. So I ask you guys, should a team that gets 10 dinks beat a team that gets five 10 pounders? Second hypothetical situation. In a weigh ten tourney, team A bets on the numbers and gets 10 dinks. Team B decides to go for weight and gets five 10 pounders. Who is the better fishing team?

Quote: "CAN WE PLEASE HEAR FROM SOME SPONSORS ON THIS ISSUE?????????? Does anyone have the balls to say who they really want to see at the big events?" OK, I went to lunch and decided to come clean due to the above quote from Just Hook’n. I am the President and CEO of West Michigan Spline, Inc. (thus the screen name of splinehead). I have been on the BRC committee in the past but have not for the past few years. I have not brought it up before as I did not want to seem biased with my postings. West Michigan Spline, Inc. is one of the sponsors that you see on the BRC home page and on the tournament banner. West Michigan Spline, Inc has been an anchor sponsor, a gold sponsor for many, many years and now a sliver sponsor due to “this economyâ€. We hope to go back to gold next year but, we will see. Even in one of our worst years lately, 2009, we were still a silver sponsor. All in all a total of about 15 years now, I think. West Michigan Spline, Inc. gets no business benefits from being a sponsor of the BRC. Maybe by a lottery sized chance our logo may be seen on 333 TV or from the Tournament Trail Magazine by one of our customers. Most people do not even know what a spline is. Why do we do it? To give back to the community where we conduct our business. We could just take the money and give it to a charity but we have chosen this avenue. We love to fish but with schedules and all we only get to go out a few times a year. Over these 15 years we have entered an estimated 40 or so tournaments. With all of that being said, and further to my last few posts, we want to see a fun and fair event for all fishermen and women. An event that any and all who wish to participate can have a shot at doing well (by luck or however they do it within the rules). In the end it’s about the two charities, the American Cancer Society (ACS), specifically Breast Cancer research and the Boy and Girls Club of Greater Holland.

Look at the sponsors on the BRC web page. The Anchor sponsor is a bank (credit union). They want people. Then you have a logistics company, a spline machine company, a meat company, an insurance company, a marina, and one fishing related company.

My personal preference would be catch 10 weigh 10. However, as long as the committee makes the rules so that no one has an advantage I’m in. Its fun and helps two very good causes! Weighing five gives no one an advantage. If someone were to worry about two drunks in a boat getting lucky they have other issues. I’ve been in two of these weigh 5 tourneys now and the fears of an “ice cube in the mouth†making the difference hasn’t happened either. What I don’t understand is that back in April, the following was posted on the BRC web page “The rules are set for 2012. We will be running the exact same format as last year-- Catch 10 weigh 5 for both the Pro and Am divisions. “ I believe they went to weigh 5 to get more participants. Apparently it worked. On Sunday of last years tourney they reported that their entry numbers were up. So now why are they thinking of changing it after this post? Why disenfranchise those that liked last year, read that post, and thought, cool I’m in again? Sponsors want people to enter, sponsors want to be seen. If weighing 5 helps to achieve this goal that’s the direction the committee needs to go. Participants want payouts. Payouts come from sponsors and entry fees. The more people enter, the more the payouts no matter who it is, two drunks in a boat or the passionate fishermen and women. If you like to fish, like to help the community, want a challenge, get in. If your worried about two drunks in a boat or the small guy getting “lucky†with five fish, sit on the sidelines.

Congratulations to the BIG RED CLASSIC committee for putting on an awesome show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank You!

The tournament committee IS trying to get more fishermen (that’s fishermen not fisherman). The goal is to help the community and the Boys and Girls Club of Holland. The committee works very hard all year long to put on this show and have been very innovative through the first few years of the Big Red Classic. I for one commend the committee for trying to improve participation. I personally don't like the rule change either. However, when this is done they will go back and review the success or non-success of the rule change. We may or may not see it next year. I will take this oppertunity to thank the committee for their hard work. One more thing, last year during the Big Red Classic my fishing team answered a MAYDAY call from one of you "better fishermen". This "better fisherman" had no business being 7 miles out in the six foot waves that were building that day. We basically lost 2 hours of prime fishing time pulling our lines, helping the "better fisherman" and working with the Coast Guard until the Coast Guard rescue boat got to the scene. Then it took another hour for us to relax and get back to our program. That boat was full of water and in big trouble 7 miles from Holland. Just remember, if you get in trouble, we might be the only ones around to help. Don't forget, we enter the 333 as well. By the way, based on your posted 2011 catch, I don't see a "better" fisherman than us.

I guess that’s me and my family as well!!!!!!!!!!!! We have been fishing here out of Holland since 1983. We have fished some of the tournaments since 1997. Sometimes due to work we only get to fish two or three times a year. The comradery and friendships that have been developed over the years fishing tournaments is the best part of fishing them. In the early years my wife and my two boys who were 10 and 14 at the time were the only family in the Grand Haven, Holland and South Haven tournaments. No, we never got "LUCKY" but we developed our program and do quite well even though we don't get to fish as often as others.