For 2023 the annual dues will still be $65 and you will receive 100 raffle tickets. The raffle tickets can be sold for $1 each or 6 for $5, all of the revenue generated by the sale of the tickets goes to the seller and not the club (since you already got them by paying your dues). To be eligible for the raffle the dues must be paid before the banquet on January 28, 2023. Ed has set up paying your dues online but you can also pay Ed via Check or Cash to avoid the Online fees that are incurred via online payments.
New members are allowed to registered at a discounted rate of $40. This is applicable only to new members and cannot be used for anyone who has ever been a member of Steel City Bassmasters.
Due to the winter weather advisory and extreme cold temperatures, the board has voted to cancel this weekend’s Lake of Egypt tournament. Rescheduling is unlikely due to the need for a permit at Pyramid Acres, which usually requires months of advance notice.
Please spread the word.
Larry Heagy
Please let Ed know where to apply your refund for the tournament, He can either mail you a refund check or apply it to another event. If you do apply it to another event then be sure to register for that event and just click the pay by Cash/Check and he will move your registration.
Lake of Egypt – 2023 Season Opener, March 25, 2023
The meeting was started promptly at 2:06pm by President Larry Heagy. We continued having our meetings at Friday’s South Bar and Grill 106 East Main StreetCollinsville, IL 62234.
17 members were in attendance.
Larry started off the meeting by talking about the Banquet and gave a recap on the activities at the banquet. Due to the high cost of the mixed drinks and other items we are searching for a new, more affordable, venue in or around Collinsville for next years banquet.
Larry will be purchasing 5 mesh weigh in bags to perform the weigh in’s. There are to be used only at the weigh in site and not taken for personal use.
Larry mentioned how the bylaws and rules work and since we did not have any bylaws or rules changes during the winter meeting the rules will stand as written and published on the website.
Razr rods is supporting the club and has supplied us with a Rod and Reel for the banquet which we raffled off. If you are interested in razr Rods please contact Joe Revelle or Bryant Stickels for the latest info and club pricing.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:37 pm.
50/50 ticket was drawn and I don’t remember the winner.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-2-20-2022-general-meeting/
The meeting was started promptly at 2:15pm by President Larry Heagy. We continued having our meetings at Friday’s South Bar and Grill 106 East Main StreetCollinsville, IL 62234.
18 members were in attendance and 2 guests were attending the meeting to inquire about membership.
Larry started off the meeting by talking about the Let’s Go Fishing show. This event did not have as many people or vendors attend as in the past. This was most likely due to the new variant of COVID-19. We did have our normal booth location and operated the Kids Fishing pond. Since a number of vendors did not show up some of the booths in the LaSalle Room were moved to the main hall. this created even less traffic at our booth. Nonetheless we were able to talk to some perspective new members and it was good to catch up with some people we have not seen in a while.
Larry then turned the discussion to the banquet. He sent out a message to all members regarding the attendance for the banquet. All members were asked to provide the projected count for the banquet. We have not heard from many of the members. If you have not yet responded please do that to Larry as soon as possible.
The Banquet will be held on January 29th, 2022 at a new venue, The Gateway Center, LaSalle room. The same catering company as in the past will provide the food and promises to be an excellent event. The banquet will start at 6:00pm and end at 10:00pm. The club has projected the attendance to be 150 and we are set up to accomodate that number of attendees, if you have not RSVP for the banquet please do that ASAP to Larry.
Larry then introduced the club to the perspective new members. they paid their dues and are looking forward to meeting everyone in the club through our events.
Ed discussed the partnership with Razr Rods and two or our members Bryant Stickels and Joe Revelle. Both Brynat and Joe will be at the banquet so if you want more information on Razr Rods please talk directly to them. They might even have a discount for Steel City members.
Ed mentioned that all of the tournament permits have been obtained from Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri. All tournament will be registered online. You MUST register yourself for any event online. After registering you will have an option to pay with Cash/Check or online payments can be made. The club prefers cash or check for the events as to not incur the online transactions fees.
The Annual Dues are due and again this is an online process exactly like the tournament registration.
The banquet setup will be at 4:00pm on January 29th, 2022 for those who are interested in helping out.
Carl motioned to adjourn the meeting and Sergio seconded it. Motion passed.
P.S.: Someone who did not buy me a drink won the 50/50 pot.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-1-16-2022-general-meeting/
Steel City Members, Our third chapter meeting of the winter is this Sunday, 1/16/2022 at Friday’s South, 2:00 pm.
Ed will be collecting the annual dues in person. This can be by Check or Cash. In return for the dues you will get 100 Raffle tickets for our drawing at the Banquet. Be sure to register for your dues (or any tournaments) ONLINE, you then have the option to pay by Check or Cash. Either way you must register ONLINE. Here is teh link to register online, see who is already registered and you are also able to register for any tournaments.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic we are holding the 2020/2021 Winter meetings online via ZOOM. The remaining winter meeting is on February 21, 2021 @ 2:00pm.
Everybody logged on Zoom and the meeting was started at 2:03pm by President Larry Heagy
18 members were in attendance online.
Larry recapped the last meeting and mentioned that the complete meeting minutes are online on the website.
Larry and Ed mentioned that the club is currently taking dues from all the members. Members should send Ed a check for membership dues, if that is not possible then simply enter online via paypal. The check payment method is preferred so the club does not incur a PayPal fee. Contact Ed for address to send the check to. Registration fee is $65 for members or $40 for non members. Spouses or children are $10 and payment must be made to Ed directly for that as there is not an online registration option.
The standard club raffle drawing will be conducted next meeting for all registered members at that time. If you do not see your name on the registration list you will NOT be in the drawing for the prizes of $250, $150 and $100 (Cash or Gift Cards). Please contact Ed if there is an issue with your registration. The drawing will be held during the February 21st zoom meeting so be sure to mark your calendars (or simply link to the clubs calendar on the website).
Larry recognized some of the new members of the club that others might not have had a chance to meet during last season. As a reminder the dues for new members is reduced to $40 for 2021, this is for anybody that has not ever been a member of Steel City Bassmasters. This was put in place because we did not have an opportunity to recruit new members since the Let’s Go Fishing show was cancelled.
The next order of business was a review of the first few tournaments for the year. Larry shared the website and started off with a review of the Lake of Egypt Tournament. The registration for Lake of Egypt is currently open. You can pay online by PayPal or send Ed a check for registration. The check method is preferred to eliminate the PayPal fees but if it gets close to the tournament date only PayPal should be used. Make sure you are registered for the event on the Lake Egypt event page. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR LAKE EGYPT.
Ed will accept checks for all Tournaments at this time. Send him a check with the events you want to be registered for and Ed will enter you into the system manually. You will see your name on the registration page when your check is processed. Online registration is only available for one event at a time, this is to reduce confusion with someone registering for the wrong event. If you are registered for an event and need to cancel simply contact Ed and he will cancel your registration and either refund your entry fees or roll it over to another event.
Larry reviewed the Lake of the Ozarks Tournament and the Crab Orchard Tournament. End showed the Crab Orchard permit that has a 20 boat limit on the permit.
Larry mentioned the upcoming Table Rock Invitational tournament. Lazy Lees will provide pizza on Thursday night for the club. Since social distancing guidelines are still in effect we will not gather as a large group, simply place your order and go to your cabin and eat. Friday night we will host a seminar by Pete Wenners, Pete specializes on providing Professional Bass Fishing Guide Services to amateurs and professionals alike on Table Rock Lake. Pete is considered one of the top fishing guides on the lakes. He has been fishing the lakes since the ’80’s and has been a licensed fishing guide since 1993. Joy does have some openings at Lazy Lees for the tournament. Please contact Lazy Lees to make your reservation CLICK HERE FOR LAZY LEES CONTACT INFO.
Rick Ficker mentioned that the annual Steve Ficker Memorial College Scholarship fund golf tournament will be held at Arlington Greens on May 15th. Registration is getting filled up so if you want to play and support the cause please register early. Rick will provide a registration link. The bass club will be sponsoring two holes for this event.
Rick Ficker also discussed the City of Maryville annual kids fishing event. This will be held on May 8, 2021. Members are invited to come out and help with the festivities. We will post a flyer when it becomes available. y Bassmasters. The motion was discussed and voted on. The vote was 10-for and 2-against therefore the motion passed. the dues for 2021 for new members will be $40.
As many of the members know Bryant Stickels purchased Razr Rods. If you are looking for a new rod please contact him. https://razrrodz.com/
Likewise is anybody would like to look at Kistler Rods please contact Paul Davis, Paul mentioned some exciting news that Kistler will be coming out with a lineup of reels in 2021. Contact Paul to have him give the run down on the Kistler lineup. https://kistlerrods.com/
Also if anybody is looking for some awesome custom painted crankbaits and other lures please contact Brian Carlson. Brian was again working on some baits for a customer during the Zoom call.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:41pm. Carl Gansner won the $82.50 in the virtual 50/50 for which he graciously will be providing beer for the next meeting and raffle drawing to be held on February 21, 2021 @ 2:00pm.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-1-24-2021-zoom-general-meeting/
James R. “Jim” McKechan, 78 of Granite City passed away peacefully on Wednesday, July 29, 2020 at his home surrounded by his family.
Jim was born on February 18, 1942 in Granite City; the son of the late John and Helen (McMahan) McKechan. Jim was the owner and recruiter of Search Source Incorporated and a member of Nameoki United Methodist Church in Granite City. Jim was a member of the Granite City Elks Lodge 1063 where he served as a past Exalted Ruler, and a member of the Granite City Moose Lodge. Jim started the Granite City Elks Youth Athletics Soccer Program in 1982. He coached many Soccer and Baseball teams. Jim was an avid sports fan and a well known outdoorsman who loved fishing and hunting and playing a good round of golf. His greatest joy was spending time with his Family and Friends. He will be remembered for all the special times they shared together. He was loved by many and never met a stranger.
Jim is survived by and will be missed by his wife of 57 years; Linda L. (Cox) McKechan, whom he married on July 22, 1963; his children, Erin and Jim Thurmond of Granite City, James(Jimmy) and Amy McKechan of Granite City, Mark and Billie McKechan of Carlinville, Meagan and Scott Kohler of Granite City; grandchildren, Claire Thurmond, Brenden McKechan, Mya McKechan, Evan McKechan, Jake and Shae Caldwell, Ridge Regan; brothers, Jerry and Suzanne McKechan, Jack and Marilyn McKechan and numerous nieces, nephews and many other close family members and friends.
In addition to his parents, Jim was preceded in death by his daughter; Cheryl McKechan; grandson, Carter McKechan; special uncle, James “Uncle Mac” McMahan.
In celebration of Jim’s life, a drive by visitation will be held on Thursday, August 6, 2020 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Irwin Chapel, 3960 Maryville Road in Granite City. Private family funeral services will be held on Friday, August 7, 2020 at the funeral home. Burial will be scheduled for a later date at Sunset Hill Memorial Estates in Glen Carbon. Memorial donations are suggested to the American Cancer Society or Vitas Hospice.
Takeoff Order drawn by Random Draw on Thursday for all the Registered Boaters:
Darrin Harnetiaux 1 william schram 2 Rudy Cardenas 3 Russ Rensing 4 Ed Montgomery 5 Bob Quick 6 Mike Anderson 7 Bryant Stickels 8 Russell Fairbanks 9 Craig Knight 10 Mike Vallino 11 Bradford Cathey 12 Frank Wilcoxon 13 Arthur Schmittling 14 Bud Lyons 15 Carl Gansner 16 Rocky Horrighs 17 Joe Ozanich 18 Morris John 19 Paul Davis 20 Ryan Campbell 21
Steel City Members, Covid-19 has forced us to cancel 4 of our tournaments and the board members have been meeting regularly via conference call to address the situation since it all began. Earlier this week we were able to put the Crab Orchard tournament back on the schedule with Social distancing guidelines in place. As we all know, Covid-19 has impacted many small businesses across the country. One business in particular is Lakeview Lodge at Pomme de Terre. Tournament cancellations have caused a huge deficit for them. This is compounded by the fact that Pomme was flooded for much of the 2019 season causing a lot of cancellations. Pomme de Terre is a very special tournament location for Steel City and in an effort to assist the businesses around the lake, the board has decided to make an emergency schedule change. The July 25, 2020 tournament scheduled for the Cumberland River in Paducah, KY has been moved to Pomme de Terre for a 2-day event on July 25 and 26. One comment during the board meeting was “We can either spend our money at the Motel 6 in Paducah or spend it to help our friends that are really impacted by the shutdown.” I agree with that sentiment. So, mark your calendars with the change listed above. We will get updated flyers out on the website very soon. Feel free to contact the lodging of your choice at Pomme de Terre. I am recommending Lakeview Lodge at 417-745-6485. They have plenty of openings and it would be great to see us fill every room.
Larry Heagy President of the Steel City Bassmasters
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/steel-city-post-covid-19-schedule-change/
After a series of tournament cancellations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are going to re-open the season and have secured the necessary permits for the Crab Orchard tournament. As everyone knows there is still a social distancing requirement put in place by the state therefore we are going to enact several new rules:
In the spirit of social distancing, launching and trailering of boats is the boat owner’s responsibility. No one outside of the boater and non-boater in that boat will back the rig into the water.
Each tournament participant will wait in their boats or socially distant from each other before coming to the scales. We will call you up to the scales when the area is cleared.
The participant will drop their fish in the weigh in tub and leave the area. The board members will measure the fish and weigh them then give the bag back to you for pictures.
The weigh-master and secretary are the only people permitted at the scales. There will be cones around the area. Be sure to stay outside of the coned off area and stay 6′ apart from each other while you wait for your turn to weigh your fish.
There will be no exchange of cash at the tournament. All entry fees will be paid in advance and online with no exceptions. ED WILL SEND ANOTHER EMAIL, FACEBOOK POST and WEBSITE UPDATE OUTLINING THE ONLINE PAYMENT PROCEDURE ON SATURDAY, MAY 16th @3:00am.
Payments will be made online only via PayPal, if you cannot arrange PayPal yourself then get your partner or someone else to put in your entry. The takeoff order will be on a first come – first served basis. You must figure out how to enter online before you get there. For those who are unsure if they can fish the event until the last minute, the PayPal option is available on your cell phones.
Payouts will be returned to each winner via PayPal..
Crab Orchard has a 20 boat limit for fish off permits. We cannot exceed 20 boats so we are insisting that everyone pair up with a boater and a non-boater in each tournament boat.
Social distancing is a requirement. We will be policing ourselves at this event. If an individual or group cannot take this seriously and follow the guidelines, the board will consider suspending members until all distancing guidelines are lifted by the state/federal government.
The board will evaluate the Crab Orchard event and adjust our proceedings for future events, if needed.
Specific instructions for payment of entry fees via PayPal will follow this message.
Let’s be safe both on and off of the water and get back to some Steel City Bassmasters tournament fishing!
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/crab-orchard-tournament-fish-off-is-on/
We hope that all of you and your families are staying safe and protected during the Covid-19 situation. To all of our members in “essential” jobs serving your community in law enforcement, fire fighters, emergency medical technicians, veterinary medicine, food service, etc., we appreciate your service to the community and wish you safety.
The Covid-19 pandemic directly affects all of us. Your Steel
City Board of Directors continues to communicate and meet via conference call
to discuss the situation and how it affects our ability to gather and compete
on the water.
Due to the current shelter in place orders in Illinois and
Missouri, along with the Corps of Engineers, Tennessee Valley Authority, and
Moors Resort restrictions, the board has voted unanimously to cancel the
scheduled Table Rock Lake, Kentucky Lake, and Crab Orchard tournaments.
Obviously all of us want to fish and to compete. The health
and safety of our membership along with our responsibility to observe all restrictions
imposed on the community are our priorities.
Rescheduling cancelled events is not possible at this time
as the Missouri Water Patrol and Illinois Department of Conservation are not
issuing new tournament/regatta permits at this time. Likely tournament
locations also have previously scheduled permits in place, making rescheduling
even more difficult for us once restrictions are eventually lifted.
Optimistically, we will look at future scheduled events on a
case by case basis starting with Kinkaid Lake and the Cumberland River,
depending on the Covid-19 situation and restrictions listed above.
Realistically, it is quite possible that Steel City will not
be officially competing again until September at Lake Wappapello. We hope that
is not the case but are prepared for that possibility.
We will update you as the situation progresses via email, Facebook, and the Steel City Bassmasters website.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/tournament-season-cancelled-through-may-2020-table-rock-kentucky-lake-and-crab-orchard-tournaments-are-cancelled/
Steel City Members, The Covid-19 situation has affected all of us in one way or another. As many of you already know, the Corps of Engineers has closed all of their visitor centers and campground facilities. They have also cancelled all fishing tournaments on Corps impoundments through May 15. Unfortunately, this will force us to cancel our Pomme de Terre tournament scheduled for April 4-5, 2020. The bass club board of directors will re-evaluate the situation weekly as time passes and we will keep you updated on situation. I urge all of you to concentrate on taking care of yourselves and your families. The Steel City Bassmasters will bounce back from this setback in our tournament season. What we are finding is that the only way to level out the Coronavirus spread is through social distancing and following all isolation orders set in place by the government. We will do our part to assist.
Best regards,
Larry Heagy President of the Steel City Bassmasters
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/pomme-de-terre-tournament-cancelled/
With respect to the latest Centers for Disease Control and White House guidelines, the Steel City board of directors has met, discussed, and voted to cancel this weekend’s Lake of the Ozarks tournament.
This was a very difficult decision to make.
The government is asking all citizens to avoid social gatherings of 10 or more people for the next 14 days in order to reduce the spread of Covid-19. It is the only way to get this highly contagious disease under control.under control.
In the interest of caution in a national atmosphere that none of us have witnessed in our lifetimes, we feel that this is the most responsible thing for the bass club to do at this time.
The handling of money and gathering for meals and weigh-ins put us at risk for possibly spreading the virus among ourselves and to our families back home.
I know it is easy to say “this would never happen to me” but we have decided to make sure that it does not happen to anyone.
Red Oak Resort has informed us that they will refund our deposits for rooms if cancelled before the end of the day on Wednesday.
I hope you will all understand the importance of this decision.
The board will re-evaluate the situation in the coming weeks to determine if any further action must be taken. We are optimistic that if everyone (including bass fishermen) follow the guidelines, Covid-19 will get under control.
Best regards,
Larry Heagy
President of the Steel City Bassmasters
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/lake-of-the-ozarks-tournament-3-21-20-cancelled/
The meeting was started promptly at 2:10pm by President Larry Heagy
30 members were in attendance.
Ed read the previous meeting minutes and they were unanimously approved.
Ed updated everyone on the website. There is now a google calendar that you can link your calendar to so you can automatically see the schedule on your devices. Each event has a link in it to the appropriate event flyers with all of the event details.
Larry started off the meeting talking about the great time we had at the banquet and that the proceeds from the rod/reel raffles went directly to Jack who is out having major issues with an infection in his hip. This has him bed ridden for a minimum of 6 weeks until they can get the infection under control and replace his hip. The proceeds are going directly to help with his family expenses.
Larry recapped the beginning of the season starting with Lake Egypt, then Lake of the Ozarks, them Pomme De Terre and Table Rock. These are the first 4 events to start the season. The season starts on March 7 with the Egypt Tournament. Larry will not be in attendance so Mike will have a chance to beat his at something.
The Steve Ficker Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on April 11th at Arlington Greens with the proceeds going towards the Steve Ficker Memorial Fund to fund scholarships at Granite City and Highland High Schools. Several scholarship were given last year to students graduating from these high schools.
There will be a Steve Ficker memorial fishing event at Drost Park in Maryville, IL. This is a community event and John Neparondy from Bassmaster is interested in covering an article on this event as well as the golf tournament. .
Ed is having a new Steel City banner made to replace the old Gander Mountain banner since Gander Mountain is no longer in business.
We will conduct an auction at the end of the meeting to raise funds for the Steve Ficker fishing event. Larry is the auctioneer this year and we will start at the conclusion of the meeting.
A motion to adjourn was made at 2:57pm by Jon Sackett and seconded by Rudy Cardenas.
The 50/50 drawing winner chosen not to be identified as he owes his wife some money…
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-2-16-2020-general-meeting/
The meeting was started promptly at 2:15pm by President Larry Heagy
27 members were in attendance.
Larry started off the meeting by talking about club communications. We will communicated important club communications via the facebook group, website and email. .Be sure all your email addresses are up to date.
Larry reviewed the Let;s Go Fishing show. The manager at the show mentioned that it was record attendance probably due to the fair weather and maybe because of the long line at the new pot shop down the street.
The 2020 Schedule is approved and all of the permits are received. The website is updated with all of the tournament flyers, you can also access the tournament flyers from the calendar that can be synced to your cell phone. The schedule can be viewed on the website. https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/2020-schedule/
The Cumberland/Tennessee River tournament permit was received, we are using the Ohio River Boat Launch located at North 6th and Burnett Streets in Paducah, KY. Lodging and permit information will be obtained as quickly as possible,
The banquet will be held on Jan 25 starting with dinner at 6:00pm. Larry and the board have a fun filled event planned with 50/50, raffle prizes, club membership raffle and a special raffle will be conducted.
The Steve Ficker youth fishing event will be held on May 9th. More details to come at the next meeting.
The Steve Ficker annual golf tournament is taking reservations and will be held on April 11th.. There is also a facebook page to mark the event. Proceed will go towards creating scholarships for kids entering trade school or college.
Rick Ficker gave an update on a recent surgery on Jack Watkins to cure an infection in his hip.
New Business:Ed Montgomery made a motion and was seconded by Rudy Cardenas to allow the spouse, girlfriend or under 16 age child to fish with a member in good standing with their annual dues being $10. You are allowed to enter one person as your spouse or child and have them become a full member of the club for just $10. This will allow some people to fish with their wives or children without having them pay the full $65 dues. Vote on the motion was conducted and the vote was unanimously approved.
New Business:Jay Wells made a motion to extend the second tournament day to 1:00pm at Kentucky Lake events and 2:00pm at Lake of the Ozarks. Mike Seconded the motion. A vote on the motion passed with an 11-10 vote. The tournament flyers will be updates as soon as possible.
Frank Motioned to adjourn the meeting with Paul seconding the motion.
Meeting was adjourned at 3:28pm.
the 50/50 drawing was won by new member Will Schrom.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-1-19-2020-general-meeting/
The meeting was started promptly at 2:09pm by President Larry Heagy
22 members were in attendance. Cesar Spillari was late because he was tying on lures.
Larry started off the meeting stating that Officer and Board Members elections are the main item today.
Ed read the meeting minutes from the 12/21/2019 meeting. The minutes we accepted by Jack Watkins and Seconded by Paul Davis.
The 2020 Schedule is approved and all of the permits are received. We will be working on the flyers shortly and will get them on the club schedule. The schedule can be viewed on the website.https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/2020-schedule/
The Cumberland/Tennessee River tournament permit is pending. We plan to use the Ohio River Boat Launch located at North 6th and Burnett Streets in Paducah, KY. Lodging and permit information will be obtained as quickly as possible,
The spring Pomme De Terre tournament will be held from the marina boat ramp.
The banquet will be held on Jan 25 starting with dinner at 6:00pm. Larry and the board have a fun filled event planned with 50/50, raffle prizes and the club membership raffle.
The Let’s Go Fishing show is being held on January 3-5, 2020. Again this year we will be hosting the Kids Corner. We need to ensure that we have proper booth staffing all the way to the end of the show and we cannot leave early as we are doing a service for the Gateway center to draw in people and having booths pack up early is not good for business.
Ed is taking dues on the front table and giving the new 2020 raffle tickets out (they are yellow this year and are modified slightly from past years).
President – Larry Heagy, motioned by Johnny Morris to close nominations and seconded by Rudy Cardenas. Larry accepterd.
Vice President – Mike Vallino. Rudy motioned to close nominations and Jack Watkins seconded. Mike accepted the position.
Sec/Treas – Ed Montgomery. Rudy motioned to close nominations and Jay Wells seconded. Ed accepted the nomination
The board members were voted on and the 2020 board positions are:
Denny Beiter, Rudy Cardenas, Paul Davis, Brian Carlson, Carl Gansner, John Morris, Russ Rensing.
Congratulations to the members of the board.
A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 2:47pm by John Morris seconded by Carl Gansner. Meeting was adjourned.
Rudy Cardenas won $572 in the 50/50, he promised to buy Anne a awesome Christmas present or spend the money on buying beer for the guys. The secretary left right after the meeting so no official proof of what happened to the money existed.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-12-21-2019-general-meeting/
The meeting was started promptly at 2:11pm by President Larry Heagy
Johnny Morris showed up at about 2:20pm because he was installing a garage heater that went over budget.
25 members were in attendance.
Larry started off the meeting stating that Don Brown had a collection of lures for sale on the side table.
We will review the 2020 Proposed Schedule that the board worked on before the Table Rock event. The proposed schedule was posted on the club website and facebook pages for several weeks.
Ed is taking dues on the front table and giving the new 2020 raffle tickets out (they are yellow this year and are modified slightly from past years).
Ed started reading the minutes from 2/17/2019 but there were no open issues so the reading of the minutes was stopped and approval of the minutes was motioned by Jack Watkins and seconded by Jeremy Hunter.
A review of the club finances indicated a slightly higher balance that the past year due to the increased membership and the raffle ticket exchange for dues. The club purchased several items during the season, one of which was a new scale that took Mike Vallino nearly the whole season to figure out. The scale now works perfectly and is ready for the future. Larry purchased a new projector and screen on the Black Friday specials, they will be used at the banquet and can be used at meetings if necessary. We also purchased 4 rolls of raffle tickets that will be used throughout the winter season for the various raffles.
The prizes for the Banquet raffles were purchased from Sportsman Factory Outlet when we were in Springfield for the table Rock tournament. If anyone has the opportunity to go to Sportsman Factory Outlet be sure to mention your affiliation with the Steel City Bassmasters as they are a great supporter of our club.
Russ Rensing in the 2019 Angler of the year for the second consecutive season. Congratulations Russ on a job well done.
Larrymentioned several members that passed away this season including Howard Koenig who pased away earlier in the season, Randy Grater who unexpectedly passed away while the club was at the Tabe Rock tournament and just a few days ago long time founding member of the club, Ralph Schebivk passed away.
On to brighter news: Larry presented the proposed 2020 schedule to the club. The Clinton Lake tournament was denied due to the very heavy load of tournaments. Also the fall Lake of the Ozarks was moved up one week to avoid a potential conflict with a large club taking off out of Red Oak. After teh schedule was discussed and modified Larry read off the new final schedule. A motion was made by Johnny Morris to approve the schedule, this was seconded by Rudy. A vote on the motion had only Jeremy Hunter vote against the schedule because he has numerous work conflicts.
Discussion was had about changing the stop time of the second day of the fall LOZ tournament to 2:00pm. In general most of the members agreed to this and we will discuss further during the subsequent winter meetings.. The normal tournaments day 1 begins about 30 minutes before official sunrise and is for 9 hours. The second day started at teh same time as the previous day but ended at noon. The noon stop time is certainly adjustable without the need for a motiom (maily what do the members want).
Officer Nominations were made:
President – Larry Heagy, motioned by Johnny Morris to close nominations and seconded by Rudy Cardenas. Larry accepterd.
Vice President – Mike Vallino. Rudy motioned to close nominations and Jack Watkins seconded. Mike accepted the position.
Sec/Treas – Ed Montgomery. Rudy motioned to close nominations and Jay Wells seconded. Ed accepted the nomination
The board members were nominated individually for vote at th next meeting: Nominations for the 2020 board positions are:
Rudy Cardenas, Johnny Morris, Carl Gansner, Russ Rensing, Jack Watkins, Denny Beiter, Paul Davis, Mike Anderson, Brian Carlson, Eric Davis. There are 10 moninations for the 8 board positions.
Russ Fairbanks motioned to close nominations, Rick Ficker gave a half of a finger to indicate that he seconded the motion. Elections are at teh next meeting on 12/22/2019
The annual banquet will be held on 1/25/2020 – at the Collinsville Columbus Plaza Banquet and Meeting Center. Carl Gansner arranged the food and drinks for the event.
The Let’s Go Fishing show is being held on January 3-5, 2020. Again this year we will be hosting the Kids Corner. We need to ensure that we have proper booth staffing all the way to the end of the show and we cannot leave early as we are doing a service for the Gateway center to draw in people and having booths pack up early is not good for business.
Jack Watkins asked if we should host another auction for Steve Ficker. This was generally received well and will be discussed at the next meeting.
April 11th is the annual Steve Ficker memorial golf tournament to be held at Arlington greens. This does not conflict with the tournament schedule this year so we look forward to a strong showing of Steel City members for the event.
Ed mentioned some changes on the website. There is a new Google Calendar that is up to date and easily linkable to so you can always have the latest schedule. There are many youtube videos on how to link a Google calendar to your device or account.
Also mentioned was the photo gallery, Ed corrected the issue and the photos for the 2019 tournament season are now scalable on your devices. You can also download full resolution images for your own needs. The photos from previous years are currently on a server and cannot be viewed. This will be corrected when time allows.
Mike Anderson won the 50/50 drawing and meeting was adjorned at 3:14pm unless your wife is reading this and then the meeting actually ended around 7:00pm. If you got home after 7:00pm then that is on your own.
.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-12-1-2019-general-meeting/
The Board got together and came up with this Proposed tournament schedule for the upcoming 2020 tournament season. This will be discussed and voted on at the 12/1/2019 -2;00pm meeting at the Collinsville Columbus Plaza Banquet and Meeting Center.
Ed Montgomery read the meeting minutes from the Jan 20th meeting minutes were approved as read.
The annual banquet was held on Jan 26th. The attendance was great for the banquet with approximately 150 people in attendance. Since a high number of people attended the raffles were a great success. And special thanks to everyone who helped out during the event.
The first event of the year is on March 9th at Lake Egypt. Larry and Ed will not be in attendance so look for Mike Vallino or the other board members to get registered for the tournament and draw for your takeoff position. The out of bounds and other tournament information is listed on the tournament flyers that is included on the Schedule page. Please familiarize yourself with the flyers before the event so there is no confusion during the day. If there is any question or concern with the flyers please contact Ed Montgomery immediately. In general we will take off 30 minutes before sunrise unless there is an unsafe condition hindering our takeoff.
Rick Ficker showed up to the meeting at 2:23pm for which he promptly called the members all assholes.
From the discussions at the previous winter meetings Larry mentioned that we need to compile a database and survey of the fishing venues that the members would like to have for the 2020 tournament season. We will compile this information and present the findings at the scheduling board meeting in October 2019. This survey will be conducted through the website and only those members with a registered email address can participate (one survey per person). At the meeting time we are missing email addresses for: Eric Alberter, Les Avery, Logan Harnetiaux, Kent Higgins, Chris Hunter, Jacob Ohl, Jon Ozanich and Bob Quick. If you have access to any of these members please have them text or email Ed with their email address.
Some of the venues that the members suggested are: Tennessee/Cumberland River, Stockton, Trueman and Barkley. If you had a good experience at any lake then let us know during the survey so your information can be included. Ed will publish the Survey on April 1st and make the anonymous results available to the members by October 1st through an additional survey.
Arthue Schmittling was so excited during this conversation that he accidentially broke the beer light. After he fixed it the meeting resumed.
Another topic from the winter meeting was the discussion of a functioning Classic Tournament. Larry is going to appoint a committee to lead this discussion.
Rick Ficker discussed the Golf Tournament in honor of Steve Ficker to raise scholarship money. This tournament will be held on April 6th as is almost full to capacity. The date coincides with the Pomme De Terre Tournament so if you are not going to Pomme then this is a great cause to participate in.
A motion was made to purchase 2 hole sponsorship for the golf tournament ($100 each) and the motion passed. Ed will get the check over to Rick to include for the tournament.
The Steve Ficker memorial youth fishing event held in conjunction with the Granite City Police Department will me held on May 11th at the Fountains from 12:00pm to 4:00pm.. there will be 7-8 weigh in stations located around the lake for the anglers to get pictures and to weigh their catch. More on this event will be sent out at a later date as the details get finalized. The club is not fishing that day so please plan to attend and help our for this great cause,.
Johny Morris Motioned to close the meeting and was seconded by Jay Wells. Meeting adjourned at 3:10pm.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-2-17-2019-general-meeting/
Meeting began at 2:07pm by President Larry Heagy 33 Members and guests were in attendance
Ed Montgomery read the minutes from the last meeting, motion to approve the minutes as read was made by Tim Evans and seconded by Carl. All members in attendance voted to approve the minutes.
Larry started off the meeting by informing the membership that the schedule cards are in. These cards have the complete schedule and the club Officers contact information on them It is handy to keep them with you and in your boat and truck in case you need to contact someone during a tournament event.
Larry mentioned that Rudy Cardenas and Jack Watkins are new board members for 2019. Both Rudy and Jack were in attendance but they did not buy any refreshments for the membership that voted them onto the board.
The first order of business was to discuss and vote on the pending bylaws amendment proposed at the last meeting. After much discussion the vote was taken and the amendment was not approved.
The bylaws amendment was rewritten by Ed Montgomery and a motion to make a bylaws amendment was made by Ed and Seconded by Craig Knight. All Members present approved the proposed bylaws change and this will be voted on at the next general meeting.
The bylaws change was: Consumption of Alcoholic beverages is prohibited during posted tournament hours for all Steel City Bassmasters events. Violation of this rule will result in immediate tournament disqualification and further disciplinary action up to and including removal of the individual from the Steel City Bassmasters Organization as determined by the Club Officers and Board Members
Mike Anderson made a motion to adjourn the current meeting and have the next regular scheduled meeting commence at the end of this meeting. The motion was seconded by Johnny Morris.
Mike Anderson motioned that wae closed the meeting, the motion was seconded by Carl Gansner. All in attendance approved the motion at 3:05pm.
Mike Vallino won the 50/50 drawing and promptly called Pizza Hut for some Pizza for the members in attendance. I think he had Pizza Hut on speed dial.
Due to the motion passed at the previous meeting Larry opened up the next meeting at 3:08pm. .
Larry started off this meeting witha discussion on the banquet. The banquet will be next Saturday, Jan 26th and starts with food at 6:00pm. This is out 30th year in existance and Larry has an all star cast attending the banquet including some of the founding members of the club. This will be a fun night for everyone.
Craig Knight mentioned about the Steve Ficker Memorial Kids Fishing scholarship event. More details later on this event but it will be held on May 11th at 12:00 to 4:00pm. Ages 6-18 are invited to participate.
Rick Ficker mentioned about a memorial golf tournament being held on the Saturday of the Pomme De Terre tournament. Saturday dates are very hard to come by so he took that date and any member that is not going to Pomme should come to the golf event. Rick indicated that getting a good attendance would not be a problem. More on this at the next meeting.
Jeremy randomly said the word “Douche” in reference to something that someone said or to the Rams that won the football game.
The bylaws amendment was again discussed and ballots were taken. The membership passed the bylaws amendment and is promptly changed on the website. the new bylaw is: Consumption of Alcoholic beverages is prohibited during posted tournament hours for all Steel City Bassmasters events. Violation of this rule will result in immediate tournament disqualification and further disciplinary action up to and including removal of the individual from the Steel City Bassmasters Organization as determined by the Club Officers and Board Members
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Mike Anderson and seconded by Carl. The meeting was adjourned at 3:21pm.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-1-20-2019-general-meeting/
We will have our third general meeting of the winter this Sunday, January 20 at 2:00pm.
The meeting will be in the Collinsville Knights of Columbus lounge area.
We have several topics to cover on Sunday, but the most important issue will be a rules amendment addressing consumption of alcoholic during tournament hours.
This rules amendment motion was proposed by me at the December meeting. We haven’t previously included language in our rules that addresses alcoholic beverages during tournaments and I felt that the time has come and it is overdue.
The motion was passed and will be presented to the membership on Sunday for an official vote. As our bylaws state, a two thirds majority in favor of the amendment will make it an official part of our rules.
We will read through the language of the amendment and open it up for discussion before the vote.
Whether you approve or disapprove, the main thing is that the membership will always have the opportunity to shape this bass club.
I look forward to seeing all of you at the meeting on Sunday.
Best regards,
Larry Heagy
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/third-general-meeting-of-the-winter-this-sunday-january-20-at-200pm/
Next Sunday, Jan 20th at 2:00pm will be the last meeting before the banquet. at the Collinsville Columbus Plaza Banquet and Meeting Center. We will discuss preparations for the banquet and this is your last chance to get your raffle tickets before the banquet.
For those not familiar with the Dues/Raffle Tickets you buy your raffle tickets with your annual $65 membership dues. We will hand you 100 raffle tickets. You can sell them individually for $1 each or you can keep them and put your own name on them. They are yours to keep and you keep all the funds associated with selling the raffle tickets. You must turn in your ticket stubs at the banquet or make arrangements to turn in your stubs if you cannot attend the banquet. Some members just put their own name on them and some members sell them to offset the cost of the dues (your choice). If you decide to sell them you keep all the money and you can virtually pay for your annual dues as well as 1 tournament. If you live out of town then let us know and we can mail your the tickets for you to sell. The Raffle Tickets will be available at the banquet as well After the banquet you will just pay your dues with no exchange of raffle tickets.
The banquet will be on Saturday, January 26th at 6:00pm at the Collinsville Columbus Plaza Banquet and Meeting Center. This will be a special year for the banquet because it is the 30th anniversary of the Club. New members are certainly invited to attend the club banquet as well, be sure to bring your significant other and you will have a great time. We will send out more banquet details as the date approaches.
If you want your raffle tickets before the next meeting please contact Ed Montgomery and he can make arrangements to get them to you in exchange for your club dues.
Look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting and the banquet.
Ed Montgomery
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/club-raffle-tickets-and-last-meeting-before-the-banquet/
Meeting began at 2:15pm by President Larry Heagy
21 Members were in attendance, 2 new members and 2 guests
Ed Montgomery read the minutes from the last meeting, motion to approve the minutes as read was made by Frank Wilcoxon and seconded by Carl. All members in attendance voted to approve the minutes.
Membership dues are currently being accepted by Ed Montgomery, The $65 annual dues are due before fishing the 2019 Season. The club is handing out raffle tickets to the members who pay their dues. These raffle tickets can be sold for $1 each and the awards will be given out at the Awards Banquet. The member keeps the money generated by the raffle sales since they already paid their dues. The member can also keep the raffle tickets for themselves and enter into the raffle at the banquet.
Jack Watkins gave the group a short update on his health, he recently had hip surgery and got a staph infection. He has to take antibiotics 3 times a day and has to work through the pain. We all wish him a speedy recovery so we can see him on the water come spring.
Larry mentioned to stop in and see the Sportsman Factory Outlet when anybody is near Springfield, MO. They love to see the members of Steel City come in the store and made mention to Larry of the number of people that came into the store before the Table Rock Tournament.
Larry said the word Cock
Ballots were handed out for election of the board members. The results of the election were compiled by outgoing board member Brian Carlson. The results are as follows:
President – Larry Heagy
Vice President – Mike Vallino
Secretary/Treasurer – Ed Montgomery
Executive Board Member – Sergio Cortes
Executive Board Member – John Morris
Executive Board Member – Paul Davis
Executive Board Member – Carl Gansner
Executive Board Member – Russ Rensing
Executive Board Member – Jack Watkins
Executive Board Member – Rudy Cardenas
Larry reviewed the responsibilities of the board and the need for assistance at the weigh in with measuring Fish, Running the Camera, and various other jobs. It is each board members responsibility to make sure the weigh in goes as smoothly as possible and maybe wait to weigh your own fish to help out when things are crowded at the beginning of the weight in.
A bylaws amendment was brought up and discussed.
The amendment reads:
Tournament Rules Amendment 2019
Consumption of Alcoholic beverages is prohibited during posted tournament hours for all Steel City Bassmasters tournament events. Violation of this rule will result in disqualification and removal of the individual(s) from the Steel City Bassmasters organization.
Some discussion about this proposed amendment was made. If you stop fishing early you cannot consume alcohol until the end of the posted tournament hours. That means if the tournament goes to 3:00pm and you load the boat you cannot consume alcohol until 3:00pm that day regardless if you are fishing or not.
A vote was taken and all members were in favor of the proposed amendment. Motion passed and a written ballot will be handed out at the next meeting and 2/3 of the membership present must vote YES for the motion to become a bylaw.
Craig Knight was not able to attend the meeting but is very interested in helping with the Steve Ficker memorial Kids Fishing event(s). Other ideas were mentioned to possibly keep this as a self sustaining event. Jack Watkins brought up the idea of the auction of unused fishing equipment that everyone has and mentioned that he is making a custom rod to be donated to the cause. Possibly have a golf event or a fishing golf event at Oak Brook Golf Course that was mentioned to Larry during one of their golf outings. Bob Quick also has some ideas and is involved with the Granite City High School bass club.
Lets Go Fishing show starts at 12:00pm on Jan4th. We will once again have the fish pond for the kids to catch a fish and win a prize. We will raffle off a Lews Rod/Reel and give away several kids rod/reel combos.
We had further discussion about the Classic Tournament and it was decided that the top 12 anglers from 2018 will participate in this event. The 13th person in the 2018 Angler of the Year list will be on hand to help unload/load boats, arrange food at the weigh in and conduct the weigh in for the Classic competitors.
The meeting adjourned at 3:41pm.
The 50/50 drawing was $60 and was won by someone other than me.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-12-16-2018-general-meeting/
Meeting began at 2:10pm by President Larry Heagy
19 Members were in attendance (BRIAN CARLSON WAS LATE!)
Ed Montgomery read the minutes from the Jan 28, 2018 Meeting, motion to approve the minutes as read was made by Carl Gansner and seconded by Sergio Cortes. All members in attendance voted to approve the minutes.
Membership dues are currently being accepted by Ed Montgomery, The $65 annual dues are due before fishing the 2019 Season. The club is handing out raffle tickets to the members who pay their dues. These raffle tickets can be sold for $1 each and the awards will be given out at the Awards Banquet. The member keeps the money generated by the raffle sales since they already paid their dues. The member can also keep the raffle tickets for themselves and enter into the raffle at the banquet.
The agenda for the meeting was presented by Larry.
We will cover the 2019 Schedule, nominate Club Officers and Board Memebers, discuss awards banquet and Lets Go Fishing Show.
Larry recognized Russ Rensing as the Angler of the Year winner for 2018.
Bert Houston mentioned that Tom Jenkins Boat was for sale. Please contact Bert if Interested. Slim details were given as to the boats make and model other than it was freshly rebuilt and is a Champion.
Larry discussed that the club lost two prominent active members this season, David R. Brown and Steve Ficker.
Steve Ficker wanted in lieu of flowers for gifts to be given to the Steel City Bassmasters for use with the kids fishing programs such as Shielded Waters. The board and membership will discuss where the donations go in the name of Steve Ficker. We will discuss this further at future winter meetings. Donations are still being accepted and get them to Ed Montgomery and he will ensure the funds go into the account for this program. Jack Watkins made a suggestion to have a tackle auction comprised of unused fishing equipment and tackle, this could be a significant fundrasier for this topic.
Eric Alberter mentioned that his father passed away last summer. He would always follow the club and would ask who won immediately after the event. While he was not a fisherman he followed the club and knew the members names and was genuinely interested in the outcome of the tournaments. Our deepest condolences to Eric and his family on his loss.
Larry discussed the Let’s Go Fishing Show. The Steel City Bassmasters will be hosting the Kids Corner at the show this year. The show dates are Jan 4-6, 2019 at the Gateway Center in Collinsvile.
Larry was asked by the Lets Go Fishing show management if our club could volunteer to run the Cabelas fishing pond in the main area. A show of hands indicated that all members in attendance were in favor of volunteering for this. Larry will discuss with the Gateway Center the time and date that we would man the fishing pond.
Larry discussed the club relationship with Sportman Factory Outlet. Sportsmans Factory Outlet
3031 N Martin Ave, Springfield, MO 65803. Phone: (417) 881-1635. They have been very generous to our club and we should make every effort to stop in when near Springfield. Larrry purchase 3 Rod/Reel Combos for the Banquet, Let Go Show raffle and the Table Rock tournament.
The Club reviewed the tentative schedule that was posted on Facebook and the club website since October 25, 2019. After discussing the schedule a motion was made by Mike Anderson and seconded by Russ Fairbanks to accept the schedule as presented. A vote was taken and all members in attendance with the exception of Barry “no fish” Koblitz approved the motion. The motion passed and Barry surprisingly did not receive any crude remarks. The 2019 OFFICIAL schedule is on the website.
Rocky then ordered and received a Pizza. He immediately shared with Johnny and Sergio so he could hopefully cash in on their winning spot at the Fall Table Rock event. Only after the pizza was cold did Rocky offer pizza to anybody else. I think Rudy and Eric grabbed a piece when he wasn’t looking.
Bluff City Outdoors received an award to further enhance their business.
ALTON – March 27 2018, The Small Business Revolution host Amanda Brinkman and season three co-host Ty Pennington, announced the six Alton businesses chosen to split an investment sum of $500,000 from show’s sponsor, the Minneapolis-based Deluxe Corporation.
The six chosen were: Lighthouse Sounds, Lovett’s, Today’s Beauty Supply, Morrison’s Irish Pub, Sham Pooches and Bluff City Outdoors. Bluff City Outdoors is an all-around outdoors shop located in the 2800 block of East Broadway in a building owner Mark McMurray said has been some form of bait and tackle shop since the 1950s. He said he purchased the shop in 2003, and business was good until online competition and the country’s economy made things bad.
Bluff City Outdoors has been a long time advocate for our club and please visit Mark and Bluff City Outdoors when you need your fishing tackle. Reminder that each club member is required to bring their own weigh in bag to the tournaments. You can pick one up at Bluff City or if you are like Russ Rensing you need a new bag because you flat wore out this years bag.
This is the Clubs 30th year in existence. The club is extending invitations for the banquet to special people who made a difference in the history of the club. Some notable invitations were sent to Jerry McKinnis “owner of B.A.S.S.” and notable Outdoor Writer John Neporadny “owner of JN Outdoors”. Also invitations will go out to the former members of the club from the Cape Girardeau area.
The Collinsville Sports Store was a long time supplier of the Plaques and Trophies to the club. Their business closed in 2018 and we are searching for alternatives. More to come next meeting on the awards banquet.
Les Avery donated some of his winnings from the Rend Lake smack-down when he took at the awards for first through 4th place and Big Bass. Les’ donation to the club is to offset the beverage expenses at the banquet. We truly appreciate Les for this donation and we will raise a glass to him at the banquet.
Nominations for Officers and Board Members were made:
President – Nomination by Rocky and Seconded by Rudy for Larry Heagy, Johhny Morris motioned to close nominations and was accepted by the membership.
Vice President – After some discussion Rocky finally figured out the Mike Vallino was the Vice President. Rocky then said he loved Mike (sounded kindof gay but that is what he said). Sergio Cortes nominated Mike for Vice President and Rudy Seconded. Johhny Morris again motioned to close nominations and was accepted by the membership.
Secretary/Treasurer – Motion was make by Mike Vallino and seconded by Paul Davis to retain Ed Montgomery in this role. There was a long pause where no other nominations were made then Johhny Morris again motioned to close nominations and was accepted by the membership.
Therefor the club Officers will remain the same for 2019.
The Board Members nominations were made for the 7 board positions. These positions are critical to the club functions and also to ensure everything goes smoothly with adequate help and support during the weigh in’s. Voting will be made at teh general meeting on December 16th meeting.
Board Nominations (in no particular order):
Joey Ozanich
Johnny Morris
Sergio Cortes
Frank Wilcoxon
Rudy Cardenas
Rocky Horrighs
Carl Gansner
Russ Rensing
Paul Davis
Jack Watkins
Mike Anderson
Barry Koblitz
Remember to come and vote on these 7 board positions on December 16th.
Larry then opened up the floor for open discussion:
Eric Alberter brought up several suggestion on ways to increase participation in the tournaments. His comments were not to disrupt the schedule put into place earlier in the meeting but they were good sugessions for the future of the club and we will discuss them at future winter meetings. His suggestions were to create a Club Classic tournament where the club top anglers would participate. Another suggestion was to have an online survey for all members as to where and when they would like to fish. We would gather all the clubs recommendations and use it at next Octobers board meeting to discuss the future schedule for 2020.
Jack Watkins motioned to close the meeting, seconded by Rocky. Motion passed and meeting was ended promptly at 3:57pm (unless Teri is reading this then the meeting ended at 6:45pm for which Carl left immediately after the meeting).
Meeting adjourned. The winner of the 50/50 was Rocky Horrighs and asked that the money be donated back to the club. He then said he loved everybody and pinched Larry’s ass as he was giving him a hug.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-11-25-2018-general-meeting/
With just one more event in the 2018 tournament season, the officers and board members have been preparing for Table Rock and looking ahead to the winter meetings and 2019 events.
Our final event of 2018 is at Table Rock Lake/Lazy Lee’s Resort on November 17 and I hope all of you can join us there to close out the season.
If you need a room for Table Rock, contact Joy at 417-338-2253.
The Table Rock weekend will include a pre-tournament seminar by Elite Series angler and Bassmaster Classic qualifier Brian Snowden. Brian will be guiding ion Table Rock n the weeks prior to the event and will have plenty of information on tournament tactics and new products.
Brian will also be updating us on the changes within the professional bass fishing community concerning the Bassmaster Elite Series, FLW, and the new MLF Bass Pro Tour.
As always, bring something to throw onto the grill on Friday evening and the bass club will provide salad and sides. Feel free to bring anything you would like to add to the meal, whether it is a snack during the grilling time, side item for dinner or a dessert.
Saturday’s tournament will kick off at sunrise with a boat check and launch. This is a team event and your individual catch will be combined with your boat partner to determine the four places and big bass awards.
Following the weigh-in, we will have a catered meal from Danna’s BBQ and tournament awards presentation.
Once again, I look forward seeing everyone at Table Rock.
Looking beyond the 2018 fishing season
The board has developed the proposed 2019 tournament schedule and it can be viewed at:
Note: If you viewed the proposed schedule earlier this week, there has been an update due to scheduling conflicts at KY Lake (The Moors), so please check it again.
Our first of four scheduled general meetings for the winter will be on Sunday, November 25 at 2:00 pm at the Collinsville Knights of Columbus lounge. At that meeting we will review the proposed 2019 schedule and vote on it’s approval.
We will also nominate eligible members for officer and board positions.
Elections will be held at the December 16 general meeting.
The Let’s Go Fishing Show will be held once again at the Collinsville Convention Center on January 4, 5, & 6. Steel City will once again be helping with the kid’s corner fish tank booth. We will also be raffling a brand new Lews baitcasting combo at the show.
The annual Steel City awards banquet is scheduled for January 26. We are actively looking for a new awards/plaque vendor as Collinsville Sports Shop has closed in retirement. Any recommendations for a new vendor will be helpful.
There is your update as we look ahead to the close of the 2018 season.
Thanks,
Larry Heagy
President of the Steel City Bassmasters
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/end-of-2018-season-and-start-of-2019-season/
On April 21 we travel to Table Rock Lake and Lazy Lee’s resort. This is a two man team tournament. Team entry fee is $100.
We will have Elite Series angler, 4-time Classic qualifier, and Table Rock Lake guide Brian Snowden and Table Rock guide and tournament angler Pete Wenners on hand for the pre-tournament meeting on Friday, April 20.
They will be conducting a seminar on lake conditions and likely patterns.
Jack Watkins is volunteering to make Lasagna for everyone in attendance on Thursday night, April 19th. He is trying to get a head count on how many guys will be at Lazy Lee’s on Thursday evening for dinner? 6PM or so. He will have enough lasagna and garlic bread for everyone if I know.
Bring some meat for the grill on Friday evening. We will provide the salad and baked potato to round out the meal.
We will provide a catered meal after the tournament from Danna’s BBQ. That is included in your entry fee.
We expect a good turnout at Lazy Lee’s. Looking forward to spending some extended time with all of you at this team event.
Check the tournament flyers on our website for lodging information, etc.
Lazy Lee’s Resort 49 Lazylee Lane Branson West, MO 65737 Phone: 417.338.2253
Heagy and Ed
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/table-rock-team-tournament-at-lazy-lees-resort-coming-up-april-21/
Due to a predicted winter storm predicted Friday in Hermitage, MO, the board has decided to cancel the Pomme de Terre tournament scheduled for this weekend.
We feel that the conditions will be unsafe for travel on Friday and it will be best to cancel the event.
Please spread the word to your bass club buddies who might not be checking their email or facebook regularly.
At this point we have not discussed whether the event will be rescheduled or just cancelled.
Thank you for understanding this safety related decision.
Best regards,
Larry Heagy
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/urgent-message-pomme-de-terre-tournament-canceled-due-to-unsafe-weather-conditions/
We have two tournaments in the books already in 2018. The water is warming up and the fishing should be awesome in April.
We travel to Pomme de Terre for our first two day event of the season on April 7th and 8th.
Launch and weigh-in for both days will be at Lighthouse Harbor Marina, next to the dam. Please refer to the flyer on the website for tournament times and details.
The entire Harbor area (inside the no wake buoys) will be off limits.
Please remember that you need to purchase your Missouri Fishing License for 2018 as they expired in February.
If you would like to register early for the tournament Ed will be around the Lakeviewn to collect your fees and draw for your number on Friday evening. On Saturday we are kicking off at 6:30 or safe light. You can pay your registration Saturday at the back of Ed’s truck at about 6:00am to about 6:15am, please have your $35 ready and exact change is always appreciated. If some reason you must be late to the tournament or registration, you must make that known to Ed, Larry, Mike or any other board member in attendance BEFORE the start of the tournament. Your pocket calendars have the phone numbers listed on them.
We look forward to seeing everyone there and hope it is a safe and great event coming back to Pomme in the Spring!. We hope to see all of you there.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/pomme-de-terre-this-weekend-april-7-8-2018/
Saturday, March 3 will be Steel City Bassmasters Day at Bluff City Outdoors.
Stop in at Bluff City 2813 E Broadway – Alton, Illinois any time on that day for their open house celebration. Make sure you let them know you are with Steel City to get an added discount on your purchase.
Many of us will be arriving together at 11:00am to shop followed by a trip to Fast Eddies for all members over the age of 21.
I hope to see all of you there next Saturday!
Heagy
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/steel-city-bassmasters-day-at-bluff-city-outdoors/
Meeting began at 2:09pm by President Larry Heagy
30 Members were in attendance (RUDY WAS LATE!)
Ed Montgomery read the minutes from the December 17, 2017 Meeting, motion to approve the minutes as read was made by Jeremy Hunter and seconded by Sergio Cortes. All members in attendance voted to approve the minutes.
Membership dues are currently being accepted by Ed Montgomery, The $65 annual dues are due before fishing the 2018 Season.
Larry noted several new members in attendance. He started off the meeting by recapping the Rules and Bylaws which has made the club so successful over the years. Only one change was made to the bylaws in recent years. This document is the governing rules and bylaws that makes the club successful with a minimum of controversy.
Since the club is entering their 30th year Larry is planning the best even banquet for next year with some special guests from the clubs past history. Larry shared with us many stories from the past including a bicycle club stopping by the Farmhouse at Smithland Pool. From the discussion with the bike club someone recognized Jerry Lisenby, from the Biggest Loser reality show. Also Larry mentioned meeting Stacey King at Table Rock and he came up to talk to the club before their tournament and the never forgotten POW, POW, POW story from the 2013 Bassmasters Classic where the group attending presented Jerry McKinnis with a poster of Cardinals baseball legend Stan Musial and that story was printed in BASS Times. Many, many more stories were told until the bar ran out of beer then we all took a nap while Larry finished. Look for the theme of the next banquet to be Steel City Bassmasters “Over the Years”. Be sure to get your reservations early as it is going to be a full house.
Going on with other club business, Larry received the tournament permit for the Kentucky Lake tournament. All Illinois Lakes Permits were received and we are still awaiting the Missouri Lakes permits. UPDATE: All Missouri Regatta Permits were received and noted on the club schedule page.
Next meeting will be on February 18th, 2018 @ 2:00pm at the Collinsville Knights of Columbus.
Last meeting we voted to make a amendment to the club bylaws, The amendment was simply to have the club members supply their own weigh in bags at the weigh in, no bag and you cannot weigh your fish. Also fish from multiple anglers should not be placed in the same bag at the same time. Jeremy Hunter highly recommended that you purchase a zippered weigh in bag so you do not drop your hard earned catch into the lake like he did a few years ago at Kentucky Lake. He noted had he actually weighed in his fish he would have kicked Brian Cave’s ass!
The club voted with 29 members to approve the motion. Sergio (enis) voted against the motion for which he was quickly and swiftly dealt with by the membership. The motion passed 29-1 in favor of the motion, the bylaws will be revised and posted on the club website with a revision date of 1/28/2018. If you have older club bylaws please discard them as the new 1/28/2018 Bylaws are the governing body for the club.
Mark @ Bluff City tackle has asked for a club roster to offer the club members a discount off or your purchases. He will keep track of the purchases throughout the year and will decide if future discounts are available. March 3rd is the Steel City/ Bluff City Tackle day where all of the members are invited to Bluff City Tackle for some great conversation and friendship. This is a great way to get the club kicked off with the new discount program Mark has implemented. Afterwords the members of legal age are invited by Sergio to go to Fast Eddies where he has graciously volunteered to purchase food and beverages for the entire club due to the heartache he put them through by voting NO on the bylaws amendment.
Larry recapped the tournament procedures.
A motion was made by Johnny MO at 3:20pm to adjourn the meeting and was seconded by Rudy Cardenas.
Meeting adjourned. The winner of the 50/50 has asked me not to divulge their identity as they wanted to keep their newfound winnings away from his spouse. He said she does not need any more shoes!
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-1-28-2018-general-meeting/
2018 starts off this weekend with the Let’s Go Fishing Show at the Collinsville Gateway Center. Here are the show times.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 5
NOON – 8:00 PM
SATURDAY, JANUARY 6
9:00 AM – 7:00 PM
SUNDAY, JANUARY 7
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Some of you have volunteered to help with setup of the booth on Friday morning. We will meet at 10:30 am for setup.
I have a handful of passes and single admission tickets for those of you who will be coming to the show to help with the booth. Give me a call at 618-402-8610 when you arrive at the show and I will bring a ticket to you if they are still available.
Please help as as much you can. Use the booth to drop off your coats and bags. We will be actively promoting the bass club and welcoming potential new members this year as membership has been opened in 2018.
We will be raffling a rod and reel combo at the show. The drawing will be held at 3:00 pm on Sunday as we take down the booth.
For those of you who want to join us for dinner, we will have an area reserved at Zapata Mexican Restaurant next door at 7:00 pm on Saturday evening following the show.
I look forward to seeing all of you at the show.
Heagy
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/happy-new-year-and-plans-for-the-lets-go-fishing-show/
Meeting began at 2:20pm by President Larry Heagy
19 Members were in attendance
Ed Montgomery read the minutes from the December 3, 2017 Meeting, motion to approve the minutes as read was made by Chad Carlson and seconded by Carl Gansner. All members in attendance voted to approve the minutes.
Membership dues are currently being accepted by Ed Montgomery, You can get your raffle tickets when you pay the $65 annual dues.
Larry mentioned that normally the elections were held on this meeting but since the Board and Officers did an excellent job last year they were all unanimously re-elected to another term at the last meeting from a motion made by Jeremy Hunter.
The new schedule cards are done and were handed out. We will have them at all events so be sure to pick yours up when you can. On the schedule cards are the names and numbers of the three officers, if you happen to be running late or have any other issue while attending a tournament you must call the officers to be made aware of the situation. Start with the president and go down the line, leave messages at sometime cell phone signals are poor in remote locations.
Larry read the major points of the bylaws and mentioned that they ahve not been changed for quite a few years and are a great basis for the club to operate under. The last change was in Jan 2016 when the membership dues were raised and raffle tickets are given out to compensate the members for the increased dues.
A very important motion was made by Barry Koblitz and seconded by Chad Carlson to make an amendment to the bylaws. The new bylaw is that the club will no longer supply weigh in bags at the tournaments. The motion was made and accepted by the membership in attendance. A final vote on this amendment will be made at the January meeting.
Each member should put this on their Christmas list if they do not already have one. These bags can be bought at a lot of different stores such as Academy Sports, Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas, Amazon, Tackle Warehouse, Gator Grip etc… and are made by a multitude of vendors such as Ardent, Duncan Bags, Bass Pro, Berkley, Lews, Gator Grip etc… Just type in “zipper weigh in bags” into a google search and you will find a lot of them.
Bert Houston mentioned that he can teach anybody how to spoon (both on and off the water), so if you are interested in spooning with Bert then give him a call.
Joey Ozanich brought his tackle shop to the meeting and it is getting noticeably smaller selling baits to members at a great price..
The Let;s Go Fishing Show will be at the Collinsville Gateway Center on January 5-7, 2018. The booth will stay in the same place as last year but will be a little smaller as another booth space was created next to ours. We will again be hosting the Kids Corner, Larry has lots of beads left over from last year. We will raffle off a Lew Rod/reel combo at the show. Also we will raffle off a Boys and Girls fishing outfit. The drawings will be on Facebook Live on the Steel City Bassmasters Facebook page at 4:00pm on January 7th.
The club will be meeting on Saturday night @ 7PM for a fun evening at Zapatas. Each member is responsible for their own purchases. Mike Vallino will be organizing the tables, right now he will get seating for 50 people. Please let Mike know if you plan to attend Zapatas so he can adjust the accommodations as necessary BEFORE the dinner.
The Banquet will be held January 13th. Carl Gansner said he worked tirelessly to secure the same menu as last year. The banquet will be held on Jan. 13 and will again be at the Collinsville Knights of Columbus Hall
One Columbus Plaza Collinsville, IL 62234 map it
Larry has been busy decoding the data and preparing the slide show for the banquet, Steve Ficker is arranging table coverings for the banquet.
Barry Koblitz motioned that we adjourn the meeting and that was seconded by Rudy Cardenas. Meeting adjourned at 3:14pm then the membership sung Christmas Carols while wrapping the presents for their spouses. Wow, some of the diamonds the guys got their significant others were incredible!
50/50 was won by Jack Watkins whom promptly spent his newfound winnings on more wrapping paper for the guys to wrap their wives presents.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-12-17-2017-general-meeting/
After a few years of review by me and the board members at our annual tournament schedule development meetings, we decided to actively address the issue of declining tournament attendance.
Things change in our lives, often making participation in the bass club events a challenge.
We have tried decreasing the number of events in hopes increasing attendance with no positive effect.
We decided that it would be best to address the issue with the general membership at last Sunday’s meeting. There, we proposed opening up the membership ranks to interested fisherman, outside of the bass club for the first time in 8 years.
After discussion, a motion was made to open up new membership by 25 people and the motion passed.
As president, I routinely get emails and phone from interested anglers. I have always told them that membership is closed, but stay tuned because you never know what will happen going forward. I will start to re-connect with these people to invite them to our winter meetings.
If you know of someone who might be interested in becoming a member, please invite them to come out and meet the group. We will be actively pursuing new members at the 2018 Let’s Go Fishing show also.
The Steel City Bassmasters has been very fortunate over the last 29 seasons to have a group of good people. My hope is that this new wave of members will continue that tradition and our events will be both fun and competitive.
Larry Heagy
President of the Steel City Bassmasters
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/membership-newsletter-for-2018-season/
Meeting began at 2:18pm by President Larry Heagy
19 Members were in attendance
Ed Montgomery read the minutes from the February 2017 Meeting, motion to approve the minutes as read was made by Frank Wilcoxon and seconded by Rick Ficker. All members in attendance voted to approve the minutes.
Membership dues are currently being accepted by Ed Montgomery, You can get your raffle tickets when you pay the dues.
Larry brought up the topic of decreased attendance at the events. Jeremy called Brain a bad word. A general discussion was had and talked about opening up membership to new members. Ed receives 2-3 requests a month and Larry received 10+ requests and calls per month about new members. After discussion Mike Anderson made a motion to add 25 new members to the club. Seconded by Chad Carlson and motion was passed unanimously Therefore effective immediately the membership is now open to new members. A point was made about the bylaws section that talks about removal of new members from the club who are in general not compatible with the club members, Larry mentioned the ‘asshole’ clause where every new member is on probation for the first year.
Larry reviewed the 2018 Proposed Tournament Schedule. The club will return to a 12 tournament schedule this year. The schedule is listed on the website and a motion to approve as published was made by Jeremy Hunter and seconded by Frank Wilcoxon. All members except Barry voted to approve the schedule. Larry called Barry a piece of the male anatomy (as a joke since Serg was not there). I can write anything, I bet nobody even reads it!
Officer and Board Members were discussed and nominations started. Upon starting the nomination process Jeremy Hunter made a motion to keep the Officers and Board members the same for the 2018 season. Upon this motion the nominations stopped and the club voted unanimously to approve all board positions. Therefore the results are the same as 2017, you can go to the board members section and see the results.
Talk then turned to the Let’s Go Fishing show. The booth will stay in the same place as last year but will be a little smaller as another booth space was created next to ours. We will again be hosting the Kids Corner, Larry has lots of beads left over from last year. We will raffle off a Lew Rod/reel combo at the show. Brain Carlson will be the necessary City of Collinsville permits to conduct an raffle. The club will be meeting on Saturday night for a fun evening at Zapatas. Each member is responsible for their own purchases, the club is only organizing the tables.
Talk turned to the annual awards banquet. Carl Gansner work tirelessly to secure the same menu as last year. The banquet will be held on Jan. 13 and will again be at the Collinsville Knights of Columbus Hall
One Columbus Plaza Collinsville, IL 62234 map it
Joey Ozanich motioned that we adjourn the meeting and that was seconded by Carl Gansner. Meeting adjourned at 2:48 pm which was the shortest meeting with Larry in attendance in the history of the club.
50/50 was won by Chad Carlson whom promptly spent his newfound winnings on buying more beer for everyone.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/meeting-minutes-for-12-03-2017-general-meeting/
We will have our first general meeting of the winter season on Sunday, December 3rd at 2:00pm at the Collinsville Knights of Columbus
We will have the raffle tickets to hand out at the meeting. For those not familiar with the Raffle Tickets you buy your raffle ticket with your annual $65 membership dues. We will hand you 100 raffle tickets. You can sell them individually for $1 each or you can keep them and put your own name on them. They are yours to keep. Turn in your ticket stubs at the banquet. If you decide to sell them you keep all the money and you can virtually pay for your annual dues as well as 1 tournament. If you live out of town then let us know and we can mail you the tickets for you to sell.
At the meeting we will nominate eligible members for officer and board positions.
We will also review and vote on the proposed 2018 tournament schedule that was recently created by the board. Elections will be held at our December 17th meeting.
We will discuss plans for the Lets Go Fishing Show and the chapter awards banquet, both coming in January.
There will be a review of catch statistics and tournament attendance from 2017.
There will be other topics discussed as well.
As always, we will entertain any suggestions for amendments to our chapter bylaws and tournament rules during all of the winter meetings.
I hope to see all of you at Sunday’s meeting.
Best regards,
Ed Montgomery
Secretary/Treasurer of the Steel City Bassmasters
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/1390-2/
This is the APPROCED schedule for 2018. The schedule and flyers will be updated when time permits. Larry is submitting the Missouri Regatta Permits. The Illinois permits are listed below.
1.) March 10, 2018 Lake of Egypt, Pyramid Acres – Tournament Approved for 3/10/ 2018, no state approval necessary.
2.) March 24, 2018 Clinton Lake, Marina – Tournament Approved id # 8320
3.) April 7-8, 2018 Pomme De Terre
4.) April 21, 2018 Table Rock Lake, Lazy Lees
5.) May 5, 2018 Rend, Gun Creek South (Golf Course Ramp) , Tournament Approved id # 8319
6.) May 19.20, 2018 Kentucky Lake, Moors
7.) June 2, 2018 Kinkaid Lake Tournament Approved ID # 8331
8.) June 23-24, 2018 Smithland Pool, Golconda – Tournament Approved id # 8322
9.) July 28, 2018 Mississippi River , Louisiana Pool 24, Two Rivers Marina – Tournament Approved id # 8323
10.) September 8-9, 2018 Pomme De Terre
11.) October 20-21, 2018 Lake of the Ozarks, Red Oak Resort – CONFIRMED with Red Oak Resort, get your rooms early if you want Motel Rooms by the water.
12.) November 17, 2018 Table Rock Lake
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/proposed-2018-tournament-schedule/
The 2017 tournament season comes to a close next weekend at Table Rock Lake and Lazy Lee’s Resort on November 18.
The weekend of events starts on Friday evening with the pre-tournament meeting in the Lazy Lee’s garage behind the office.
Bring your beverages and some meat for the grill. We will provide salad, potatoes, etc. for dinner.
Our special guests on Friday evening will be Brian Snowden and Pete Wenners for a Table Rock fishing seminar.
There will be a raffle with some great prizes.
The tournament is on Saturday, followed by a catered meal from Danna’s BBQ at 6pm. We will hand out tournament prizes after the meal.
Your $100 team tournament entry fee will pay the top 4 places, big bass and Saturday’s post-tournament meal.
Jack Watkins has informed me that he has some added prizes to hand out for some of the non-placing teams, as well as 2nd big bass, etc.
This is always a fun weekend as we wrap up another tournament season.
I understand there are still some cabins available at Lazy Lee’s. Contact Joy at 417-338-2253 to reserve your spot.
See you at Table Rock!
Larry Heagy
Permanent link to this article: https://www.steelcitybassmasters.com/2017-tournament-season-comes-to-a-close-november-18th-at-table-rock-lake-and-lazy-lees-resort/
Steel City Bassmasters Awards Banquet
February 1, 2025
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
VFW Post 5691 - Collinsville
Steel City Bassmasters annual awards banquet
February 1, 2025 at 6:00 pm.
The banquet will be held at the:
VFW - Collinsville 1234 Vandalia St Collinsville, IL 62234
We we invite all of you to attend and bring your families.
Please register for the banquet and say how many people you are bringing. The registration is just like for the tournaments but the cost is free. You need to register everybody in the party so that we can get an accurate count for the food. If you do not register then you will be the last served and possibly have no food.
The meal will be catered by Ravanelli's Restaurant.
Our annual awards banquet will be held on February 1, 2025 at 6:00 pm. The banquet will be held at the: VFW - Collinsville 1234…
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