Inaugural 2016 Wild West Bass Trail tournament series

Post by **WB Staff** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 10:55 pm

Inaugural 2016 Wild West Bass Trail tournament series!

Here are some of the details for the new series. Please keep in mind that we will be posting updates with new and exciting information and sponsors. This is what the West Coast has been waiting for!

100% payback, great sponsor contingency programs, and off limits periods:

Pro: $700.00
AAA: $350.00
Teams: $300.00

Pro/AM Tournament Lakes:

Arizona
Lake Havasu
Roosevelt Lake
Lake Pleasant

California
Lake Shasta
Lake Oroville
California Delta

Pro/AM Championship: Lake Mead

Team Tournament Lakes:

Arizona
Roosevelt Lake
Lake Mohave
Lake Pleasant
Lake Havasu

Championship for AZ Teams:
Lake Mead

California
Lake Oroville
Lake Shasta
Lake Berryessa
California Delta

Championship for CA Teams:
Clear Lake

Dates to be announced next week and be ready for T.V.

Message from Gary Dobyns:
Pro-Am Off-Limits info!!

10 Day Off-Limits on Pro-Ams

Those of you planning vacation days. The off-limits will help you. This rule will help you spend less money on practice, make the field more competitive so a local can't fish for 10 days straight before an event. The fish will be less beat up and you can burn 2 vacation days instead of a week. This has been well received from our anglers discussions so far. There will be NO Pro-Am sign ups at the lake either. Everyone will be paid in full before the first practice day begins.

Anything we do like this will be discussed and the advisory board will be involved!!

crawdaddy · Post by **crawdaddy** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 8:53 am

Will this be shared or individual weight?

DDG · Post by **DDG** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 9:34 am

Does Amatuers need to sign up with a pro?

Jason Borofka · Post by **Jason Borofka** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 10:22 am

I'm all in!!!! 100% pay back and TV exposure this is what I've been dreaming of for the west!!!!!

Rick K of Ca · Post by **Rick K of Ca** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 11:35 am

Is this Gary's new tournament series.

dtacker · Post by **dtacker** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 11:52 am

crawdaddy wrote:Will this be shared or individual weight?

Non-shared weight.

VJ · Post by VJ » Mon Aug 03, 2015 1:16 pm

Rick K of Ca wrote:Is this Gary's new tournament series.

Yes

scott h · Post by **scott h** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 3:31 pm

OK, the more I think about it the more I can't stand it! Very interested to see the dates and the rest of the details. Let's go fishing.

rickyshabazz · Post by **rickyshabazz** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:14 pm

What are the dates. Those of us that have day jobs are planning vacation right now. I need to lock in some dates. How does the10 off limits work?

Good teaser

Brian D. · Post by **Brian D.** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 6:45 am

here is a list from the DFG. Some approved and more to come.

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FishingContests/ ... ***+TRAILS

reddog · Post by **reddog** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 5:56 pm

As a AA all kidding aside I cant wait to sign up for some of these events. Sounds like a blast and we all know the Dobyns rep for quality. Should be well run and I love the idea of trying to level the playing field. Although I guess we'll have to be careful about overlaps with other circuits.

Post by **WB Staff** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 11:42 pm

This does not replace an official announcement of dates from Wild West.
This is only a screenshot of the link that Brian D. posted.

scott h · Post by **scott h** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:31 am

Hopefully the official announcement is better than those dates, back to back weekends on the pro am and one in June.

kraetzer · Post by **kraetzer** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 8:27 am

scott h wrote:Hopefully the official announcement is better than those dates, back to back weekends on the pro am and one in June.

Guess one would be the pro/am and the other one the team event

rich mendoza · Post by **rich mendoza** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 4:07 pm

Why not a shared weight pro am? Just curious .

Gary Dobyns · Post by **Gary Dobyns** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 8:17 am

Hey guys. There will never be back to back Pro-Am's. One of those dates in June is for a team TOC. I'm moving a date right now. I'm pushing back one week to be farther from FLW event. To try and help anglers with time. I'd like to have it approved before posting our dates. Yes, I'm involved in this with a few others as well. It's a ton of work, far more than I thought. As I've always said, I believe the fishermen should get 100% of their money. It will even be more than that with some contingency dollars ( I hope ). Guys we hate to put out info before things are done. There's always some haters that want to jump straight to anything negative. I will always try and answer questions straight up and those of you that know me, know I've always been for the fishermen, and I'm not much on sugar coating things. As far as Shared/Non shared weight. Several reasons. A major sponsor asked for it. We polled a bunch of anglers and it was overwhelming in support of non shared weight, and frankly I couldn't make a decision on it. I see great arguments for both sides. Also, FLW seems to run strong events with non boaters left on the bank at each event. NOW, this all being said......we'll be listening to our advisory boards on this and all topics. I'll talk with my partners today and try and post dates. I know this is important.. but that being said, I do not have one date locked down but I'm 99% sure I have it. I'm not involved in AZ dates. Our guys down there know their waters and anglers far better than I do. Pro-Am's will have a common Championship with CA and AZ. We're hoping to add a twist to this too. ( Not done yet ) The team regions will each have their own TOC for a prize boat. We will not be fishing any lakes more than once. I do hope that our anglers realize we are trying to do everything possible for them. We are going to start this circuit with 100% paybacks and try like hel* to make it work. This means that the trailers, scales, tubs, and a ton of other stuff must be paid by us. Including Television which frankly scares the hel* out of me still. We will make some mistakes no matter how hard we try. All I ask is look at what we're trying to do, give us a chance, and I won't mind a little support when the haters start crawling out of the wood piles. In most cases the haters are not even our competing anglers.

Here is the question that plain pisses me off. Will I personally be fishing? The answer is NO to start with. But I'm a fisherman and the only reason I'm here starting a trail is because I "think" I know what we need and no one else provides it. I'm talking television, 100% payback, TOC's, contingency and support for sponsors. I've always done well with sponsors because I know that without support, they will go away. I hate to say it this way, but I'm needed to put a circuit together because I have a lot of great sponsors and contacts that believe I'll bust my butt to promote and work for them. I'm hoping to "not" fish and launch this circuit for two years. Then I'm hoping we're running strong and my partners will buy me out so I can fish. We're all putting a lot of money into this to start it. I'm a fisherman and as Brett Leber said last weekend, we're both in our 4th quarters of our fishing careers.

This got a little off topic and is long. I'm traveling to AZ for advisory board meeting there the end of the month. We'll have one here around that time as well. There will be both boaters and non boaters asked to be on the boards to help make the right decisions. We will run large advisory boards with 12 members north and 12 south. These board members will be great contacts for our anglers as well.

If I missed something else that was asked, let me know. It was not intentional.

scott h · Post by **scott h** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 8:50 am

Gary,
Great post! Thank you. I'm all in.

Gary Dobyns · Post by **Gary Dobyns** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 5:39 pm

As the Wild West Bass Trail debuts in 2016, our objective is to provide anglers the ability to participate in elite bass tournaments with the highest guaranteed payout on the West Coast. This new tournament format, payout and television exposure will increase angler participating numbers that have not been seen on the West Coast for over the past decade.

The Wild West Bass Trail Pro/Am tournaments entry fee is $700.00 for the Pro and $350.00 for the Co-angler.

Teams entry fee is $300.00

The Wild West Bass Trail is pleased to announce the 2016 schedule. These tournaments are created to provide an awesome “playing field” for competitive bass anglers to showcase their skills and competitiveness.

California Pro/AM Events:
Lake Shasta (Jan. 30-31, 2016)
Lake Oroville (March 5-6, 2016)
California Delta (June 4-5, 2016)
Championship for CA and AZ Pro/AM Lake Mead, NV (October 14-16, 2016)

California Teams:
Lake Oroville (Jan. 9)
Lake Shasta (Feb. 27)
Lake Berryessa (April 2)
California Delta (May 14)
Championship (Clear Lake) June 11-12, 2016

Arizona Pro/Am events:
Lake Pleasant (Jan. 16-17, 2016)
Lake Havasu (Feb. 27-28, 2016)
Roosevelt Lake (March 19-20, 2016)
Championship for CA and AZ Pro/AM Lake Mead, NV (October 14-16, 2016)

Arizona Team events:
Roosevelt Lake (Feb. 13, 2016)
Lake Mohave (March 26, 2016)
Lake Pleasant (April 30, 2016)
Lake Havasu (May 14, 2016)
AZ Team Championship Lake Mead (June 25-26, 2016)

rdesmangles · Post by **rdesmangles** » Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:47 am

I always like the sound of 100% payback - but how exactly will that work? Particularly for the back seat - I would like to hear the plan...in other words - is it 100% for the front and back? Love the non-shared weight format - it's about time someone has seen the light. watch out FLW - looks like you have a competitor...good luck gentlemen...

reddog · Post by **reddog** » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:46 pm

Gary,
We all know know your rep. and I for one trust you're going to do everything possible to get this off right. As a backseater I can say I think I'd prefer shared weight but I can understand both sides, I just feel odd catching a good one out from behind a pro who is fishing with more at stake than I am and occasionally you're going to get guys that cross the polite line on where they should be casting but thats personel issues not rules. Can't wait either way, Pro-ams I'm in, teams I'm in just need to put the final touches on partner. If there's anything I can do to help whether it be run equipment up in a pinch or just help on site with something feel free to ask or just let me know. (406)224-3421 I'm in West Sac.

Bob_La_londe · Post by **Bob_La_londe** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:51 am

My personal opinion is that a shared weight format promotes cooperation between the anglers and reduces the likelihood of back seating and other issues. However, if that really is what the majority of anglers want then I guess you should do it that way.