AMERICAN BASS ANGLERS DIVISION 2 - New Hampshire

American Fishing Tour - LARGEST TOURNAMENT TRAIL FOR THE WEEKEND ANGLER

Division News

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2009 New Sponsor - GRIZZ BAITS™

We picked up GRIZZ BAITS™ as a new sponsor for the division at the Rockingham Fishing and Hunting Expo. They will be sending us a bunch of their great baits for our tournaments. Check out their website at www.grizzbaits.net and be sure to check out all of their products. These guys are local fishermen like use that are producing a quality product that really catches fish, just check out the pictures on their website.

2009 Rockingham Fishing and Hunting Expo

The ABA was present at the Rockingham Fishing and Hunting Expo held on January 10-11 in Salem, New Hampshire. Division 2 (New Hampshire) hosted the booth with Divisions 5 and 36 helping out the Expo. The Expo gave folks an excuse to venture out in the cold and snow for a day or two and talk about fishing with us and the other exhibitors. The crowds on Saturday were busier than usual and the Sunday crowd was slowed down due to the 6+ inches of snow that fell overnight. Our booth was located
right next to the local Triton dealer and in a high traffic area. We talked to a lot of old faces and many new ones too.

During the Expo, we were offering several incentives to sign-up either as a new member or a renewal. For those that signed up we offered a Lowrance hat and they were in the drawing for a $99 certificate for a pair of Ocean Waves sunglasses. We also offered Ocean Wave certificates as several door prizes. We ended up with 4 new and renewed members. David Guichard was the lucky winner of the certificate. Many thanks to our great ABA sponsors and to the national office for providing all the handouts that we needed.

And speaking about sponsors, we were able to sign up GRIZZ BAITS™ as a new sponsor at the show. They are a small but growing bait company based in Massachusetts with some excellent proven fish catching products. They will be providing Division 2 with several baits that we will hand out at our upcoming 2009 season tournaments. More information about GRIZZ BAITS™ can be found on their website at: www.grizzbaits.net, so check them out if you get a chance.

After looking at the sign-ups, everyone that signed up at the booth had known about the ABA before coming to the show. We did not have any "spur of the moment" sign-ups. So, everyone seemed to be driven to the show because of the incentives. They either heard about the Expo by the announcements on the websites (local D2, national) or by the D2 e-mail distribution mailing. For future shows, we will make sure that we heavily promote the show along with any incentives offered. We may even do additional promotions such as we did during the regular season of "bring a new member" and get some Gary Yamamoto baits.

Many thanks go out to Debra Talley (ABA national office), David Guichard (D2 Asst. Director), Bob Medeiros (D5 Director and Regional Director), Jay Guidaboni (D5 Asst. Director), Ken King (D36 Director), and Donald M. Stewart (former D2 Director).

2009 News

We signed several new and renewing anglers at the Rockingham Fishing and Hunting Expo. Congratulations to David Guichard for winning a $99 certificate for a pair of Ocean Waves sunglasses in a random draw from the sign-ups.

We will be at the Rockingham Fishing and Hunting  Expo in Salem, NH on Jan 10 and 11. Please come by, say hello, and sign-up or renew your membership to the ABA. For everyone, signing up or renewing we will give you a Lowrance hat and you'll have a chance to win a $99 certificate for a pair of Ocean Waves sunglasses.

2008 News

Don Conrad and Chris Perry represented Division 2 at the ABA Regional Tournament on Kerr Lake in North Carolina. Both qualified as non-boaters for the national tournament in Alabama. Don tied for 71st with 4 fish weighing in at 6.48 pounds. Chris was in 88th place with 4 fish weighing in at 4.85 pounds. They did pretty well given that it was their first time fishing down at Kerr and their first time at an ABA regional event. Overall, Don finished 70th (2775 pts) in the region and Chris finished in 90th (2672).

We had Dave Marchant renew his membership at the Northwood tournament, he received a bag of Yamamoto Swim Senkos. Art Demers also got a bag for encouraging Dave to renew and fish with us.

We had Art Demers sign up as a new member at the Bow Lake tournament.

We had Kurt Damery sign up as a new member at the Ossipee tournament. And Cory Nearing, Scott Leavitt, and Craig Richardson renew their memberships as well. We hope to see them and others at the remaining 2008 tournaments.

2007 Local Sponsors

Dave has been busy getting local district sponsors. So far he has been able to get Rocky Ledge Bass Tackle and Decelles Auto Clinic to sign up. If you know of other businesses that would be interested in sponsoring the district please let us know.

Rocky Ledge Bass Tackle specializes in Tournament quality, lead-free, Spinnerbaits, Buzzbaits, Jigs, blade baits and more! New for the 2007 season, they have the Stealth Glider Swimming Jig and the Swimming Spinnerbait.

Decelles Auto Clinic, located at 98 Lake Street in Nashua, is a first rate automotive service center specializing in engine rebuilds. They have been in business since 1945. Call them at 603-889-5954 for all your car services needs.

2007 Shows

We had a booth at both the Rockingham Fishing and Hunting Expo and Irwin Marine's Open House. Ken King (Division 36 Director) joined us at both shows. Bob Medeiros (Division 5 and Regional Director) and Jay Guidaboni (D5 Asst. Director) joined us at the Rockingham show. We got to see many of the anglers who fished with us last year as well as meet many ones that may fish with us. We also had the opportunity for Preston Clark and Zell Rowland visit us in the booth for a photo.

From Left: David Guichard, Zell Rowland, Garry Woodruff

Ken came up with a well done New England Area brochure that we handed out at the shows. We also had copies of the NorthEast Regional flyer that will be in print soon. We tried to also showcase some of the national and local sponsors. On the table we had several of the kits from Secret Weapon including one with their new Sidearm Spinnerbait. I'll have these with me at the tournaments if anyone is interested.

If you didn't get a chance to get by the shows then try to go to the Marine USA show in March. Ken will have a booth there. And you'll get a chance to meet some more pros.

From Left: Ron Kerswell, Bob Medeiros, Jimmy Houston, Ken King,  David Guichard

Dave Guichard represented Division 2 at the Marine USA show held March 17 and 18. Despite the snow Friday night and into Saturday, as usual the turnout was very good. The folks at Marine USA really know how to put on a show.

Winter 2006-2007 News

Also, if you participated on any of the ABA sponsor's programs in 2006 and wish to continue for the 2007 season, make sure you check the national site for details. For example, if you were on the Secret Weapon Special Ops program then you'll need to sign-up again. Full details are on the national site. Please help support the sponsors, they have great products and programs.

We are now called Division 2 - New Hampshire for the 2007 season.

If you are planning on fishing the BASS weekend series, you will need to join the ABA. Click here for the full article. The e-mail from the national director is also posted on the message board.

See the national site for format and rule changes for the 2007 season especially the entry fees, lunker pools, and increased payouts starting for tournaments after January 1, 2007.

Welcome to new 2007 season Division 2 members:

• Vic Carima (Bow Lake)
• Steve Bosjlie (Bow Lake)

New Assistant Directors and Thanks

David Guichard has joined us as a Assistant Director for 2007. I really appreciate him stepping up and helping out.

Tom Sardinha has also volunteered to be an Assistant Director, and will be helping me and Dave out during the tournaments.

Also, a great deal of thanks to Donald Stewart for helping out as assistant director this year and his prior effort in helping to get District 2 (now Division 2) started along with Ken King.

Secret Weapon Incentive Program Pays Off

Joe at Secret Weapon Lures informed me that I won the monthly drawing of $500. This is addition to the $50 tackle pack that I won by winning the May 14th Moore Reservoir tournament. The drawing is held among the ABA tournament winners each month that are members of the Special Ops program.

Secret Weapon makes great spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. I encourage everyone to sign up for their program, You can check it out by going to the ABA website or to the Secret Weapon website.

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Director: Garry Woodruff
Assistant Director: David Guichard