Good Ole Boys

Junior Bassmasters

Home of the 2009-2010 CLUB TEAM Champions, the 2010 Connecticut Divisional Qualifier & 2009 Divisional Qualifier

The Good Ole Boys Junior Bassmasters is a certified 501(C)(3) Non-Profit Club

2010 Connecticut Div. Qualifier                 2009 / 2010 CLUB TEAM Champions                 2009 Canadian Div. Qualifier

We're training for the 2011 Mountain Goat Run as well!

           Good Ole Boys Bass Club

Date:  Tuesday evening, March 30,2010.

Time:  The meeting was opened at 7:05PM by our club president, Dustin Elsner.  He briefly reviewed the agenda for tonight's meeting and handed out copies of the agenda to attendees.

President's Report:  Club president Dustin Elsner, reviewed the overall results from our three Bass Pro Spring Weekends.  Our club received a total of $1,498.50 from the sale of $1.00 tickets for a chance at the autographed paddle (signed by every Elite Bassmaster that competed in the Majors Invitational on Oneida Lake).  The receipts will be divided up and issued to each junior member's bank account, based on the number of hours they participated.  The paddle was won by 7 year old Matthew Mosher of Auburn, NY. 

Dom Maio wanted to give a prize to the top club member who sold the most $1.00 tickets, but because the efforts were very close between three junior club members, he gave out 3 Pflueger spinning reels, one each to the top three finishers; Dustin Elsner, Christopher Crandall and Josh Cates-Bishop.

A motion to accept the presidents report was made and seconded.

Secretary’s Report:  Club Secretary Nick Sokolowski read the minutes of the February meeting.  Nick asked the membership if there were any changes or additions to the minutes of the meeting and no revisions were noted.  A motion to accept the secretary's report was made and seconded.   

Treasurer’s Report:  Club Treasurer Dustin Robinson reported that our treasury had a total of $2,657.83 in the bank after all the deposits were made.  After the report was read, a motion to accept the report was made, the motion was seconded and the treasurers report was accepted as read.

Tournament Director’s Report:  Club T/D Josh Cates-Bishop reminded everyone that our 1st Tournament of the year will be on Saturday, May 8, 2010 on Oneida Lake from 7AM until 12 noon.  PLEASE be at the launch site by 6:30AM to meet your boater and load your gear. 

It was noted by senior club boater Connell Raate that beginning this year, all juniors must alert the junior & senior club of their intention to compete in any given tournament at least 2 weeks prior to the tournament so that the boaters can plan accordingly.  There will be NO LAST MINUTE scrambles to find available boaters.

Youth Director’s Report:   Y/D Jeff Edgarton reviewed the agenda and thanked our juniors for strongly participating in both for the Bass Pro Spring Fishing weekends and Mountain Goat weekends.  He praised them for their efforts, thanking all the juniors who participated and also expressed the sincere gratitude of the runners who ran in the MGR practice sessions. 

Mr. Edgarton also noted that our juniors should be much more responsible with respect to their commitments.  If a junior cannot attend an event as previously committed, please notify the event leader immediately so that cancellations can be made and only the necessary transportation and commitments are planned. 

Mr. Edgarton has gone through the used reels that were donated by Bass Pro Shop in Auburn and found that over 30 of them were in good working condition and the others could be used to repair some of the in-operative reels. 

It was suggested that we "sleep" on what we may want to do with them for 30 days and report back at our next meeting what we wish to do with them. 

It was also suggested that some of them could be turned over to Mr. Fred Chilluffo, for his Central Square Middle School students to use.  Mr. Edgarton is planning on bringing the reels to the April meeting.

Old Business:  Dom Maio asked members to sign the sheet that was being sent around, if they thought they would attend and work Canal Clean Sweep project for 2010.  Members voted to participate in the February meeting once again and assist better than 90 other groups in the clean-up campaign which will be along the canal route on Saturday, April 17th and Sunday, April 18th.

Dom Maio also shared some photograph's and discussed the Annual Mountain Goat Run and the benefits to our club from this Fund Raiser.  This effort of distributing drinks and clean-up will only take a few hours out of each day.  Dom Maio also emphasized the fact that he'd truly appreciate a large turn-out of juniors for RACE DAY on Sunday, May 2nd.

New Business:  The club members need to begin thinking about possible fund-raisers for 2011 as we will not have the paddle to raffle off.

Mr. Edgarton has asked ALL junior members to hand write a thank you note individually for Ms. Anne Church for sewing all the patches on our shirts, to Jeff Burdick for allowing us to set up a table at Bass Pro Shop during their Spring Fishing Classic and to Mr. Ed Griffin for allowing us to be a part of the Dunn Tire Mountain Goat Run.  These notes should be presented at the April 27th meeting.

Dom Maio also mentioned that we should be prepared to assist our G.O.B. parent club with their clean-up project of 21 different and select launch sites in the area. 

Our junior club members should be prepared to travel periodically (every 2 weeks or so) to clean-up & bag trash at the launch site areas of (1) Onondaga Lake Marina in Liverpool, (2) Oneida Shores in Brewerton and (3) Godfrey's Point off State Route 49.

Dom Maio also mentioned two other days we need to respond to and;

(1) Oneida Shores has scheduled a Canal Trailway Celebration on June 5th from noon until 4PM and is inviting about 100 youngsters.  These youngsters will need to be taught all the basics of fishing, tying knots, casting, handling lures, etc.  Five G.O.B. senior members will be on hand to teach them and we would like to see some of our juniors assist as well.

(2) Iron Girl Event on Sunday, August 7, 2010.  They have asked us to tend to a Water Stop (similar to the MGR) for their Triathlon event.  More will be discussed at a later date, but we need to know how many juniors are willing to VOLUNTEER their time.  The hours are from 5AM until noon at Oneida Shores.  This is a one day volunteering event.

Mr. Edgarton introduced our special speaker for the evening, Mr. Michael Cusano. 

Mr. Cusano is currently the New York State BASS Chapter Federation president, and also an avid bass professional angler.  Mr. Cusano has competed in and successfully "cashed" in many professional tournaments, including the ESPN/BASS Elite Bassmasters Series. 

Mr. Cusano demonstrated the techniques of using bait-casting reels.  He demonstrated the precision and ease of working a baitcaster and opened the eyes of many of our juniors which "quashed" the theories many had, that they could work a spinning rod better. 

Mr. Cusano shared his personal insights into looking for and finding bass.  He discussed how to search for fish, using a variety of lures and what presentations one should look into when facing difficult climate and water conditions.

THANK YOU Mr. Cusano.

Meeting adjourned:  8:30PM.