[Slightly Dangerous]

The TKA General Meeting will be tonight at the Golden Corral at 290 and Hollister at 7:30pm. This is a great opportunity to join or to just see what TKA is all about. You do not have to fish the SKA or Kingfish tournaments to enjoy all the benefits and events of TKA.
Hope to see you there.
Jerry

 

[Capt.Cook]

Jerry

James Lawson and I (Glenn Cook) both joined at the matagorda tournament and I expected to recieve something in the mail from them by now.If at all possible could you check on our membership status tonight,I would do it myself but cant make the meeting.There was a lot going on at the tournament and our membership application may have got lost in the mix.

 

[Smallfrye]

Is there a reason why there are no TKA/SKA tournaments in south Texas ? Port Mansfield or SPI have good kingfish, usually later in the season than most places.

(We were into small kings and spanish along the jetties of PM this past week end.)

 

[jlawson]

Never got my info either Glen.

 

[Slightly Dangerous]

I'll check on both if you guys can't make it. There was a lot of work going on behind the scenes at Matty and it may very well have been lost. Sharon Kamp is our membership person and I will get with her on this. Expect a response tomorrow. Please make the meeting if you can.

I can't speak for why the SKA does not have a tournament in PM or SPI. Perhaps there is no person or business willing to sponsor one there. It costs a LOT of money to put on a proper sanctioned tournament. As for TKA...the idea is being explored but it would help if we could get more members from that area. I will be at PM in the next few months fishing and will speak with the folks down there about it. TKA will be choosing a venue for our next tournament at the meeting tonight. Our current choice is the GYB but that is open. It will be an SKA sanctioned tournament. Please check the new TKA website at www.kingmackerel.org for meeting details and results.

Thanks
Jerry

 

[James Howell]

I can tell you why there are none on the lower coast. Lack of interest. SKA actually tried a couple of years ago to set up a second SKA division covering Port O'Connor to Port Isabel, and dropped it because no one signed up. There has been a a Port A tournament for the past 6 years, and this year we got the largest turn out ever (I think just shy of 60 boats). Of those, MAYBE 10 were local boats. Everybody else was from the upper coast. I would be one of the first guys to sign up for lower coast tourneys (well, Dusek would probably be first), but lack of local interest is perplexing and generally shoots down the tournament. South Texas has several well established tournaments, and most folks fish those (TIFT, Deep Sea Roundup, etc). The only thing I can point to is that most tournament oriented people in S. Texas fish for billfish, not kingfish, which is too bad, because there are some MONSTER (60+ lbers) caught down there every year.

 

[Wahoo Man]

James is right on the reason for no more tournaments in south texas or texas in general. IT'S LACK OF TURN OUT. I know that i could only fish the Port A tourney this year but will fish all next year. I think we should take a look to see why the tourneys on the east coast of Florida are so sucessful. I use to fish the Greater Jacksonville King tournament every year and our cut off point was a 1000 boats. It had a great local turnout and fishing teams from the entire east coast. It has envolved into the largest king Tournament in the country. The payouts are for 20 places each day and overall winners and the payout rivals the nationals. So I would say that we need a great local turnout and push to get teams from the entire gulf coast. Remeber every thing is bigger in texas. Teams don't have to have a 100k rig to compete.
Just my 2 cents.

Andy

 

[michaelbaranowski]

I have fished offshore alot more this summer than ever. But I have not really thoult too much about tournement. I have a hard enough time getting a crew when the weather is nice. I am sure it would be really hard getting a crew for a tournment if the weather a little nasty.

 

[Slightly Dangerous]

It's not hard to get a crew, just hard to get a great crew. You have to train them to the level you wish to fish and that takes time on the water and on the beach. Last year I started with a crew that had never fished offshore more than a few times and by the end of the season they were very good. A good crew must be willing to share all expenses (as well as any prize money), always be available to help repair the boat, clean the boat and do everything else required to make it all happen. There is extreme satisfaction in becoming a good team. Most captains that try one tournament are hooked for life. It's a real hoot.

 

[Argo]

It was always very hard for me to find a reliable crew to fish with. I have one person that goes with me every time now and many others that flake out every time their time comes up to fish. He was very green to start and is now alot better. Too bad I dont have a boat to run till next year now.....

 

[Slightly Dangerous]

James, I agree with you 100%. Texas is so big that you can easily see a huge sea-change from the north part of Texas to the south. I think that the only thing that might make it happen is an organization that can bring them together. The SKA is very remote to us. They are based in another state and we rarely hear anything about Texas from them (until recently). I feel that TKA may be the ideal way to make things happen. TKA is local to the state and our members fish all over. I personally fish PM and SPI every chance I get and always try to spread the word. It is also nice when I get to visit with fishermen bringing their boats from the Valley up to Galveston or Freeport. I always will go out of my way to help them get on fish and have a great time.
I've heard of the big problems between the trout and redfish guys on the upper and lower coasts and, for the life of me, I can't see the same pattern occuring for offshore. That's probably because there is only about one offshore boat for every 1000 bay boats. I hope we can get TKA going for the entire coast. It would help us all.