Tournaments: Why Use a Draw Format?

Why a Draw Format Works Better for MWBA

The Basics

Let’s be very clear about tournament formats: Draw v. “Permanent” Teams. Both work well, but MWBA, from its birth, has found that the Draw format enables the Club to accomplish its primary purpose: promoting the sport of recreational fishing, while providing its members with opportunities to share their passion for bass fishing with like-minded individuals.

How so? A computerized, random Draw pairing Boaters and Co-Anglers for each tournament ensures that, over time, members fish with many anglers, rather than the same one every time.

Toward that end, if our Draw pairs two anglers who have already fished as a Team in that tournament year, they both go back into the Draw, or the Tournament Director assigns them to new partners. We want our anglers to continually be exposed to new ideas and new challenges, while having fun and shaping new friendships.

Tournament Details

Our tournaments are competitive, but the competition is friendly. Anglers do more than showcase and improve their fishing skills by sharing ideas and techniques. Re-pairing anglers helps build new and strengthen existing friendships by sharing the challenge of finding and catching bass.

Paired anglers collaborate to find and catch a limit of keeper largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. Our limit is five (total) in cooler months, three in hotter months. FYI: Striped bass and yellow bass are true bass, but they aren’t considered bass in bass tournaments. Bass tournaments fish for smallmouths and largemouths , which are sunfish—not true bass. Weird, no?

The Team shares the Total Weight of their catch, the weight of their Big Bass, the weight of a 5-lber and the weight of their Goon Fish — a Goon Fish is any fish other than a largemouth or smallmouth bass.

Outcomes in the five Payout categories determine which Teams receive checks. Our Payout formula is 1:4; for every four boats in a tournament, one place receives a payout.

Again, to emphasize fishing as a Team rather than as individuals, both Team members receive 50% the Payout for each Payout Category. So, there is no need to worry about who caught a fish of being backseated or poached by a backseater, because the fish are always Team fish.

An equally shared Payout approach is a constant reminder that, in Midweek Bass Anglers of Arizona, it’s about the fishing and friendships, not the money.

Most MWBA members have fished clubs and circuits that use a permanent-team format. But their primary purpose is often different than ours. MWBA enables members to compete for a little money while fostering camaraderie among all participants as they have fun.

Toward that end, we encourage exchange of fishing-related information between Team members and with other Teams. No penalties for sharing information and helping other anglers, even during a tournament!

In contrast, the permanent” team format can lead to secrecy and too often — let’s be honest — telling lies about fishing to “protect” a Honey Hole. For example, many of us have heard a money winner accept their check while saying, “We caught our fish at the dam in 75 ft of water on dropshots.” Gee, thanks for giving me such useful information in exchange for my Entry Fee.

In closing, Midweek offers its anglers opportunities to fish with others who share their enthusiasm. Whether you are (a) new to the Southwest and eager to explore fishing its waters, (b) want to give tournament-style fishing a try, or (c) a seasoned tournament angler, Midweek has room for you. We hope you will join us.

Printable Tournament Entry Form

Statistics for the Most Recent Tournament Results

(This space awaits the Roosevelt Results)

Angler of the Year Points

Our "Angler of the Year" points system is an important element of our tournaments. It recognizes excellent performance over the course of a Tournament Year. Anglers earn AOY points based on their tournament results. The angler with the highest accumulated points at the end of the year (after dropping their two lower scores) earns the prestigious title of "Angler of the Year."

We also give awards to the Boater and Co-Angler of the Year, and to the angler who caught the Lunker of the Year. All of those awards are hotly contested through the final tournament. Then we put the struggle behind us and salute the winners.

A Final Word, About Etiquette

In shared-boat fishing, or any kind of fishing, cooperation between teammates and with other anglers is essential to having fun and success. A day shared with a “partner” or another angler who’s selfish or uncooperative is painfully long. So is sharing water with boaters who cause problems.

We’ve all experienced bad boaters and boat-sharing problems on the water. Have you ever been guilty? Have you ever back-seated a co-angler? Zipped a 1-oz jig past your boater’s ear? Combed your “partner’s” ear with a crankbait treble hook? Poached someone’s water? Blown through a No Wake Zone? Blocked access to a cove? Come in too hot and rocked another boat? Cut in ahead of a boat fishing a bank? Fished in an Off Limits Area? Cut across a shore angler’s line? There are many ways to be a problem on the water, and far too many boaters and anglers demonstrate them!

Problem boaters and anglers make on-the-water experiences much less enjoyable, and sometimes unsafe. Nobody needs that, so let’s not be guilty. Always practice good boating and fishing etiquette. Be a good role model for other anglers and boaters, even if you think nobody is watching.

Midweek’s expectations for Boater Etiquette and Co-Angler Etiquette (click those links, please!) are reasoned and reasonable. Frankly, the same approaches should be used every time we fish or boat, not just when we are in an MWBA tournament. Fish on!