Big Ten Fishing Tournament

Volunteer Boater Information
Every year for the past 10+ years, the Big Ten schools have held a one-day
tournament in the fall, appropriately labeled the Big Ten Bass Tournament. This
year, the UW was chosen to host it, which we will the weekend of September 29 and
30, 2012, on the Madison Chain.

A few years ago, the organizers of the event thought it would be a good idea to
secure “volunteer boaters” to enable those without a boat to participate in the event,
something that was not done in previous years. Volunteer boaters are community
members who graciously donate their boat and, most importantly, their weekend
time to take one two-man team from a school in need out fishing, allowing them to
compete in the tournament. Speaking from personal experience, the UW would not
have been able to compete in the last three Big Ten tournaments in Michigan if it
weren’t for volunteer boaters, something we greatly appreciated.

With that said, we are looking for as many volunteer boaters as possible to
make this year’s event a success! Please read through the information below, and if
you’re interested in helping us out, either as a definite yes or even a maybe, please
email Levi Warner at lwarner@wisc.edu with the requested information no later
than September 15, so we can start formally organizing boats. If you have any
additional questions, feel free to email Levi at the address above, or call him at (920)
740-9085. Also, if you know of anyone who may be interested in helping us out, we
would greatly appreciate it if you passed this information along to them. Thank you!

Date and Location: September 29 and 30, 2012, on the Madison Chain.

Description of Days: September 29 is the official prefishing day, and September 30 is
the actual tournament day. We would need volunteer boaters for both days (one
volunteer boater would take the same anglers fishing both days), so we would need a
commitment for the entire weekend, barring unavoidable circumstances.

Procedure: If you’ve ever helped FLW out by being a volunteer boater for their
college events, the process is very similar. For the most part, the anglers are
responsible for contacting their volunteer boater and coordinating the weekend with
them. Anglers will be given your contact information so they’ll be calling you close to
the time of the event. On Saturday, there is no certain time anglers need to be off
the water at (unless they are attending the banquet; more on this later), and there is
no official landing anglers need to launch from. Again, anglers are responsible for
contacting their boater to agree on time and location. On Sunday, anglers are
required (and boaters are suggested) to be at the pretournament meeting at 6:00 am,
with tournament hours running 6:45 am – 3 pm. During both of these days,
volunteer boaters will operate the outboard motor, taking the anglers wherever they
desire to go, and the anglers will operate the trolling motor once at the spot.

Volunteer boaters are not allowed to suggest fishing lures, locations, etc., or operate
the trolling motor, electronics, etc., for the college anglers. Disqualification will
result if any of this takes place. This is to keep the playing field level for those who
bring their own boat to the event. Boat volunteers are allowed, and encouraged, to
fish with the college anglers on Saturday, but not on Sunday.
Reimbursement: Because volunteer boaters already donate their boat and time to
the event, we try to make the weekend as cheap as possible for them. A reasonable
reimbursement for boat gas will be decided upon between the anglers and their
volunteer boater. The landing fee for Saturday will be paid by the college anglers.
The landing fee for Sunday will be free, courtesy of the Dane County Conservation.
The UW will not be providing assistance to volunteer boaters for gas expenses to the
event location or lodging, because as much as we’d like to, our budget will not allow
it. However, to show our appreciation, every volunteer boater is invited to attend the
banquet dinner (more on this below) free of charge!

Banquet: As mentioned above, a banquet will be held the night of September 29, at 7
pm, at the Bishop O’Connor Center (702 South High Point Road, Madison, WI
53719). Boat volunteers, if they wish, can attend the banquet and enjoy dinner at no
cost to them. The banquet will be a catered buffet dinner, so no one should leave
hungry! In addition to the food, important rules for the event will be highlighted and
boat numbers will be drawn. A raffle will also be held for some great prizes from our
sponsors, such as St. Croix and Rapala, so bring a couple extra bucks for tickets!
Requested Information: If you’re still interested in helping us out after reading
through this (which we hope you are), please send Levi Warner the following
information via email at lwarner@wisc.edu:

1) Name:
2) Phone:
3) Email:
4) Address:
5) Your commitment for the event (100% certain you can help, pretty sure you
can help, or just interested at this time)
6) A little background information on your boat (make and model and size of
outboard would be adequate).

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to your assistance in helping make
this event a success!