Contingency Plan
We are pretty lucky here in West Michigan to have a lot of “free money” given away at our events. More specifically the D&R Sports Tournament series is where its at if you just want to get paid for being there or want some healthy bonuses on top of your check. There’s big bonuses for boats and motors purchased at D&R sports (unfortunately my boat is too old now) and some really good incentives and random draws if you are running Johnson Outdoors products (Minn Kota, Humminbird). There are quite a few brands involved and here is the old 2022 list. I think it is mostly the same but with a few changes. I know Bajio sunglasses are involved now too but I haven’t seen any writing on exactly what you need or what the prize is. I do know one of my buddies won a pair in a random draw at the last event.
Unless you’ve been to a D&R tournament before you might not actually know about all that free money. If you haven’t it is definitely worth checking out just for that. I’m talking to the east side crew too, I think there was only 40 boats at the D&R East event on St Clair. Payback Bass has a great thing going over there but what else is there on St. Clair that is taking boats away? If you haven’t been to a weigh in conducted by the WMB crew you are missing out. Organized, friendly, and efficient. I must add the Payback weigh in crew is top notch also.
Anyway here’s some actual numbers to back all this up. At White Lake our entry fee was 170 dollars, we finished in 5th place out of 64 teams and won 570 dollars. However we were the top placing team with a Minn Kota Shallow water anchor and Ultrex that adds another 500. Then we get really lucky and get the random draw for having a TH Marine Atlas jackplate for another 200 dollars. A good day turned into a great day really fast! Just a few other notes on some awesome bonus prizes we are fishing for this year on Monday nights. Big bass of the season (for teams that fish all 12 events) is worth 250 dollars courtesy of One Step Up Landscaping and Nick Holtrop at Blu House Properties is paying a teams entire season in 2024. Pretty cool stuff especially for a Monday night tournament. It’s a popular Monday circuit though as we drew 33 boats last week.
Shout out to all those people and companies making the bass tournament scene great in West Michigan!