*The Finders Keepers Story*
My dad, brother, and I have been fishing Lake Ontario since the early 80's. We went through the trial and error of many types of gear, different techniques, and many strategies as most anglers do learning the sport. Early last spring we started throwing around the idea of forming a team: myself, my brother, our dad, Woody, and Coup. So, we all got together to brainstorm the idea. While discussing what tournaments we wanted to fish and who could fish which ones, the Pro-Am's became a focal point of discussion as we debated which division to fish. Due to the cost versus payout potential, and our collective skillset, we decided to go for the Pro Division, despite the higher pressure of going against the biggest and best boats on the lake. If nothing else, it would show us where we stood and what the heck, let's give it a shot and see what happens! As Woody always says, “Go BIG, or go HOME”! So the notion came up that many Pro teams have team shirts/jerseys, many of which display the companies they support and/or are sponsored by. Well, at that point the only sponsor any of us had was Automatic Fisherman for ice fishing. So we came up with an idea for the jerseys that is non-traditional, and I think this is where some of the confusion about our team’s sponsors has stemmed from.
Since we didn't have any "Open Water" sponsoring companies at the time, we decided we would display the company logos of the companies that produced the gear that helped us become successful on the water. So my brother took on the task of becoming our marketing and promotions person. Now, not being very wealthy to afford entire sets of the same gear, we had (and to a point still do have) a mix of manufacturers for our equipment from all the years we had accumulated this and that. So, based on the gear we had at the time, we came up with a list of companies and he simply contacted each company asking if we could have permission to use and display their logo(s) to promote their company and products. All we asked for were decals and permission to display them, nothing more. We hoped a few would say yes so we’d have some logos for our shirts and be able to doctor up the boat a bit. At the same time, we also came up with the idea to create a series of seminars teaching others the skills, tactics, etc. that we have found successful on the water, so that they wouldn’t have to go through the trial and error process we did learning the sport. In essence: streamlining them into being successful on the water. This also became part of our pitch, as we could not only display their logo(s) at the seminar, but also give live, hands-on demonstrations of their gear. The seminars gave way to several sponsorships (Warren’s, Sodus Point Lodge, Screwy Louie’s, Atommik) and created a pitch that many other companies liked. Then, what had initially been a simple idea became a passion (almost to the point of obsession) for my brother as he secured permissions from company after company.
Let me finish off the seminars before I continue to disclose the sponsor-explosion. We designed our seminars to be unlike any other: hands-on training (lure-making, fly-tying, knot-tying, etc), live demonstrations with our boat (downrigging, setting up various spreads, running planer boards, etc.) that were tailored to the participants’ requests, and gear for every participant that works. Each segment of the series was 4 hours long, often run back to back as a full-day event. Between the gear we were given by our generous sponsors and the gear we purchased ourselves, each participant walked away with over $50 in gear that was currently producing for us on the lake. We haven’t received a single negative comment by any of our attendees, and 100% of the participants that got back to us on the effectiveness of the gear we gave them using the strategies we presented were successful on the water. We did charge for the seminars in order to cover our costs; however, we made virtually nothing from them. We also did free demonstrations at Warren’s of how to rig/run the different bait rigs FB and Rhys Davis offer and several seminars at Bass Pro in Auburn later that winter.
Ok, back to the sponsors. During Jeff’s quest for just the company’s logos, a few companies offered to take it much further than we had anticipated. Familiar Bite (FB) came into the picture as our first potential major sponsor, allowing us to test and give feedback on multiple products and his new bait strips – in essence, acting as a research team. However, this forced us to make a very difficult decision: say “no thanks” to Walter at FB and keep things as they were, or accept FB and drop Atommik. Since we had only just begun our sponsorship quest, and Walter was offering us a substantial opportunity, we took him up on his offer. We also secured Cannon, and befriended Bill Ruth, as he was the only Cannon rep in the area (as indicated on their website), who offered some great insight and information regarding some of their new gear. They would later offer us their VIP pricing.
Then came time for us to create our first pro-jersey to be manufactured by G2Gemini. Both Jeff and I are artistically talented and have an eye for what looks good together and what doesn’t. Our jersey took almost two months to create, as new companies joined our list of supporting companies, and others like FB became major sponsors. We made FB the focal point of the jersey with the other vendors sized and positioned according to 1. Sponsorship/support level, and
2. Fit/look with the other logos and overall look of the jersey. So on our first jersey, we had logos of companies offering us product/discounts/etc. which I will refer to as our “sponsoring companies” (large and centered logos on the jersey) and logos of those companies that gave us permission to display their logo in support of their company, which I will refer to as “supporting companies” (smaller and non-centered logos on our jersey). So did we have conflicting logos on the jersey? Yes, but this was our first time at creating such an entity and our relationships with all of these companies were in their pre-infant stages. I want to emphasize that our main reason for having the logos on our jerseys at this time was to display and promote the companies of the products that made us successful on the water. Just like all relationships, they have to start somewhere and they evolve over time: some blossom into greater things, others fade away, and some have conflicts arise.
We had another team meeting to update everyone on the current status of the supporting and sponsoring companies (this is when we discussed and made the FB versus Atommik decision), agreed on the jersey design, and had a discussion on the logos. It was brought up that we were displaying logos of companies which were not supplying our team with anything. However, we had to develop a relationship with these companies first. There was also the concern over displaying logos of companies which make the same products. Again, the logos displayed were to show our support for those companies. Is that wrong? Is there a hidden rule that says any logo a team displays should be from a company that has sponsored that team? More on this later.
Well, our debut as a professional team started with the Oswego Pro-Am. We had decided that out of our three boats, Coup’s was the best suited (24’ Penn Yan), so we used his boat for the tournaments and the others to pre-fish. This would come back to haunt us! We knew at Oswego, being home to Atommik, that we would have a lot of eyes on us, not only as the new “pro” team, but also as a FB team in Atommik country. Pre-fishing the Thursday before, my brother and I smoked the kings, with many 20+ lbs, so we felt confident going into the tournament. For the Fat Nancy’s BFF we took 3rd, only 2 ounces from 2nd and 6 ounces from 1st. For the Pro-Am we did ok, as well as the next weekend at Sodus. But both times, we smoked the fish pre-fishing in our boat and did just ok in Coup’s. We would later learn that Coup’s FF had some settings out of whack and it wasn’t displaying most of what was underneath us! Therefore, all of our decisions during the tournaments were based on false information. The other issue was the fact that we were using two different boats. Not that Coup’s boat isn’t a great boat to fish on (I love fishing on his boat), but Jeff and I (who were running the program) just couldn’t tweak and dial-in the program like we could on our boat. In hind-sight, we should have either fished on our boat the whole time, or his, but not back and forth. We also had some logistical issues that became a real burden for out team at Sodus: things that we couldn’t foresee since this was our first time fishing these tournaments. So there were some negative feelings that were discussed and worked out later that summer. Those logistical issues have all been worked out for this year.
So our first crack at the pro tournament circuit had some bumps to be worked out for sure! But what team doesn’t when they are first starting out? During the entire season we worked with many of our sponsoring and supporting companies offering them our feedback on their products, and suggestions for improvements or new ideas. After the season ended with the conclusion of the Fall LOC, we continued to fish the east end of the lake, researching several ideas we had, both for ourselves and our companies. During that time, we realized our current wire rods (blue diamonds) were losing (and had lost) a ton of fish, and Brendon at Screwy Louie’s suggested we try a different Okuma rod set that he had good success with. So we tried one out and WOW, what a difference!! So we contacted Okuma and let them know of our experience with their products and BAM! New supporting company, then VIP status, which we took advantage of by switching all of our wire rods over to the new Okuma’s.
We continued working with both our sponsoring companies and our supporting companies through the fall. Some of them faded away, while others began to blossom, all the while new opportunities presented themselves to us which led to new sponsors (Rhys Davis, Oakley, Vital Signs & Graphics) and additional supporting companies. In the fall we also began to think about the hard water season and we really developed our relationships with Frabill, Aqua-Vu, and Bass Pro Shops, where we gave a couple free seminars. We made hard water jerseys again with the companies that supported and/or sponsored us. Due to the lack of fishable ice this past winter, we fished the only tournament not canceled in our area on Mendon Ponds, where we took 2nd and the smallest pike awards. We met and made a connection with the director of the tournament, who informed us of a sportsman banquet his club was hosting and invited us to set-up a display for our sponsors. We also traveled to the Adirondacks to fish two tournaments where our idea for a Pro-Am style tournament on the ice took shape after meeting the tournament directors up there, who allowed us to talk to the masses and get feedback on our idea. At all the tournaments, we performed demonstrations of the Automatic Fisherman and Aqua-Vu camera systems right on the ice, and even gave away several Automatic Fisherman sets.
We then took the Ice Pro-Am idea and ran with it, creating the NYS Ice Pro-Am Corporation which will be overseeing the first Ice Fishing Pro-Am Tournament Series this winter. For more information visit: http://www.NYSiceproam.com
We then started focusing on this season. We gave a free seminar at Bass Pro’s Spring Classic Event, where Kyle Wafler (aka Apple Boy) learned many new tricks and skills to try this season, and now he has been very successful on the water as a result! In fact, he was taking us to school for a bit last weekend (June 10th)!!
It was very evident that we needed a new jersey design: our relationship with FB decreased over the winter, while others were still growing and developing. We also wanted to eliminate the conflicting companies with our new growing list of sponsoring companies – so our philosophy for the jersey had changed a little towards only sponsoring companies, but still promoted some supporting ones. That’s why some of the logos we had last year are no longer on this year’s jersey. It has been said, “Work with the companies that suite your style”. You can’t know the companies that are going to suite your style right off the bat – it’s something you have to settle into, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. Remember, our relationship with most of our sponsors is less than a year old!
This season we’re fishing on our boat, and it’s mainly Jeff, Tim, and our dad Jim. Both Woody and Coup have families in full swing and couldn’t make the time commitment necessary to fish the tournaments this year. So they are taking time off from the Pro-circuit to enjoy their families, and we fully support their decision to do so. We will be doing the same once our daughters grow up too. We hope Woody and Coup come back to join the team again in future years, but if not, that’s ok too. We’re sure we’ll remain great friends and will still get out on the water together from time to time.
We continue to do our part to help promote the fisheries through our seminars, promoting various tournaments year ‘round, encouraging catch & release practices, chatting and posting on various forums, educating the public, the creation of our Ice Pro-Am Tournament Series (where we will be donating up to $6,000 to the Good Ol’ Boys Junior Bassmasters and bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars to several communities across the state), participating in the Sodus Bay Healing Waters Salmon Slam this year, becoming members of LOTSA, and the list goes on! We were also hoping to help with the pens this spring, but unfortunately our schedules didn’t allow us to.
Bottom line, we’re a professional tournament team looking to have fun smokin’ fish and fishing tournaments. As Kevin Jerge has stated (while discussing tournaments), “Bass tournament fishermen get paid big bucks to just fish. Salmon fishing isn’t to that point yet.” Maybe our team is one of the first to travel down that road in the salmon circuit, who knows!
So there it is. Hopefully that has cleared up some of the misinformation floating around out there regarding our team. If you don’t like our image, that’s ok, you’re entitled to your opinion. However, let it be known: we have a solid connection with every company logo we display and rights to do so. If anyone would like any further clarification on anything I have stated, please let me know. We have several projects unrolling later this summer that we think will benefit many anglers and local businesses. We wish everyone luck this year out on the water – this is turning out to be a banner year on the big pond (and next year should be much the same)!!
See ya on the water and tight lines everyone!!
The Finders Keepers Team.
