About Our Junior Bass Club
The L/A Junior Bassmasters was formed in 2005 by Youth Coordinator John Volkernick, Mark & Brenda Swett, and the late Scott Bradford. It was these folks who got the ball rolling and secured 12 members in our first year as only the second junior bass club in Maine! We fished four club tournaments, two catch measure and release and two weigh in tournaments all out of volunteer boats from members of Androscoggin Bassmasters, Maine Country Bassers and the parents of the anglers.
Our main focus for the club is to get these young kids on the water thinking about fishing. While on the water they learn valuable lessons on conservation, how to respect landowner rights as well as interact with other outdoor recreationalist, all while enjoying the sport we all love, fishing.
It was amazing in our first year to see how excited and restless the kids were to hop in the boats and go fishing. Some of the kids had never been in a boat, and now they were going in a nice shiny bass boat! They quickly learned to respect the craft they were in and learned to treat it as there own. Our volunteers were real impressed with the kids actions and the respect they showed.
Fishing is much tougher in tournament conditions than the kids expected, they soon learned that patience is a must, expecially on those dog days of summer or frontal conditions. It's amazing what a few years of fishing has done to the kids confidence and skill levels.
Once the angler reach 18 years old they will be too old for the junior bassmaster program but can then move on to adult clubs in the area they will live in, for example Maine has over 25 bass clubs they could join.
Since our inception the club has had 3 anglers who have been State Champions, they are Darren Villani, Nick Deering and Brian Volkernick. One angler, Brian Volkernick won the inaugural Eastern Divisional Championship. All three of the above anglers competed in the Junior Bassmaster World Championship.
In 2009 our club hosted an open bass tournament on Damariscotta Lake in Newcastle/Jefferson for adults with an additional Adult-Youth Division as well. 24 teams were on hand for the inaugural event.
Today we have just under 20 kids and have graduated three since our inception.
Other club functions we do include a clean up day with our adult sponsoring club on the shores of Auburn Lake, the local water supply of the surrounding cities. On a saturday morning in late April we collect almost 1 ton of trash and debris that will never make it to the watershed.
In 2010 we will host our first Ice Fishing Derby on Sabattus Pond in February, we'll let you know how that one goes. For more information on that event check out the derby page.
Unfortunately we can only allow enough kids in the club that will not out number our volunteer boats. However, we may have openings available so don't hesitate to drop us a line and see if you can get in on the action.