Don’t be fooled by the name, the Leavenworth Bass Club is about far more than fishing. Sure, the nearly 40 members of the club spend plenty of time out on the water in pursuit of the next big catch, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
“It’s not just guys sitting back and swigging beer like a lot of people may think of a fishing organization,” Bill Horvath, the club’s youth coordinator said. “There’s a lot of different things we do besides just fishing.”
Those things include not only hosting tournaments for members, but also an active youth program, conservation projects and service projects.
“It’s evolved, it used to just be fishing but in the last few years we’ve been very much more active in a variety of things going on,” Leavenworth Bass Club president Randy Kenton said. “We’ve come a long way.”
The Leavenworth club, which Kenton says has averaged around 40 members for the past 10 years, has been the largest in the state for the past four. For secretary Larry Stoafer, that’s a tribute to the variety of projects the members take on.
“It’s our 26th year, almost 27 now,” Stoafer said. “There’s a reason this club is the size thatit is, and it’s not just fishing. We average 38-40 members and those guys do a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”
“The hard part is sandwiching in all the events we want to do,” Horvath said.
An event close to the members’ hearts — Fishing for Freedom — is in just it’s second year, but they’re hoping to see it balloon in size for the 2010 version of the tournament.
Fishing for Freedom is an event that pairs volunteer boaters with veterans and Wounded Warriors for a buddy bass tournament. After taking out 30 veterans last year, Stoafer said the club is hoping to have 100 out on the lake for the Oct. 9-10, 2010 event.
“The first year went really well,” Stoafer said. “The support from all the folks involved was wanting to do this thing again. ... Sponsorship money just poured in this year. I’ve been super impressed with the outpouring. Just mentioning something about this event, ... very few people say no.”
Stoafer brought the idea of Fishing for Freedom to the Leavenworth Bass Club after seeing the Army Bass Anglers, based in San Antonio, Texas, do a similar event. With the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio home to a large population of Wounded Warriors, the Army Bass Anglers started a similar program five years ago. They host two events a year now and each has grown to taking several hundred participants.
“I know the guy pretty well who runs that organization and he told me we could do it,” Stoafer said. “It’s something America supports. The Army Bass Anglers are the ones who gave me the confidence to do it.”
After getting their feet wet last year, the Leavenworth Bass Club has a solid idea of how they want to event to go. It takes a lot of volunteers to make an event this size run smoothly, and the club members say they’re always looking for more help.
“We don’t have a hard fast number of how many guys, there’s some big pieces that’ll require a lot of volunteers,” club vice president Dan Senterfitt said. “Too many volunteers won’t be an issue.”
“The folks who volunteer for these events really hold these guys in high regard,” Stoafer said. “They treat them like rock stars. They want them to know that they support them and thank them for all they’ve done. And they want to hear their stories.”
The 2010 event will be held at Truman Lake near Warsaw, Mo. The location was chosen for its central location since veterans will be coming in from Fort Riley (Kan.), For Leonard Wood (Mo.) and Fort Polk (La.). On Saturday, Oct. 9 veterans and Wounded Warriors will be paired with volunteers who’ll they’ll compete in the fishing tournament with the next day.
“The purpose of the evening event is really to marrying the veteran with the boater they’ll fish with,” Kenton said. “This is an opportunity to just interact with another America citizen.”
Although Sunday, Oct. 10 will be run like a typical fishing tournament with weigh ins and prizes, Stoafer said the event has little to do with who catches the most or biggest fish.
“For most of these folks it isn’t about catching fish,” Stoafer said. “It’s about getting these guys out to enjoy the outdoors and tell them thanks and how much we appreciate what they’ve done. A lot of these guys have really sacrificed a lot, more than just the physical there’s a lot of mental and emotional stuff. At least for a day, we want to get their minds off those other things and get them back to things that they enjoy.”
“We do it just like a normal bass tournament, but it’s just for fun. The goal is to take these guys out, catch some fish with them, show them how to fish and have a good time.”
For more information on Fishing for Freedom or to register as a participant or volunteer, visit www.fishingforfreedom.us.
While they focus a lot of attention on the Fishing for Freedom event, the Leavenworth Bass Club also keeps an active youth program throughout the year. Horvath says that the club’s youth program holds several events annually, from tournaments to casting lessons.
“We sponsor a junior bass club,” Horvath explained. “Bass has a program for youth when you’re not old enough to join and fish in adult competitions. The ages for it run from about nine to 16.”
The youth program, which formed two years ago, is based out of Olathe. Horvath said the goal is just to pass the love of the sport down to the next generation.
“It’s combination of boat competitions and some bank tournaments. We do conservation projects and we try to instill in the young guys what we love about fishing,” Horvath said. “It’s not just catching, it’s fishing — being outside in a natural environment, doing things for other people. It’s really a good bunch of kids.”
As part of the Leavenworth Bass Club’s youth efforts, they sponsor events through the Youth Achievement Center as well.
“We also get kids from downtown at the Youth Achievement Center and take them out,” Kenton added.
“We’ve done that several times,” Horvath continued. “That’s a hoot. Most of these guys and girls have never been fishing before and it’s just an amazing bunch. It’s so much fun to work with them. We’re hoping to do that again in September.”
The club sponsors a fishing derby at Fort Leavenworth for special needs individuals each year as well.
“This year we had 50 or 60 folks from all over Leavenworth County,” Stoafer said. “The youngest we had was six and the oldest this last year was 81. It’s a neat event, we just spend a couple hours with them on the lakes up here at Fort Leavenworth, just fishing and having a good time.”
Keeping the sport going is important to the Leavenworth Bass Club, so they often do conservation and education projects.
“The idea of a Bass club goes beyond fishing, it’s also about conservation and treating the resource properly,” Senterfitt said. “We try to impart that not only to our members but the youth and other people we work with.”
The club often puts fish habitats in local lakes and also works to keep the areas they frequent clean. To stay at the top of the angling world, the Leavenworth Bass Club hosts information sessions after its monthly meetings.
“There’s a lot of educational stuff there for someone (interested in learning),” Kenton said. “We have seminars after meetings to talk about how to fish a certain lake or how to use a certain lure. Fishing skill is irrelevant. We’re here to teach people, not that we’re experts, but we’ll show them where to go, how to fish larger lakes and how to be safe.”
The abundance of knowledge from the collective membership of the Leavenworth Bass Club is what attracted Senterfitt to join in the first place.
“I’ve been fishing for two years now, but there’s guys (in the club) who’ve been fishing for five or six decades,” Senterfitt said. “I just wanted to learn how to bass fish and was starting from zero. I’ve had a lot of improvement. This is a great group of guys because they’ll take you out and show you how to do it.”
Each of the 11 tournaments the Leavenworth Bass Clubs holds for its members each year counts towards a points sweepstakes, with an overall champion crowned at the year-end banquet.
“It’s competition, but it’s not cut-throat competition,” Kenton said. “It’s not just you against the other guys, it’s you against the lake and the fish and the elements just trying to excel at what you’re doing.”
The club is always looking for new members, and they’re quick to bring to attention to the fact that no boat is required.
“We’re in need of members who don’t have boats,” Kenton said. “Some people think they can’t join because they don’t have a boat, but we have plenty of room for people who don’t have boats.”
For more information on joining the Leavenworth Bass Club, see the cub’s Web site at www.theleavenworthbassclub.org.
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Don’t be fooled by the name, the Leavenworth Bass Club is about far more than fishing. Sure, the nearly 40 members of the club spend plenty of time out on the water in pursuit of the next big catch, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
“It’s not just guys sitting back and swigging beer like a lot of people may think of a fishing organization,” Bill Horvath, the club’s youth coordinator said. “There’s a lot of different things we do besides just fishing.”
Those things include not only hosting tournaments for members, but also an active youth program, conservation projects and service projects.
“It’s evolved, it used to just be fishing but in the last few years we’ve been very much more active in a variety of things going on,” Leavenworth Bass Club president Randy Kenton said. “We’ve come a long way.”
The Leavenworth club, which Kenton says has averaged around 40 members for the past 10 years, has been the largest in the state for the past four. For secretary Larry Stoafer, that’s a tribute to the variety of projects the members take on.
“It’s our 26th year, almost 27 now,” Stoafer said. “There’s a reason this club is the size thatit is, and it’s not just fishing. We average 38-40 members and those guys do a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”
“The hard part is sandwiching in all the events we want to do,” Horvath said.
An event close to the members’ hearts — Fishing for Freedom — is in just it’s second year, but they’re hoping to see it balloon in size for the 2010 version of the tournament.
Fishing for Freedom is an event that pairs volunteer boaters with veterans and Wounded Warriors for a buddy bass tournament. After taking out 30 veterans last year, Stoafer said the club is hoping to have 100 out on the lake for the Oct. 9-10, 2010 event.
“The first year went really well,” Stoafer said. “The support from all the folks involved was wanting to do this thing again. ... Sponsorship money just poured in this year. I’ve been super impressed with the outpouring. Just mentioning something about this event, ... very few people say no.”
Stoafer brought the idea of Fishing for Freedom to the Leavenworth Bass Club after seeing the Army Bass Anglers, based in San Antonio, Texas, do a similar event. With the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio home to a large population of Wounded Warriors, the Army Bass Anglers started a similar program five years ago. They host two events a year now and each has grown to taking several hundred participants.
“I know the guy pretty well who runs that organization and he told me we could do it,” Stoafer said. “It’s something America supports. The Army Bass Anglers are the ones who gave me the confidence to do it.”
After getting their feet wet last year, the Leavenworth Bass Club has a solid idea of how they want to event to go. It takes a lot of volunteers to make an event this size run smoothly, and the club members say they’re always looking for more help.
“We don’t have a hard fast number of how many guys, there’s some big pieces that’ll require a lot of volunteers,” club vice president Dan Senterfitt said. “Too many volunteers won’t be an issue.”
“The folks who volunteer for these events really hold these guys in high regard,” Stoafer said. “They treat them like rock stars. They want them to know that they support them and thank them for all they’ve done. And they want to hear their stories.”
The 2010 event will be held at Truman Lake near Warsaw, Mo. The location was chosen for its central location since veterans will be coming in from Fort Riley (Kan.), For Leonard Wood (Mo.) and Fort Polk (La.). On Saturday, Oct. 9 veterans and Wounded Warriors will be paired with volunteers who’ll they’ll compete in the fishing tournament with the next day.
“The purpose of the evening event is really to marrying the veteran with the boater they’ll fish with,” Kenton said. “This is an opportunity to just interact with another America citizen.”
Although Sunday, Oct. 10 will be run like a typical fishing tournament with weigh ins and prizes, Stoafer said the event has little to do with who catches the most or biggest fish.
“For most of these folks it isn’t about catching fish,” Stoafer said. “It’s about getting these guys out to enjoy the outdoors and tell them thanks and how much we appreciate what they’ve done. A lot of these guys have really sacrificed a lot, more than just the physical there’s a lot of mental and emotional stuff. At least for a day, we want to get their minds off those other things and get them back to things that they enjoy.”
“We do it just like a normal bass tournament, but it’s just for fun. The goal is to take these guys out, catch some fish with them, show them how to fish and have a good time.”
For more information on Fishing for Freedom or to register as a participant or volunteer, visit www.fishingforfreedom.us.
While they focus a lot of attention on the Fishing for Freedom event, the Leavenworth Bass Club also keeps an active youth program throughout the year. Horvath says that the club’s youth program holds several events annually, from tournaments to casting lessons.
“We sponsor a junior bass club,” Horvath explained. “Bass has a program for youth when you’re not old enough to join and fish in adult competitions. The ages for it run from about nine to 16.”
The youth program, which formed two years ago, is based out of Olathe. Horvath said the goal is just to pass the love of the sport down to the next generation.
“It’s combination of boat competitions and some bank tournaments. We do conservation projects and we try to instill in the young guys what we love about fishing,” Horvath said. “It’s not just catching, it’s fishing — being outside in a natural environment, doing things for other people. It’s really a good bunch of kids.”
As part of the Leavenworth Bass Club’s youth efforts, they sponsor events through the Youth Achievement Center as well.
“We also get kids from downtown at the Youth Achievement Center and take them out,” Kenton added.
“We’ve done that several times,” Horvath continued. “That’s a hoot. Most of these guys and girls have never been fishing before and it’s just an amazing bunch. It’s so much fun to work with them. We’re hoping to do that again in September.”
The club sponsors a fishing derby at Fort Leavenworth for special needs individuals each year as well.
“This year we had 50 or 60 folks from all over Leavenworth County,” Stoafer said. “The youngest we had was six and the oldest this last year was 81. It’s a neat event, we just spend a couple hours with them on the lakes up here at Fort Leavenworth, just fishing and having a good time.”
Keeping the sport going is important to the Leavenworth Bass Club, so they often do conservation and education projects.
“The idea of a Bass club goes beyond fishing, it’s also about conservation and treating the resource properly,” Senterfitt said. “We try to impart that not only to our members but the youth and other people we work with.”
The club often puts fish habitats in local lakes and also works to keep the areas they frequent clean. To stay at the top of the angling world, the Leavenworth Bass Club hosts information sessions after its monthly meetings.
“There’s a lot of educational stuff there for someone (interested in learning),” Kenton said. “We have seminars after meetings to talk about how to fish a certain lake or how to use a certain lure. Fishing skill is irrelevant. We’re here to teach people, not that we’re experts, but we’ll show them where to go, how to fish larger lakes and how to be safe.”
The abundance of knowledge from the collective membership of the Leavenworth Bass Club is what attracted Senterfitt to join in the first place.
“I’ve been fishing for two years now, but there’s guys (in the club) who’ve been fishing for five or six decades,” Senterfitt said. “I just wanted to learn how to bass fish and was starting from zero. I’ve had a lot of improvement. This is a great group of guys because they’ll take you out and show you how to do it.”
Each of the 11 tournaments the Leavenworth Bass Clubs holds for its members each year counts towards a points sweepstakes, with an overall champion crowned at the year-end banquet.
“It’s competition, but it’s not cut-throat competition,” Kenton said. “It’s not just you against the other guys, it’s you against the lake and the fish and the elements just trying to excel at what you’re doing.”
The club is always looking for new members, and they’re quick to bring to attention to the fact that no boat is required.
“We’re in need of members who don’t have boats,” Kenton said. “Some people think they can’t join because they don’t have a boat, but we have plenty of room for people who don’t have boats.”
For more information on joining the Leavenworth Bass Club, see the cub’s Web site at www.theleavenworthbassclub.org.
