Thursday Night Bassin
Brainerd Lake's Premier Weekly Bass Tournament
About Thursday Night Bassin
What is Thursday Night Bassin?
Thursday Night Bassin is the Brainerd Lakes best weekly bass tournament. The TNB 2011 schedule is is comprised of an 11 week season competing for a chance to fish in one of the twelve slots for the Tournament of Champions with prizes over $800* and over $800 for the Boat of the Year. The schedule is designed as three weeks competing and one week off. The off weeks are reserved for tournament makeups due to weather cancellations. The tournaments are hosted on various lakes near Brainerd, MN with a new lake each week. The details are listed below:
Please click this link to view the 2011 Entry Packet and Form (rules included). $200 deposit due May 15, 2011 to secures your spot in all tournaments.
Name: Thursday Night Bassin
Entry fee: $50 per boat (single or team of two anglers)
Registration: Pre-registration and payment is allowed and encouraged. Onsite registration is allowed however it is a first come first serve basis.
Holdouts: $5.00 for TOC, $5.00 for AOY/TOY
Season: 11 weeks. Three weeks on, one week off.
TOC: TOC qualification would be by top 12 point leaders with a minimum of 8 of the 11 regular tournaments fished. Blast off will be by points finish. TOC is no entry fee.
Boats: 15 boat max per week
Side Pots: $10 big bass pot, (TOC $20 Big Bag pot)
Additional fees: A single annual membership fee of $25
The basis of the new format is to host tournaments on a new lake each week This will be a weekly tournament on Thursdays with three weeks fishing and one week off. (The off week will be reserver for make-up tournaments resulting from weather cancellations.) The entry fee is $50 per boat. This mean you can fish either single or with a team member. This allows angers who fish as a team to keep the cost down to $25 an angler.
Big bass is optional and is a separate side pot of $10 cash per boat. All boats fishing will be part of the points race for Angler/Team of the Year (AOY/TOY). The AOY/TOY with the highest points will receive the AOY/TOY pot at the end of the season along with a plaque(s). There is a $5.00 hold out per boat per week for this pot. Based on a full field, almost $825 will go to the AOY/TOY. The top twelve boats in the point’s race will compete in the Tournament Of Champions (TOC) for the TOC pot. There is a minimum requirement to fish 8 of the 11 tournaments. There is a $5.00 hold out per boat per week for this TOC pot. Based on a full field, almost $825 will go to the TOC pot so the teams will be fishing for approx $825.
There is a membership fee of $25 for Thursday Night Bassin. In addition, you receive a membership card that provide discounts to area businesses. The membership card discounts are worth way more than the $25 you pay.
Administrative Notes:
All participants will be required to sign a release and liability wavier. Participants under the age of 18 must have a waiver signed by their parent or guardian. They are very welcome to participate in the weekly events and I encourage it. Youth under 16 years of age are not required to pay the membership fee (the adult fishing with them is still required to pay this fee). All boats must have functioning live wells with some form of recirculation or aeration, if not (this is the tournaments directors sole decision).
*Calculations based on a full field of 15 boats the entire season.
Please click this link to view the 2011 Entry Packet and Form (rules included). $200 deposit due May 15, 2011 to secures your spot in all tournaments.
Name: Thursday Night Bassin
Entry fee: $50 per boat (single or team of two anglers)
Registration: Pre-registration and payment is allowed and encouraged. Onsite registration is allowed however it is a first come first serve basis.
Holdouts: $5.00 for TOC, $5.00 for AOY/TOY
Season: 11 weeks. Three weeks on, one week off.
TOC: TOC qualification would be by top 12 point leaders with a minimum of 8 of the 11 regular tournaments fished. Blast off will be by points finish. TOC is no entry fee.
Boats: 15 boat max per week
Side Pots: $10 big bass pot, (TOC $20 Big Bag pot)
Additional fees: A single annual membership fee of $25
The basis of the new format is to host tournaments on a new lake each week This will be a weekly tournament on Thursdays with three weeks fishing and one week off. (The off week will be reserver for make-up tournaments resulting from weather cancellations.) The entry fee is $50 per boat. This mean you can fish either single or with a team member. This allows angers who fish as a team to keep the cost down to $25 an angler.
Big bass is optional and is a separate side pot of $10 cash per boat. All boats fishing will be part of the points race for Angler/Team of the Year (AOY/TOY). The AOY/TOY with the highest points will receive the AOY/TOY pot at the end of the season along with a plaque(s). There is a $5.00 hold out per boat per week for this pot. Based on a full field, almost $825 will go to the AOY/TOY. The top twelve boats in the point’s race will compete in the Tournament Of Champions (TOC) for the TOC pot. There is a minimum requirement to fish 8 of the 11 tournaments. There is a $5.00 hold out per boat per week for this TOC pot. Based on a full field, almost $825 will go to the TOC pot so the teams will be fishing for approx $825.
There is a membership fee of $25 for Thursday Night Bassin. In addition, you receive a membership card that provide discounts to area businesses. The membership card discounts are worth way more than the $25 you pay.
Administrative Notes:
All participants will be required to sign a release and liability wavier. Participants under the age of 18 must have a waiver signed by their parent or guardian. They are very welcome to participate in the weekly events and I encourage it. Youth under 16 years of age are not required to pay the membership fee (the adult fishing with them is still required to pay this fee). All boats must have functioning live wells with some form of recirculation or aeration, if not (this is the tournaments directors sole decision).
*Calculations based on a full field of 15 boats the entire season.
About the Tournament Director
Scott Wielenberg is an avid bass angler who grew up in Brainerd, MN. His passion for fishing only continues to grow stronger every season. Thursday Night Bassin has been a favorite of Scott’s since he was in high school. After a 3.5 year tour in the Army, he returned to the TNB series. At the end of the 2008 TNB season, he was given the opportunity to take the reins for TNB. This was not a simple shift of authority but required a large scale restructure of the TNB series to gain the popularity that it once had. He had to do this while maintaining the low cost. He is excited at the opportunity to grow TNB into the premier bass tournament series. With this, he has developed an aggressive plan to put TNB back on the map. He hopes to gain enough support to expand the TNB in to several divisions accross Minnesota with the TOC taking the top competitors from each division. He wants this to happen while maintaining the low cost so anyone interested can fish it.
The 2009 and 2010 seasons were a great sucess. First, with out the support of the TNB sponsors, this would not have happened. As the weeks went by, the numbers continued to grow. Competitors would come and continue to return week after week. We had reached a near or full feilds by the end of the season.
Mission Statment
Thursday Night Bassin will provide an affordable and flexible tournament structure that accommodates all anglers from the tournament anglers to the casual fisherman. Thursday Night Bassin will provide this while maintaining low cost membership fees to ensure all anglers have the opportunity to compete in a fun, safe, professional structured tournament.
TNB 2011 Season
Thursday Night Bassin (TNB) has undergone a restructuring to offer more options to anglers competing in the TNB series. This new structure has been developed to attract more anglers to attend the TNB series. Below is a brief overview of the new structure.
2011 Payout Structure - Please follow the entry fee brake down. Standard $60 entry fee per boat (two person max.) $7.50 Admin Fee (~15% to cover costs for permits, plaques, website, ect.) $5.00 AOY and $5.00 TOC holdouts. $32.50 per entry fee per tournament is direct payback that night. Total Payback to anglers is ~85% at the end of the season. (see Image below).
2011 Season Points Standings - Boats are entered into the season points standing each week. The top point’s leader will be awarded Angler Of the Year (see Table 2 below for points system)
Place Points 1 100 2 99 3 98 4 97 5 96 6 95 7 94 8 93 9 92 10 91 11 90 12 89 13 88 14 87 15 86 16 85 17 84 18 83 19 82 20 81 21 80 22 79 23 78 24 77 Attendance 35
Table 2 *Those who fish but do not weigh-in will receive the 35 attendance points.
2011 Tournament of Champions - Top twelve point leading teams face off in an 8 hour Saturday no entry fee tournament scheduled for Sep. 10, 2011 from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM hosted on the Crow Wing River out of the fisherman Bridge Public Access. Top 4 places and big bass side pot pay out. There is a minimum requirement to fish 8 of the 11 regular tournaments to qualify along with your points standings. There is a $5.00 hold out per boat per week for this TOC pot. Based on a full field, almost $825 will go to the TOC pot so the teams will be fishing for approximately $825.
Weekly Weigh-In Door Prizes -
TNB holds a weekly drawing for one or two prizes at each weeks weigh-in to encourage teams to attend weigh-in.Spectators are also encouraged to participate in the door prize drawings.