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ABOUT the MSBA
By Jules Silvis
Past Chairperson, MSBA Board of Directors
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Club Meetings are held the 4th Wednesday of the month unless otherwise noted at 7:30 PM at the Viking
Club in Braintree, doors open at 7:00 PM. You can take advantage of this time to make some new friends
and ask questions about the club. At 7:30 the meeting will come to order, by the president of the club. The
president will ask the E-board members to give their reports from the previous months meeting and the
Executive board meetings.
The E-board also consists of a Vice President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. To find the current list of
elected officers as well as all other members of the E-board, click here.
After all reports are given, the president will address all old business for the club. He will also get reports
from various other club positions, which are seated at the side table on the right side of the room as you
enter the main hall. He will then move to all new business. After the business is done, there is a 15-minute
break for coffee and donuts, or beverages at the bar. Then the club will have its monthly entertainment,
whomever our guest may be for that month. After entertainment, the club will have its raffles, starting with the
door prize, which is the ticket you are given at the door as you sign in for the meeting. Then they will draw
for a mystery prize. These tickets can be purchased at the side table, beside the raffle table. They are a $1
each and are well worth it, you never know what you might win!!! These tickets can be purchased at various
times throughout the meeting. At 6 for $5 you cant go wrong. This table is loaded monthly with various items
and you pick what you want, if your number is drawn.
Merchandise: Merchandise is sold for the club, including hats, t-shirts, jackets, stickers, etc. These items
are sold to members during the monthly meeting. These items are also available through this website,
secure payments can be made for purchases online using PayPal. To get to the online merchandise,
click here.
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Fishing Video's and Library Books: These items can be borrowed for a month, from the club for your
viewing and reading pleasure. Please see the library chairman and he will help you out and go over the
selections with you. For the Club Library inventory and information, click here.
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Annual Club Derby: The derby is run from May 1st thru Nov. 30th. The fish must be weighed on a certified
scale at any of a number of local tackle shops, and an official weigh slip, provided by the chair at the
monthly meetings, must be filled out by the weigh station and must be postmarked and mailed to the chair
with in 7 days from when the fish is caught. All Striped Bass weighed in must be 36 long to be counted,
except fly rod Striped Bass, which is the current state legal length. The categories for the tournament are as
follows: Mens, womens and juniors, largest striper surf, striper boat, bluefish surf, bluefish boat. Largest
weight for combined bluefish and striper. There is also a fly rod division, with the same categories. Pins are
given out each month for the largest of each species, at the meeting. Beautiful plaques and trophies are
also given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place at the end of the season at our annual awards banquet in the early
spring.
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Special Tournaments: Run also by the annual derby chair. These tournaments are held at various times of
the season. The dates will be announced at the meetings and in the Spray. The tournaments run for
approximately 10 days, and include, bluefish, striper, fluke, and cod. The same rules apply for weighing in
the fish on a certified scale at a tackle shop. Separate weigh slips will be given out for these tournaments,
and must be returned to the derby chair for your fish to be counted. More information will be in the spray and
the web site soon. Very nice trophies will be given out for all of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners at the
annual banquet.
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Membership: You can sign up for the club to be a member, if you have not already done so, or renew your
membership, at the meetings, by mail or online through this website. If you would like to sign up online,
click here.
If you are signing up for new membership, you will receive a packet with a list of the club rules, a club patch,
a club membership card, a club pin for your hat or jacket, and can provide input and stories to our monthly
newsletter called The Spray (available through our website).
Renewals must be completed by the Dec. meeting or you will be dropped from the mailing list by February.
The cost for membership is $40 a year for adults, spouse is $15, seniors $15, and juniors under the age of
16 are $10.
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Refreshments: Our refreshment chairperson is Jimmy Reeves. Jimmy works very hard every month to
make sure your coffee and donuts are available for the break during the meeting. Please make sure you
give him a thank you once in a while, it will really make his day.
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Annual Boat / Shore Tournaments: This tournament is held every year, usually the end of June,
beginning of July. This is a 3 day fishing tournament for Striped Bass & Bluefish and is open to all club
members and the general public. Details will be posted along with sign up sheets at the meeting and local
tackle shops throughout MA. This is a very fun event and has some tremendous prizes which are donated
to the club from local businesses, tackle shops and fishing product reps., and companies. Please see the
annual tournament chairman for any details you may need. This will also be advertised in the monthly
newsletter.
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Tri-State Tournaments: This is a great way to get to know members of this club and various other clubs in
the New England area that we compete against. This is how it works. There are 3 different legs to this
tournament. The 1st leg is held on the Cape, the 2nd leg is held in Old Orchard Beach, ME, the 3rd leg is
held in RI. You do not have to attend all 3 legs. MSBA competes against various other clubs from New
England. Members from MSBA will be placed on 6-8 man teams, depending on how many people attend.
This also is done for all the other clubs competing. Then what happens is a couple from each team is
placed in a group with individuals from the other clubs. Each group will have a group leader, chosen before
the groups are announced. The tournament starts at 12 pm Friday night and goes until 10 am Sunday
morning. Each group has, I believe, 12 hours of fishing time to be completed if possible thru Sunday at
10AM. Around 11PM Friday night, the groups are announced.
You will then go to your group leaders room at the motel and discuss strategies of where, when and what
time you will be going fishing. Each member of the group is given a list of rules for the tournament.
Strategies for fishing are up to the group leader and any input from the rest of the group. Fish are scored by
a point system. This is a catch & release tournament. Scoring slips are filled in after each spot you have
fish and the time is recorded on the slip as to how much time you fished from the time the line hits the water
until the last mans line is out of the water. The fish must be verified by a member of an opposing team in
your group. If the fish is a measurable fish for more points, the fish must be verified by your group leader.
This tournament is based on the
honor system of fishing. Things you might want to know before you go are: You will need waders, 7-11 ft
rods, extra line just in case, a backup rod and reel, just in case, lures, hooks, night light, pliers and clippers.
To be on the safe side, just bring it all!!! This tournament is a lot of fun. There is also cookout on Saturday to
get a little relaxation in. A lot of guys bring their wives so they can have a little get away for the weekend too.
If you have any questions please talk to the Tri-State chairman, or anyone else at the club. This is a shore
fishing tournament only!!!!!!
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Annual Sport Fishing Expo: This is one of the biggest events for this club, as far as income for the year,
and the work that has to go into it to make it successful. Some of the work that has to go into this show is as
follows. Contacting all vendors and reps on the master list, which we have built over the years. Currently
there are about 150 names and addresses on the list. Every year the club sends out letters to these
individuals and makes several follow up calls to make sure the club has filled the amount of preset booths
for the show. If we dont get these individuals we dont have a show. Some other things that go into making
the show work are, ordering all the food and rental supplies for the kitchen, renting the facility to have the
show at, getting all the permits needed to use the facility, setting up and measuring the booth sizes, getting
all the guest speakers for entertainment,
trying to get donations from various sponsors for the grand raffle. Organizing help to work the show, such as
helping people unload and set up, setting up the club booths, setting up the grand raffle table, setting up the
merchandise table, serving in the kitchen and clean up, designing and getting all the show flyers & posters
printed and distributed to all shops in the area, etc. Getting as much advertisement as we can for the show,
which is a lot of work, and after the show we have to send out thank you letters to all individuals that had a
booth at the show and to all the individuals that donated prizes to the show. If you can help with this activity
please contact the annual expo chairman.
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Mystery Trips: How the mystery trip works. An individual will pick a spot to fish, tell people where to meet,
what time to meet and what they need to bring with them. Example - waders, what size rod, bait or lures,
etc. The group will meet, hopefully catch some fish, and is a great way to get to know other members of the
club and learn some new spots to fish and how to fish them. This is really a fun time, a great way to learn
about fishing, and highly recommended. Never hesitate to come up with a spot to fish and bring it to the
mystery trip chairman, or the President of the club. For Mystery Trip info, click here.
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The Spray Newsletter is very informative web-based newsletter that gives a lot of information and
advertising that can be very helpful. The club is always looking for people to write articles or fish stories, or
how to articles. All these things benefit all members of this club. To download The Spray online, click here.
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Annual Outing: This is a family oriented event, where you can bring your spouse and children. You can eat
all day, soak up some sun, maybe fish a little or participate in some fun contests. It's another great way to
relax and get to know other members and there families. It is a once a year event, but we need an
organizer and other people to help the chair to make this a fun and successful event. The chair needs to do
the legwork to find a location, set a date. Inform the membership a couple months ahead of time at the
meetings and in the spray. Figure out how much food and beverage you will need. Put a group of people
together to help you get it set up. The club has a large grill and a tent that can be set up for the outing. The
E-board is there always to help you
with this event, with advise and suggestions. This is another very fun event and also highly recommended.
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Executive Board Meetings are held the 1st Thursday of the month at the Viking Club at 7:30 PM. Any
member of the club can attend and are highly encouraged to come. This meeting is where all the work that
needs to be done to keep this club moving forward, will happen. Financial decisions and statuses that need
to be addressed. Decisions to help the club with any problems that may be occurring. Events that need to
be evaluated on status, or preparing for upcoming events. Issues that need to be brought to the floor at the
next meeting for any possible solutions, input, or a vote. Issues or feedback from other members to help us
make this a better club. Your views are important and this is the forum to bring those issues up and discuss
them. This is were you find out just how much it takes to run this great club, and why we need to keep
asking for help. So if you have a chance, please come and join us for one of these meetings.
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MSBA Website: This is our club's web site where you can find all information on the club and some other
interesting details. This is a very important tool for this club that is constantly being updated. If you would
like to send comments about or additions the website, click here.
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Striper Swipers: This is for all junior members of the club. They are taught how to run an official business
meeting, the same as our meeting. Talk fishing and learn about fishing. Please remember that the juniors
are going to be the next generation of anglers and the future of fishing, lets try and preserve that. To get to
the Striper Swiper schedule, click here.
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Programs / Entertainment: Each month MSBA offers top notch seminars free of charge to members and
the public. Upcoming entertainment can be found in The Spray and on this website. To get to the events
page that lists the monthly entertainment, click here.
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Annual Banquet is a fun event and family oriented also. Every March-April the club has their annual
banquet. We have had it at the Viking Club for the past several years. This is how it works. It usually costs
each member about $15 per person to attend. We have a wonderful five course dinner, we have guest
speakers, we give out all the trophies and plaques for all of the winners of the annual derby, and the special
tournaments. We give out a few gag gifts for the individuals who may have had a little goofing fishing
situation thru out the past year. We may even roast a few people just because they deserve it!!! There is a
great raffle table, with spectacular prizes donated by local shops and businesses in the community. It really
is a lot of fun, another great way to get to know other members and there families. So if you get a chance to
come, this event is also highly recommended.
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Summary: I just wanted to give you an idea of how this club works and how it is put together. I know it is
difficult coming into a meeting and not knowing anyone. When I first joined MSBA about 6 years ago. I
didn't know anyone except the person who had told me about MSBA and invited me to a meeting. It was a
weird feeling walking into a room of strangers and not knowing how things worked or what to expect next.
But as the months went by, I got to know more and more people just by participating in all the club has to
offer and helping out where I could. It is a very rewarding feeling putting time into something that I feel is very
important - that being the Striped Bass. I love fishing more than anything. I enjoy going to the meetings and
seeing my friends. I have become very close with a lot of the people I have met at this club. They have
become true friends, they are fun and we fish together a lot. I look forward to seeing that continue. So
please don't feel intimidated, the members of this club are a great group of people. If you wish to sign up
and help with any open positions or help out with an event, you will not be alone. The standing members of
this club are here to help you get started and help you throughout your term. So please get involved, have
some fun. If you have questions or you are not sure about something, or you have an idea, my number is on
the back of the Spray as well as all the other members that are currently holding positions. If we can't
answer your questions, we can direct you to a person that can. As you can see, most of the events of the
club are successful because of the volunteers that participate. Giving even a couple of hours a month is
very helpful to this organization. Participation in all the events the club has to offer are a great way to make
new friends and fishing partners. Always feel free to walk up to any member of the club, if you have any
questions, need any fishing info, whether it be about tackle, lines, spots to fish or anything else you can
think of to making your fishing experience more enjoyable. I hope that this information has been helpful and
look forward to seeing you at the club and on the water. This is a summary of how the club meetings work
and all events that occur during the year at this great club.
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Objectives of the Mass Striped Bass Association:
The Objectives of this Association are; To promote and encourage interest in salt water sport fishing: to
provide opportunities for those interested in salt water sport fishing to gather for entertainment and good
fellowship; to uphold sound conservation practices and laws and to see that these laws are carried out by
its members; to further good sportsmanship and to disseminate information concerning saltwater
Sportfishing both to Association members and others.
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