AllPro – Who Are We and Why?

Who are we and what are we really about?

Spring is finally among us, although there is still a bite of cool weather that nips at us during the early hours, we can’t escape the excitement that tight lines are coming just around the corner.

If you aren’t getting excited about getting outside, getting your tackle ready or preparing your vessel for the drop in, then you’re not breathing.

At AllPro we are busy on several fronts.  We are getting our Charter Captains and charter bookings in place, marketing and overseeing our AllProTackleBox.Com offerings, introducing and promoting our 2018 AllPro “Let It Go” Multi-Species Fishing Tournament and developing our 2019 AllPro Expo & Seminar Series.

Many people ask, why did we start a company reliant upon the fishing industry?  Why would we spend so much time and money in an industry that is overwhelmed in regulations, where margins are so limited and the overall “fishing” business opportunities are in a downward spiral as competition has been embedded and deep-rooted for generations?

The answer:  Because I LOVE IT.  As a father of 4, I always told my children that they should do what they LOVE and not to worry about the “money” portion of things because if you truly love what you do, you will dedicate yourself to it, you will work hard at it and people will eventually see and feel your passion and will want to be associated with you at some capacity, either as a customer, partner or even a sponsor.  Plus, and most importantly, if you do what you LOVE, you will never have to go to work.

So here I am, 51 years old, and its time to do something new, so let’s make this happen.  Come join me on my journey, my AllPro journey where we will evaluate each fishing related service to determine if we can make it better and do it differently.  There are always naysayers and people who will feel threatened by the competition, but they are just the fuel that ignites the passion that will develop AllPro into a household name when you think about Fishing and Outdoor entertainment and services.

AllPro “Let It Go” Fishing Tournament:  As I discussed tournaments with my fishing buddies and at my fishing clubs, the topic of cheating always comes up.  I often hear that “I used to do tournaments but there is so much cheating involved, I no longer waste my time.”  Personally, I believe some of this may be true, a lot of it is probably just perception and most of this is just sore losing.   But the task of making Fishing Tournaments fun, fair and for a greater audience to participate in, was now stuck in my head.  I love fishing tournaments.  For me, it’s not about winning the money (which is truly a benefit) but for giving me a reason to compete, for me to get together with my fishing buddies and to get out on the water, to generate conversations, strategies and most importantly MEMORIES that will last a long time. This year I’ll be competing in a local tournament with a fishing buddy, my wife, and his adult daughter.  I’d wouldn’t say we are fined tuned tournament experts, but we’ll make some memories and if we weigh in a fish, that alone will be an achievement!  The laughs that we’ll have will be priceless which is what I’m all about.

So with hours and hours of thinking, writing up plans, bouncing ideas off of fishing friends and associates, we finally came up with a NEW TOURNAMENT that accomplishes what we set out to do.

1. Make a Tournament that broadens the Audience.  The AllPro Tournament covers one of the largest bodies of water for any local inshore tournament.  With boundaries starting from the Verrazano Bridge, east to Montauk, around to Orient Point, then back west to the Throgs Neck Bridge, no one can argue that the tournament is too local or out of the way to participate in.
2. Make it FAIR, eliminate cheating.  This was our biggest task because we had to create something that not only is cheater proof but also eliminate any perception that someone could cheat.  This is how the Ticket System was developed.  By looking outside of the box and not declaring a winner on the SIZE of the fish, but from a random draw of tickets generated from caught qualifying fish, we think we achieved our goal.  Well, how do you know someone is not cheating regarding catching a qualifying fish?  Welcome technology!  With GPS tracking Video Apps and a requirement that the fish be videotaped “alive” with an “AllPro Tape Measure” and either released back into the water or marked (by clipping its tail, if kept) we can monitor valid catches.  This will eliminate cheating on that front.  And the best part, my 20-year-old daughter who never held a fishing pole was able to complete the entire videotape process in under 20 seconds.  Therefore, there is also no burden.  And better yet, even if people find a way to cheat to get a qualifying ticket, it still does not assure them a WIN, because we limit the tickets to 5 that you can get on any specific species of fish and then you still have the luck of the draw! So why would a Good or Skilled Fisherman participate in the AllPro Tournament if their LARGE fish isn’t going to be an automatic winner?  Because as anyone who ever fished a tournament knows, in most cases there is rarely an overabundance of fish that are weighed in and thus if you truly are a skilled fisherman, you should be able to submit the full 5 tickets per species while less talented fishermen will submit less or none at all, giving you a greater chance of winning.
3. Making it fun was important to us.  This is a tournament that you can take your family or neighbors out on.  It’s about making memories and having a good time, with the potential of winning a prize at the end.  There are no mandatory weigh-ins that you have to attend after a long day of fishing and you don’t have to pack up the crew to take them on a journey to the fishing grounds, as you can fish from your own local port. We created a Captain’s Meeting BBQ the week before the tournament so everyone can come out, enjoy some great food, go over the rules, have any questions that they have answered and participate in the festivities.
4. Make it Rewarding. Heck, it’s a tournament.  With a guaranteed 1^st place prize for a Striper starting at $3000 and going up to $11,000 or more, well I’d call that an Incentive!
5. Anyone can win.  We could have created just a Striped Bass Tournament but we wanted to create something that everyone can participate and that everyone had a chance to win.  Therefore we created a Multi-Species Tournament.  This allows you to fish for Striped Bass, Fluke or even a Sea Robin!  If you are really good, you can get 5 Tickets and qualify for the draw in each category or, you can pick your favorite species to target, focus there and load up on tickets on that one specific species.  Plus, who has gone Fluke fishing and never caught a Sea Robin.  Now, these pesky bottom dwellers can pay big bucks, from $1000 to over $3000!

So come join us. Have some fun and participate in the 2018 AllPro “Let It Go” Multi-Species Fishing Tournament.  Make sure to bring the camera, because I’ve got a feeling there are going to be many opportunities to capture a wonderful memory.