CLUB LINKS
Home Page
Tournament Calendar
Tournament Rules
Join MSJBC
MSJC Forum
Contact Us

L&M CUSTOM CABINETS
5678 HWY 70
Memphis, TN
901-3729702

HAMMER RODS
901-861-1089

MSJBC President
Chris Morlok
Phone: (901) 604-6274
eMail: kidsbassin@yahoo.com

"I put on youth fishing tournaments"

The people who are closest to me are used to hearing the “I put on youth fishing tournaments” speech. Rehearsed and repeated countless times at sports stores and boat ramps all over the mid-south. Those same people have voiced their annoyance at having to listen to a four minute voicemail greeting when they only wanted to leave a 10 second message. I am guilty as charged, and that is okay. Because promotion is, as it turns out, what I have become. The promotion of the Mid-South Junior Bass Club is what has brought us together, and is what I hope will convince you and your business to support our organization. I am getting ahead of myself though, so allow me to fill you in on who I am, and about our clubs history.

My name is Chris Morlok, 37 year old father of two sons, Nathan Hunter and Nolan Fisher. My wife Angela and I have been together for 15 years. I am a short haul truck driver for Bridgestone Firestone. I started fishing adult bass tournaments with my father in 1992. The club my father and I fished is the Memphis Bass Club. I never was a consistant winner but I feel in love with the community of being in a club. The personalities, the wild stories (truthful or not) and the constant joking about became a very important part of my life. As time passed my kids grew older and more of my fishing trips were with my family and not with my adult friends. My oldest son Nathan seemed to show an unusual talent for bass fishing at an early age. It was after our first charity tournament together as a father and son team that the idea of a Father/Son tournament series was born. Early on I discovered that liability was going to be a major issue with starting an adult/youth tournament series. I learned through various contacts that I was not going to be able to have a club without insurance to protect our sponsors and participants. I am hard headed by nature, so instead of forming a club the first year, I organized five “fruit jar” adult/youth tournaments. It was during this time I was introduced to Joe Sills of the MidSouth Hunting and Fishing News. Joe also headed up a youth bass club that is affiliated with BASS Federation Nation. Joe was instrumental in helping me avoid mistakes in planning and forming the MidSouth Junior Bass Club. I feel I owe alot of my success to him for his firendship and council - Thanks Joe.

Year two the MSJBC became a BASS Federation Youth Club and grew to 19 father/son teams. We held eight tournaments and gave all youth participants monogramed fishing shirts. We gained our first primary sponsor BASS PRO SHOPS, and participated in the Tennessee BASS Federation Youth Championship where our club swept first second and third in the 11-13 age division. As reigning 2007 State Champion Lane Kemper won a trip to Syracuse, New York for his whole family where he competed for a national title.

Year three for us has proved to be better still. The MSJBC switched to the FLW/TBF Mississippi Federation, after a procedure change within BASS left us with no other option. We started off the year attending boat shows to raise money for St. Jude Childrens Hospital. Our club members raised $3,600 for the kids at St. Jude in just 5 months. The check was presented to the St. Jude Bass Classic directors on Memorial Day weekend at Sardis lake. We held eight tournaments again this year. Membership this year has grown to 26 paid adult youth teams. In May the MSJBC youth traveled to Kemper County Lake near Meridian to compete for the FLW/TBF Mississippi State Championship. Garrett Riles, 12, of Potts Camp, MS won the 11-13 age division title, earning his whole family a trip to the Forrest L Wood Cup, held on Lake Murray in South Carolina. Garrett finished third in his division and seventh overall.

For the 2008 season our club has averaged 18 teams per tournament up seven from 2007, and eleven from the first year in 2006. It has taken a lot of work to build this organization to where it is today. I believe it is a job that has to be done for the future of our sport to survive, so we can pass on the tradition of first light fishing to our kids. Building a respect for our nature resources and memories to last a life time. I hope you feel the same way as you look through this publication and think about your decision to support our club. Thanks for your time

- I’ll see you on the lake.
Chris Morlok