Welcome to The History, Evolution,
and Significance of The Gatherings

As I sit and reflect upon the get togethers we on the TTMB enjoy nearly every month known as "gatherings", it seems to me that it is a natural occurrence and was really bound to happen sooner or later. We are not a nation wide group, we are strictly Texas and about 80% or so live very near the gulf coast somewhere up or down the cost. Those of us that are land locked don't find it much of a chore to come down for these fun filled events. We have them in a different location each time, somewhere along the Texas coast.

     As was mentioned in the article about the TTMB this all started out as a spur of the moment thing. One of our members was planning a fishing trip and on a whim he posted up the details of the when and where and invited interested parties to join him. A handful of stalwart fishermen and members of the TTMB showed up and they had a great time. This was a very primitive version of the gatherings as we know them today. They fished and after the fishing they took a few pictures, hoisted a few cold ones and called it a day.

     The seed was now planted. Another member came up with the idea of doing it again, this time with a few refinements. We started having the grab bags and door prizes and prizes for fish about that time, still, every one brought their own snacks and drinks.

     It should come as no surprise to any one that another member volunteered to sponsor a gathering the following month and now we see the added feature of food being served emerge as a regular feature. Also the TTMB members started to bring their families.

     With the passing of time and as we gained experience in having these gatherings we became aware of little things we could do to improve them and make them more enjoyable for every one. Now we have pretty well perfected them and every one pitches in and contributes to the effort.

     We may bring food, door prizes, etc, and every one brings a couple of grab bag items. These grab bag items are bagged individual baggies and all placed in a larger container. At some point near the end of the day every one gets to draw out a grab bag item until they are all gone. These items are usually inexpensive things such as lures, terminal tackle, line or most any item used in fishing. It's not meant for any one to have to spend a lot of money...it's meant to provide fun.

     You ask any TTMBer and they will quickly tell you that these gatherings are essential to our group. It gives us the opportunity to meet and fish together and get to know one another. People communicate on the internet and get to know a little bit about each other. This is all well and good. But when you have the opportunity to actually meet people, perhaps meet their family, that is where the friendships take on a quality of reality and go way beyond the "virtual" friendships that you originally had. Some wonderful and life long friendships have been formed within our group. The better you get to know people the closer the friendship and the stronger the bond between friends can be. For most of us, that is THE attraction to being a part of this great bunch of folks. If you try it, you'll like it, I swear!

by Jack Moncrief, aka Walking Jack