Rules for 2012

[Ron Fogelson]

Here are the rules for 2011, can anyone think of anything that might need to be changed?
I'm good with them as they are but as a club I just want to give anyone a chance to offer improvements.

This is a team club.  At the time you join, you will declare a team.  If one member is unable to make a tournament, you may bring a non-member guest.  Aside from your partner or guest, brining family (especially a son or daughter) will be permitted, so long as you accept full responsibilty for their safety and well-being.  (It will be ok for that child to fish, so long as their fish are not added to the team weight)  There is a $10 per team yearly entry fee.  Tournaments will be $25 plus a $5 big bass pot.  The number of places will depend on the number of teams.  1 - 5 teams = 1 place, 6 -15 teams = 2 places (70/30), 16+ teams = 3 places (60/25/15).  Fees for the championship are $50 per team plus $10 big bass.  To make the championship special, winner will take all!

All teams are expected to follow safe navigation practices and angler courtsey.  This should include, but is not limited to the "rules of the road" (http://www.wlf.la.gov/boating/rules-road-vessels) and all Federal, State and local laws including use of navigation lights, life jackets and creel limits.  On Caddo, slot will be 14 - 18.  We strongly encourage everyone to use a life jacket when the big motor is in gear.  No trolling while the big motor is in gear.  The honor code applies.

We will post take off and weigh times before each tournament.  For trailering events, you can leave only once the take off has begun.  There will be a 1/2 lb penalty per minute after the weigh-in period has expired, and a DQ will be issued after 15 minutes.  There will be a dead fish penalty of 1 lb per fish.  No culling dead fish.  You kill it, you weight it and face the penalty.  For any lake that has multiple slot limits, we will use the higher slot number.  The tournaments are based on a five fish limit.  However, teams will be permitted to have possession of more than 5 fish (up to legal creel limit), so long as only 5 are weighed.  While we encourage catch and release for larger fish, there is no requirement to return "good eating" sized fish.

The team with the most weight per tournament will be awarded 50 points, and each team weighing fish will recieve one less by rank.  Any team not weighing a fish will receive 10 points less than the lowest team weighing.  There are seven regular tournaments and a championship.  The total points accumulated during the season are only for qualification in to the championship.  There are three ways to qualify for the championship:  Win one of the regular season tournaments, have a total of 200 points for the year, or fish 4 of the 7 regular season events.

The last and most important rule:  Have fun!

[skeeter170]

sounds great....thanks for doing this!!

[Lawguy513]

Ron, these rules work pretty well, and are not hard to enforce.  One possible addition would be a minimum size of 12 inches.  Otherwise, you should have a good time with these rules. 

[Lawguy513]

One other thought... as much as you want to encourage people to join throughout the year, it was a peeve of mine to have people show up for one lake when they were a ringer, win, and then never fish with us again.  It isn't fair to the club members.  There needs to be some kind of rule to prevent that. 

[soonerbass]

Is there a 2012 schedule out yet? 

[Ron Fogelson]

One other thought... as much as you want to encourage people to join throughout the year, it was a peeve of mine to have people show up for one lake when they were a ringer, win, and then never fish with us again.  It isn't fair to the club members.  There needs to be some kind of rule to prevent that.

Good info LawGuy, I've updated the rules for 2012 with this in mind everything else is the same.

[Lawguy513]

really like the revisions... good job