Need your thoughts on the rules for 2013.

[Ron Fogelson]

Here are the rules from 2012, can anyone think of anything that might need to be changed?

I'm good with them as they are but I'd like to see if anyone has thoughts to improve them.



This is a team club.  Members who fished in years past in good standing are welcome as time permits. New teams joining should do so at our Open Event 28 Jan 2012 as a full member, if a new team wants to join after the Jan event they will fish for big bass only and will be required to pay dues and only big bass fee.  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 responsibility 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 courtesy.  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!


Some suggestions so far are below.

Looked like 3 and 4 were liked the best in the other thread, & I also liked 4,,,,,,, any other thoughts on this? 

I'd like to suggest maybe changing the championship a bit.

A few ideas are

1. Leave as is - Double entry fees & winner takes all along with all the membership dues not used over the season; Big bass is still paid out as normal.

2. No entree fee winner takes all of the membership dues with a deduction from the membership fees to cover big bass.

3. Normal entree fee for the championship paid out like we always do based on number of teams showing up.  Big bass paid out as we always do and add remaining membership dues to the winning team.

4.  Normal entree fee for the championship paid out like we always do based on number of teams that show. Big bass paid out as normal and pay remaining membership fees to the AOY with points added from championship, whoever has the most points is AOY and gets the membership dues.

5. Open to any suggestions

What do you all think?

As I understood it when the club was started there was no size limit other than slots as needed so folks had the best chance to bring fish to the scales.  If the club would like to move to a 12 inch min I'm good with that but we need to hear from the club members to keep it as is are make the change.

Also I would like to add a 12" minimum on fish. Just my .02

I've gotten a few PM's about this topic over the last year from people on both sides of this rule.  Some like it because we are a club and this helps ensure those that fish with us are doing so because they want to be part of the club.  Others don't like the rule as it is because it keeps them from fishing for the whole pot I guess or it stops them from fishing with us because they couldn't make the 1st event of the year, I guess.  I'm not sure I understand why they don't like the rule but I do think as much as it's been talked about over the last few years here in Broke Sticks and TCTC there are things I'm missing.  I'd like to hear what the club has to say on all the rules and once we get a few things nailed down we can put each item to a vote. 

Just thought of another idea (sorry they come slow to me). I think we could change the way we allow new members in if they fail to fish the first tournament.  I understand why we did it that way and I agree on trying to keep people from busting in on their home lake.  Maybe we could charge a penalty to join after the first tournament. Again just my .02

Please take the time to read over the rules and post if you like them as they are or if you have suggestions or have any thoughts you would like to be thought of before we post the 2013 rules.

Thanks for all the help folks!
Fogy