So has anyone signed up for the tourney @ Berryessa yet? Also I copied the Official Tourney Rules, you might want to check them out.

Official Tournament Rules
General Tournament Rules

The 2001 Float & Kick Bass Championship will be a multi tournament, individual points series. Open to all floattube & kickboat fishermen with a valid California fishing license. The licence must have it displayed as required by law. All California DFG and lake regulations must be adhered to. Violations may result in disqualification. Anglers under the age of 18 must have signed parental consent.

1. All tournament fees are non-refundable.

2. The use of alcohol during tournament fishing hours is prohibited. Tournament fishing hours shall be 1 hour prior to kick-out until 1/2 hour after weigh-in on fishing days (sat. & sun. for 2 day tournaments)

3. The use of any non-medical drugs or controlled substance during the "Official Tournament" is prohibited. "Official Tournament" shall be the hours from 6PM Friday evening until the Tournament Director declares the tournament over on Sunday evening. Violation of this rule will result in disqualification.

4. You must be present at the official check-in time to fish. Those fishermen arriving late for the check-in meeting time will be assessed a penalty of 0.5 lb and must announce their presence in the tournament (“check-in”) to a Tournament official prior to commencement of fishing. Penalty will be assessed to the angler’s overall weight. Failure by latecomers to check-in will result in disqualification.

5. Participants must stay within 50 feet of the launch site until the official ‘kick-out’ is signaled. No fishing is allowed until the official ‘kick-out’ is signaled.

6. All tournament fishing must be conducted from a float tube or kick boat (“craft”). Anglers may not fish outside of their craft for any reason. Anglers must be floating in their crafts while fishing. All crafts must be man-powered (no motors) oars are allowed. No kayaks, canoes, johnboats or aluminum-hulled boats allowed.

7. Maximum kickboat length is 10 feet.

8. All tubes & kickboats must have a livewell – All bass shall be kept in a livewell. Livewells must meet or exceed the following dimensions: 19-inch diameter, 30-inch height. Homemade livewells must be pre-approved by the Tournament Official. no stringers allowed.

9. The Float & Kick Bass Championship series is an artificial lure, catch & release tournament series. No live bait or cut bait is allowed. (Oils, pastes and other scents will be allowed)

10. Contestants will fish with only one fishing rod at a time. No multiple rod fishing allowed. Contestants will not come into contact with any other boats (except Official Tournament Boat) for any reason other than extreme emergencies.

11. Anglers may portage their float tubes through the use of automobiles, trucks, etc. However, while on the water, they may travel only by the individual’s fin or oar power or by naturally occurring currents or wind. Anglers may not accept assistance from boats or other anglers to move about the body of water. Violation of this rule will result in disqualification


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Tournament Weigh-in & Measurement Rules

Weigh-in and measurements will be performed by the Tournament Director, the tournament statistition and a neutrial observer (tournament committee). All protests of these results must be submitted in writting within 30 minutes of weigh-in. All protest will be reviewed by the tournament committee. In the event that an interpretation of the rules is necessary, the tournament director may, at his discretion, take a vote of the tournament members. The decisions of the Tournament Director are final

1. Fish must be largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass with a minimum size length of 13-inch – measured with open mouth, swing tail, on a ‘Wil-E-Go’ board. Attempting to weigh-in undersized fish will result in loss of individual fish and a 0.5 lb. penalty per undersized fish

2. No angler may have in his or her possession more than 5 fish at any one time unless in the process of actively culling a limit, and no culling of fish is allowed within 50 feet of the weigh-in site. All culling must be finalized prior to weigh-in time as declared at kick-out.

3. A penalty of 0.2 lb per dead fish will be assessed regardless of the size of the fish

4. All live bass must be released during tournaments with the exception of trophy fish of ten pounds or better kept for mounting purposes.

5. Anglers must be within one cast (approximately 30 feet) of the weigh-in site by the official weigh-in time.

6. Late weigh-ins will be penalized as follows: 0.5 lb penalty for every 10 minutes late, up to 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the angler will be disqualified. No fishing by any participant will be allowed after the stated official weigh-in time. Any violations may result in disqualification.

7. All penalties will be assessed first to the largest fish in the angler’s possession and will follow in sequence as necessary to the smallest fish until the entire penalty is assessed or the angler is penalized to an overall weight of 0 (zero) lbs.

Hello,

I've got a question about rule number 8. Most of the people with kickboats have live wells that sit out of the water and are typically not cylinders. So that we can have a reasonable chance of having our live wells approved can you provide information about rectangular dimensions and/or volume that will be acceptable? Also I assume that the livewells you discuss are mesh and sit in the water. What kind of circulation system is likely to be acceptable? I'd sure hate to get there and find out my livewell wasn't good enough.

Thanks,

Clint Ryle
clint.ryle@nokia.com

What's up with this "30-inch height" business? That ain't gonna work for ANY of us!

If I did my math correct the volume of the livewell they want is 8505 square inches. Now if you multiply the length x width x height of a rectangular tank you will come up with the square inches. So if mine is 22 x 17 x 15 =5610 square inches. I think I am a bit shy of their requirement. I will do some more research and let everyone know what I find out.


FIT

Yo,

Way back when, Sir Dink asked me what the rules for the tournies should be - he wanted them to be the same as the ones we use for the Invitational. I told him that they are basically our rules with some exceptions, e.g., allowing oars. However, I didn't go into all the details. The livewells Bass-n-Tubes have been using are great. We set up the minimum livewell size rule to try to minimize fish mortality. Lots of our folks use the giant fish baskets available thru Bass Pro Shops, while others have used the Follow-Me nylon mesh baskets or made their own contraptions. The main thing is you don't want someone stuffing a bunch of fish into a tiny livewell & having them all die.

As far as the other rules are concerned - I'd guess Sir Dink would be happy to compromise & alter the rules as necessary if there are some your club doesn't like. Just get in touch with him & let him know of any changes you'd like to see.

I understand that the goal is to prevent killing fish which we all support. That rule was pretty specific however and I wanted to make sure that I stood a reasonable chance of my livewell being accepted if I was going to drive all the way up there.

Clint

hey i thought at the january meeting, we agreed that rule #6 we would permit canoes, kayaks, johnboats, and aluminum boats that did not exceed ( rule #7) 10 feet were allowed in the tournaments?!

not that i'm going to bring a kayak to a tournament... but was i at the wrong meeting? but then again the club wouldn't be called a "bass n tubes", yeh?! "bass n float", or "bass n less than 10 feet float". hahaha... interesting

steve

Bass-N-Tubes said we would allow other types of crafts, but since the Berryessa tourney is put on by Floattuber.com we have to follow there rules.

FIT

Guys, I think it is a good set of rules! Tubes and Kickboats Only. A kayak has a very big advantage on an open lake tournament.

I have addressed the Livewell issue in another post.

I want everyone to be happy but we have to have some guidelines. I want as many fishermen to attend the events as possible and as many fish to survive the ordeal as well.

If you are planning on attending Please Register on Floattuber.com

Sir Dink

I plan to fish it. See you there.

Chris

Hey FIT,
I'll bring your chair to Berryessa. It's still comfortably resting in my closet.

Chris

Thanks Chris, I appreciate you taking such good care of it for me.


FIT