Shawn, I guess that’s really my point is that there is a lot of gray area and there is no consistency from month to month. The rules state scales open 30 minutes after lines out. The rules DO NOT say a competitor has to be at the scales when they open. The rules also DO NOT define when the Tournament Directors are to make the last call and close the scales. In my opinion a Check-In time eliminates that. It says if you are not at the scales by a certain time then you do not get to weigh your fish. That would even apply to Tournament Directors if they were late.
Y’all don’t get me wrong here. I was that day but I am not pissed anymore about how things happened. For me the club tournament was a pre-fishing opportunity for this weeks SBCC Tournament. With those there is a lines out and a check in time. Usually the check-in time is an hour after lines out. That allows plenty of time from anywhere on the lake to reach the weigh in. There is a lot of gray area now and the rules could be tweaked to fix that.
I would encourage y’all to consider fishing the SBCC Tournament this weekend since we all know where the big fish are. The only way we are going to get a good tournament trail and have tournaments like the Hooter’s Tournament is to have participation. The more people that show up the more sponsors will start to take notice and the bigger and better the Tournaments will be. We can’t have the payouts without participation.
Enough said… Tournament directors please discuss and try to relieve the grey areas a little? All make good points but I agree if i get tied up getting out of a landing, I would like to know for certain that I can or cannot rush on down and still have a chance to weigh, even if my phone is dead? That said, there is a big difference in someone coming in 5-10 minutes after scales open on a lake as long as CH, verses someone being 20 minutes out and making people wait. This probably should be discussed by the directors and PAC committee, clarified at a meeting, and then rules posted. This should keep the frustration down and retain the joy of fishing in our club tourneys. Very large pots and extreme competition is probably not what our club needs as a whole based on our goals as a family fun club. Coming in second helped out on a little gas this trip but there is nothing cheap about this sport…
I guess I"ll weighin on this one although it;S a tad late.LOL LOL. Just an idea but how bout closing the scales 30 minutes after the first fish is weighed unless there are more fish to weigh that would take more then one half hour. if there aren"t enough fish to fill the time limit then call last call and close the weighin.ithink cell phones should be valid alot of us knew Bryan had that 24lber at 8am sat morn . Just my 2 cents. we had a weighin at the hill when only 3 fish were weighed. Took 5 minutes… Good luck to all going to the hill for the sbcc tx this weekend. Don:t forget the Lakeworld Tx June 2nd and the DNR on June 16th .
This is not the first time someone has missed the weigh in and complained about the rules. Maybe it won’t be the last. But, in defense of our Tournament Directors, who have done an outstanding job, I don’t believe there is any gray area at all, and there has been absolute consistency month to month. We’ve had this issue come up more than once. The PAC committee and officers have already discussed the application of the rules on multiple occassions. I believe these rules have been consistently applied and fairly enforced for everyone. Every month, weigh in starts 30 minutes after lines out. All the fish are weighed, and last call is issued three times. I don’t think the rules could possibly be any clearer, or consistently applied. If anyone wants to make sure your fish are weighed, plan your fishing day to be at the weigh in when the scales open. You have a built in “grace period” of the length of time it takes to weigh the fish. That might be 10 minutes, might be 45 minutes, depending on how many boats fish. I believe “call ins” are unfair as well. As was stated above, many people quit fishing well in advance of quitting time just to make sure they made the weigh in. How would allowing someone to weigh in that had perhaps pushed the limit on travel time be fair to those that quit extra early to make sure they made the time limit? When you start bending or making exceptions to rules, you are asking for more trouble. I’m no Tournament Director, but if I was, I would have no trouble arguing that I followed the rules to the letter. I would have a problem explaining how I had made an exception or modified the rules on the fly. I don’t believe the SBCC allows a late weigh-in, or a phone call check-in for the very same reasons. If you follow the rules, maybe one person is mad. If you don’t go by the rules, everybody is mad.
