Tournament Question

[Joe Cool]

Obviously you could check this during prefishing to eliminate the problem, but...

Would this be a violation of the "You can't get out of the boat to better your position," rule?

You come up on a sandbar, and you can't see it well enough to know if you can skip over it or not. Stained water, low light, glare, etc. You pull your boat up on the sandbar and walk across it to see where and how soon it drops off. You find a section where the shallow section is narrow enough that you know you could easily skip over the bar before grounding out and being stuck. You get back in your boat, run far enough back to get up to full speed and then proceed to skip over that sandbar at WOT and proceed on your way.

I know you can't get out of the boat in most tournaments to land a fish, go fishing, or drag your boat over a sandbar to get into a water or area, but in this case you are driving your boat (in an area where the speed is legal) over the sandbar. In fact you might even argue that you are taking prudent safety precautions before doing so.

[RocketShip]

That would probably really be up to the tournament director. Most of the time, the rules say that you can't get out of your boat to better your position. You can, however, get out of your boat for many other reasons like to cool down or to heed the call of nature, as long as you or your partner don't fish at all while anyone is out of the boat. In this case, I would have no issue with an angler getting out of his boat to see if the water was deep enough to drive it across because while he was out of the boat he would not actually be bettering his position. I have never read a rule that says you can't get out of your boat to see if you can safely traverse a given area.

[Greg G]

I would agree with Rocketship in that it would be the tournament director's call. However, I think I would interpret that it would be a violation of most tournament rules to get out of the boat to check if the water is deep enough to pass through. The rules usually say that an angler can not leave the boat to improve their fishing position. In this case, that is exactly what you would be doing. It's a not a valid argument in my opinion to say it's okay to do so just because you wanted to be safe. If you can't cross over a section without getting out of the boat to make sure it's safe, then that means you are getting out of the boat in order to improve your fishing position. That said, I can see both sides of this argument.

[Bob La Londe]

As a tournament director I would have to say that is a really tough call. The thing is I doubt either of you guys would have an issue with them just blasting over the sandbar. The problem is if they do not make it it could be a real health and safety issue depending on how abruptly they came to a stop. Ever seen a body go flying through the air? Ever done it? I have. Both. (not from boating)

The other thing to remember is that nobody is obligated to stop and help you pull your boat off a sandbar. If you are in imminent danger of life or limb (not property) they are required to stop and render aid until the emergency is over or somebody better qualified comes along, but just being stuck on a sand bar is not an imminent danger to life and limb.

My opinion is that it just is not worth the risk for a few hundred dollars in a local club torunament, and a pro should have checked his path during pre-fishing. If I received a protest signed and in writing with convicition and a convincing arguement I would probably (just barely) rule that its a rules violation. If I received no formal protest I would do nothing about it.

[saltcraw]

I couldn't care less if somebody did that or pushed their boat across a sand bar to get to some good water.Some guys are too nitpicky about every little thing in these fun little local tournaments.

[yumabasser]

As a former tournament director I would have to say that it was legal. You did not get out of your boat to better your position but to see if you couls safely jump the sand bar. I have done this in the past and had no problem.

Salt; If we didn't have rules, everyone would cheat. I know you have rules that you believe in. What if all the snowbirds kept everything they caught in the river ? Is that a rule you care about? All rules seem silly to someone buy without rules, we are done.

[saltcraw]

Dave, I agree with you for the most part. Rules are rules, are there for a reason, and usually no fun for the guy who gets to enforce them and make that call.

But I've seen and heard of a few things that have happened that were just too nitpicky and really beyond the spirit of the rule. An example is having to worry about whether some guy is going to make an issue of you getting out of your boat to check the depth of water at a sand bar. Another one would be a situation in which I'm idling across some skinny water to get to a fishing hole and get stuck. I shouldn't have to worry about some nit-picker making an issue of it after I've had to get out and push my boat off.

Some of these guys think they are Kevin Vandam and these little local tournaments are the Classic.

It's just my opinion and really doesn't matter anyway.

[yumabasser]

I agree with you Salt. I have had to disquifly frends because of rules that can get nit-picky.