Procrafter, a good synopsis of the rules, but you left out a few things:
- If the mortality rate exceeds 10% of the total fish caught, the tournament is over.
- The banners are to identify tournament anglers. In Washington, once you have a limit in your boat, your done fishing UNLESS you're in a tournament (so you can cull). The banner helps game wardens determine who is in violation.
- Under no circumstances may boats be pulled out of the water if fish are in the livewells. It is considered illegal transportation of fish and you'll be cited! This means you can't trailer you boat until after the weigh in and the fish are released.
- All fish must be released after weigh in.
- No body of water may host tournaments more than 2 weekends per month. However, per the boat limit restriction above, you could concievably have multiple tournaments for the same species at the same time, provided they don't exceed the total boat limit restriction.
- Procrafter: Isn't there a rule regarding insurance, or is that just something all the tournament organizations implement on their own?
- Procrafter, keep me honest here: The state identifies a "contest" as 6 or more people fishing where a prize is awarded (a "prize" could be anything, even a rock). So that even means a friendly wager amongst 6 friends is considered a "contest", and is subject to fines/penalties if you don't have a permit.
Keep in mind this is the northern climate, where warm water species are not as prolific as they are in the south. So I don't think the fisheries could support daily tournaments like you see in the south.
Oh, and who's Ranger is that in the background of your pic? :
