Walpole Team Challenge Rules

[Bear]

I'm posting these up for comment\review. Please note that many of the changes made here will flow through to the AOY and BE rules for 2008. We hope this covers some conerns anglers have had with the current rules.

Thanks,

Current Team Challenge Rules

Pre Entry Requirements

Any team member who is in control of the boat at any time MUST have their RST as per new DPI rules.

Entries to the tournaments will be filed in order of receipt of correctly completed entry forms and payment. Start order will be completed as each team pays. These entries will be entered and are guaranteed entry until 50 Boaters register.

Entries for all events will close last mail on the Friday one week before the tournament start. No late entries will be accepted unless approved by WABT and entry is only confirmed once payment and entry form has been received. As they are completed the list of entries will be updated on the BreamMaster.com website in the

WABT Tournament Forums.

Entry Fees for all Teams, GST inclusive: $200

At least one person in each team must be 16 years of age during the calendar year or older to enter. The other team member must be at least 14 at the time of the event.

Boat Specs

All boats must be at least 3.7 metres in length and have sufficient horsepower for the boat to get up on the plane with two people and a livewell full of water.

WABT officials may ask any entrant to verify their boats ability. Failure to do so will mean ineligibility to enter tournaments.

Any boat capable of 70km\h or quicker must have sufficient face protection for both boater and non-boater. This is to be provided by the boater. Failure to supply the correct equipment will mean a non start.

All boats must have a minimum 60 litres of live well. WABT recommends using a recirculating system installed and
functioning. However, a fully insulated and aerated live well will be acceptable. No ally bins, garbage bins or plastic tubs will be accepted. Where a boat has 2 live wells, then a minimum of 50l will be acceptable. Marking of bream with elastic bands or clipping of tails will not be permitted in WABT tournaments.

Boaters and Non-Boater must wear a personal floating device (PFD) at the start, when the boat is up and planing and back to the finish. Non-Boater must supply their own personal floatation device (PFD) for use in competitions. WABT recommends the use of PFD1 rating, but will allow any Australian Standard approved PFD.

All boats must be insured. All Boaters must ensure a WABT Official has received a copy of their current boat insurance policy before competing. You will not be permitted entry to the tournament
unless this insurance policy has been shown. WABT reserves the right to disallow unsafe boats (for either anglers or fish) to compete.

Briefing

A briefing is held before each tournament. If for some reason you cannot attend this briefing please contact the tournament director well before the tournament weekend.


The Draw

Will be the order for which the team entered fully (entry form and full payment) for day one. Day 2 draw will be reverse order.

Starts

Each day will start with a rolling start where boats file past the start area or start boat. Prior to the start, a WABT Official will inspect each boat to have their livewell checked, safety gear checked and kill switch safety lanyard checked before being released to start fishing. ALL boats must be at the mustering area at least half an hour before the start so that boats and live wells can be inspected. Boats that start in an incorrect order will be penalised 500 grams per angler.

Boats missing their call-up must wait until all boats have left to be started by WABT Officials.
Under no circumstances is fishing allowed before the start.

Day 1

At the briefing Teams will have 'No Wake Zones' pointed out as well as a brief discussion on conditions and a brief run down to tournament rules.

Day 2

Teams are asked to remain at the weigh-in location until after presentations for the Event are made.

Check In's
Boats that are not back within the buoy-defined area by the allotted weigh-in time will be penalised at the rate of 50 grams per minute per angler. If a boat returns later than 15 minutes after weigh-in time both anglers will be penalised 750 grams and all fish caught will not be weighed. There will be no exceptions to

this rule regardless of circumstance.

Boats can return to the weigh-in earlier than the allotted time, however, that's all the anglers in that craft can fish for the day. Once you check in you are not permitted to remove your bream from your livewell under any circumstances until you are instructed to do so by a WABT Official.

Fishing Rules

Pre-Fishing

There will be a twelve day pre-fishing ban for all competition waterways and linked systems. The pre-fish ban will start from dawn on the Monday two weeks prior to the competition until the start of the tournament.

This means that the pre-fish ban extends only over one weekend. This also means that there is no fishing allowed of the Friday before the tournament. You are permitted to put your boat in and go looking, but the rule will be no rods on boats on the Friday. Rods and tackle are not permitted on the boat during this day if

you are on the water. This is an all waters pre-fishing ban. This means you are not allowed out on any boat even if you are not fishing. You are not allowed to fish for other species of fish within any of the waters that are open to fishing during the tournament. If, for some reason, you need to launch your boat for servicing

or repair tests during the pre-fish ban, contact WABT for approved locations.

You are not allowed to pay someone or receive money from someone for information about a system.

Speed Limits

Any speed restrictions, non-boating or non-fishing areas must be adhered to, unless advised otherwise at the briefing. Failure to do so will result in disqualification.

Tournament Fishing

Anglers must fish within the current Fisheries guidelines, and must be in possession of the necessary permits or licenses as demanded by the waterway in the area being fished. Anglers should bring these with them to the tournament briefings.

Anglers may fish any line class with spin, baitcast, spincast or fly fishing tackle with artificial lures only. Anglers are not permitted to fish with any bait.

That means no material that is either living or dead.

Anglers are allowed to use any commercially available fishing scent.

Berley is not permitted.

Lure and fly CASTING only is permitted. Trolling is not permitted. Trolling is defined as using the momentum of the boat to give the lure action. Casting along a stretch of bank under electric power is fine, as is using your electric motor to keep position. Don't, however, leave your lines in the water when changing positions. WABT Officials reserves the right to disqualify anglers deemed to be purposely trolling in defiance of the spirit of WABT events.
Fishing is NOT permitted within any defined non-boating or non-fishing areas. Also, if asked to leave a private marina or oyster lease, you must do so.

Anglers may only use one rod at a time while fishing all WABT events, including such cases as when a lure is snagged, but still attached to the rod, anglers can not pick up another rod and begin casting as this would constitute using two rods.

All pairs of anglers are to stay with each other at all times, to ensure safety and to validate co-anglers catches. Additionally, anglers are not permitted to fish from outside their fishing vessels at any time during sessions, including fighting and landing fish. If a Boater, his Non-Boater and their fish become
separated at any time both their catches for that day will be forfeited. WABT reserves the right to place camerapersons on boats at any time.

In the case of physical or medical emergencies, WABT officials will judge the acceptability of catches.

[Bear]

Team Penalties

Where the WABT committee deems appropriate, teams may be penalised weight off their bags where event rules are broken. This may be for things such as a failure to

provide correct face protection.

First offence is 250g.
Second offence is 500g
Third offence is disqualification.

Offences are carried through the season and are accumulated.

Fish

Only live bream are eligible for tournament points. Fish must be caught during the designated times and kept alive in an approved livewell. No more than four bream per angler are allowed to be kept at any one time. If you already have four fish and catch another, immediately release a fish. Anglers caught with more than the WABT bag limit will be immediately disqualified and WABT Officials reserve the right to check boats livewells for excess bream during competition hours.

Etiquette

During fishing sessions, no mobile phones or radios should be turned on or used, except in an emergency.

Boats should remain at least 2 casts apart (60 metres) while fishing. If a boat is already fishing in a spot then that angler has the right of way. If you wish to start fishing near them you should start fishing at least 100m apart and behind the angler's drift. Boats may NOT pull in front of another boat in a straight stretch. Boats may move around the next bend to start as long as they are no closer than 200m. If at anytime a boat with the right of way can cast to your boat you are too close.

WABT sportsmanship would dictate that care of fellow competitors is of utmost importance. If an angler or boat is in distress it is expected that other competitors will assist. Anglers should check in with WABT Officials after every session to allow officials to ensure they have returned safely.

WABT will encourage Fisheries and Boating Officers to attend all WABT tournaments to police safety regulations, registration, relevant boating legislation as well as alcohol and drug laws.
It is also encouraged by WABT, that anglers meet prior to the start time to organise pickup and meet times for competition days.

Points Scoring

Each angler may bring in four bream per session to the weigh-in.
Anglers are requested to retrieve their boats and trailer them to the defined weigh-in area adjacent to the WABT weigh-in area, or to proceed to the on-water weigh-in site. Bream will be weighed in order of arrival.

Bream must be 26cm, at least, to the tip of the tail to qualify for weighing.

Bream will be weighed collectively with "Big Bream" candidates weighed individually. Note that it is the angler's responsibility to identify a potential big bream to the weigh master.

Dead fish, as deemed by WABT Officials, will not score points.
Any angler found guilty of breaking any of the above rules may face disqualification from the tournament. Please note, depending on the severity of the rule broken the Tournament Committee reserves the right to take further action as deemed necessary.

Press

All anglers must make themselves available for all pre and post-tournament interviews. Any anglers finishing in the top ten will have their sponsor's logo in the next issue of The Western Australian Fishing Magazine. Sponsored anglers are required to supply these logos on a CD to the tournament director. If you are a sponsored angler it is recommended that you do this before the first round so they can be held on file.

WABT BREAM Team of the Year Award

The WABT Team of the Year (TOY) is rewarded to the Team with the most points after the qualifying rounds. They will also be rewarded by recognition on the perennial trophy.

It rewards the Team who is the most consistent highly placed throughout the rounds, with points per round allocated according to placing. The first placed Team at each round in each division receives 100 points, and each place below that receives one less point until 100 positions are filled.

1st 100
2nd 99
3rd 98
4th 97
5th 96
....and so on.

Teams do not need to catch a fish to receive TOY points, however, they do need to fish both days in an event to score. This rewards teams who have made the effort to attend and fish events to the best of their ability. Note that a negative score through penalties received will impact on TOY points.

Teams that change members from one event to them next will be considered a NEW team and will not be eligable to add team points from previous events.

Teams catching no fish for a tournament will incur a 10 TOY point penalty to reward anglers who have landed a fish during a tournament.

Teams with zero points will score equal WABT TOY points.
Anglers completing a tournament with negative points will be placed below anglers scoring zero points in TOY calculations.

Ties

All ties will be settled by count back.

For the TOY result the Team with the highest placing overall in the rounds will gain the higher place.

For an TOY round result the team with the largest bag first and subsequent largest bag will gain the higher place.

[Bear]

Please also note that the TOY will be introduced as of 2009.

Thanks,

[Lone Ranger]

Originally posted by Bear
-in site. Bream will be weighed in order of arrival.

Bream will be weighed collectively with "Big Bream" candidates weighed individually. Note that it is the angler's responsibility to identify a potential big bream to the weigh master.

Sorry but I've only fished 2 comps as a boater and can't remember much. How does WABT keep track of bream to be weighted in order of arrival? All I seem to remember is a search for tubs. In addition, I think it's a great idea as those that refuse to weight their fish till last is not being fair to possible big bream candidates in my opinion.

[Dave Press]

WABT reserves the right to place camerapersons on boats and swap Non-Boater positions at anytime to accommodate this need

This worries me if it is applied in a Team event, but as you said the rules are also for other events so common sense should prevail there.

Dave

[Bear]

Sorry Dave, I missed that bit. I'll update it.

Ta,

Carol, it means people we'll wiegh them as people bring up their tubs. As we have available helpers handing out tubs becomes a lot easier as it has been in the last few events with Warren on hand. We do ask at each event that people who need to weigh fish wait at the marquee and grab tubs as they become available.

HTH.

[brad mcdonald]

i think i get the idea of the distances we have to keep apart when fishing but i believe it could be simplified to avoid any confusion.

as it reads you could be 60m apart but not closer than 100m on a drift and 200m around a bend.........

i believe that a simple one distance limit would avoid any confusion...

also there is no mention of bridge pilons .... eg narrows. it seams to be common that if a boat is fishing one side of the pilons then another can fish the orther side. only about 10 or 15m apart i guess. i have no drama with the status quo, good chance for a chat & a laugh in most situations but perhaps a bit of clarification here as well would help.

JMO

[Bear]

I'll have a look Brad, but we have gone through the birdge issue a few times and try to remember to go through it at briefings. I'm just tryng to avoid having to write in every fishing possability in the rules. At some stage a bit of common sense has to come into it, like the guys did on the King at Albany.

[Bear]

Just a clarification. The 200 and 100m notations are start distances. The idea here is that we try and keep some separation between boats along banks. Boats will at different speeds and that is where the 60m rules applies. If you are drifting quicker than a boat, the boat in front has right of way and once in the 60m range you must stop and move the required distance in front of that boat or remain behind, keeping the 60m distance.

HTH.

[brad mcdonald]

cheers bear.

common sense - i agree totaly, there heaps of examples of fishing right along side other boats with no dramas at all. eg BE @ the moore.

perhaps its as simple as second boat on the scene ask fisrt boat if ok to join in... if the answers no, respect it and move on.

[brad mcdonald]

Originally posted by Bear
Just a clarification. The 200 and 100m notations are start distances. The idea here is that we try and keep some separation between boats along banks. Boats will at different speeds and that is where the 60m rules applies. If you are drifting quicker than a boat, the boat in front has right of way and once in the 60m range you must stop and move the required distance in front of that boat or remain behind, keeping the 60m distance.

HTH.

oh that make more sense ....

[J&KMiddleton]

Will the RST rule apply for Walpole or is it when RST becomes complusary across WA

Cheers

[Bear]

For AOY it's from 2008. For the rest of this year it is only for those 25 or younger.

HTH.

[Brad Y]

Good stuff mate I dont see anything that jumps out at all. Im glas to see some set rule have applied.

Well done to WABT also for allowing the one angler nomination for teams events, I beleive it will help alot more people and even their partners get into it.

Yatesy

[matchangler]

what happens if you provide face porotection and they refuse to wear it,which has happened in the past