Fees:

1. $50.00 Anual Club membership for each member.
2. $50.00 Per Boat Per Tournament.
3. $10.00 Optional Tournament Big Bass.

1. Should be practiced at all times, use common sense regarding courtesy, safety, sportsmanship, and conservation.
2. A life jacket (personal floatation device) must be on while the gasoline engine is running and boat is on plane.
3. All boats shall meet minimum Coast Guard requirements.
4. ALCOHOLIC Beverages consumed during tournament hours will result in disqualification.
5. Anyone cited or ticketed during the tournament will be disqualified.
6. Should dangerous conditions exist, that present advance notice to members (i.e. lake wind advisory, hurricane, inclement / dangerous weather, low water conditions) at the tournament site, the tournament director will have the option to postpone the tournament or change to an alternate lake provided by the tournament schedule, if that lake cannot be fish on that scheduled month. The rescheduling of a tournament will be done with concurrence of the majority of the club membership present at a special meeting immediately following the tournament cancellation and weather threat ended.

Teams:

1. Teams will consist of only 2 members.
2. Membership is limited to twenty-five (25) boats.
3. All new Members, Guests, or Alternates must attend or have atteneded a club meeting and be voted on for approval by members attending that meeting before the tournament.
4. No new teams will be permitted to join after the February meeting.

Guests:

1. Guest fee of $20.00 will go towards the Classic Fund.
2. Guest can only fish 1 event each year.
3. If guest would join the club, the fee paid for fishing the event will go towards their membership.
4. No guest can fish in the Classic Tournament.

Alternates:

1. Should a member of a team be absent from a tournament, an alternate will be allowed to fish for that team, providing the alternate is a paid member of the club.
2. Once a member, any member may fish as an alternate, and may fish for any team in the club.
3. While designated an alternate, the alternate member is not allowed to accumulate any club points for meetings or tournaments by themselves, an original team member must be present to get points.
4. An Alternate can become a team member when a team member resigns. The alternate may take the place of that team member thereby becoming eligible to accumulate points for that team.

Tournament Guidelines:

1. No live bait.
2. Only one rod per angler at a time will be used.
3. No Fly Rods.
4. No rods over eight (8) feet.
5. No trolling.
6. All bass must be caught in a live and sporting manner.
7. Nets are permitted for boating fish.
8. All chapter tournaments will be a team type.
9. Starting time at safe daylight.
   
10. Starting Order
    1. With the exeption of Team Angler of the Year and Tournament Director or Team in charge of the weigh-in scale,the launch order numbers will be drawn randomly.
    2. Team of the year from the previous year has the option to place anywhere in the starting order for all the tournaments for following year.
    3. Tournament Director or Team that is in charge of the weigh-in scale at a regular season tournament will launch second.
11. Any team who is unable to attend a meeting but wishes to fish that months event may be added to the draw as long as the team has paid for the event prior to or on the meeting day. The team can mail his check in early to the Treasurer or have another chapter member pay for him at the meeting. It is the member's responsibility to ensure the check reaches the Treasurer in time.
    
12. Teams not present at the meeting will be launched, following those in attendance at the meeting; in order their entry fees are received.
    1. Team Angler of the Year and the Tournament Director or Team that is in charge of the weigh-in scale is exempt from this rule.
13. Withdrawals from the tournament must be made to the Tournament Director and Treasurer by 5:00 PM on the Thursday before the tournament or forfeit their entry fees.
14. Boat distances
    
    1. No boat shall fish within (50) fifty yards of another competitor if he is anchored with trolling motor up.
    2. When fishing with the anchor up the distance will be (30) thirty yards.
15. The minimum length of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass shall be fourteen (14) inches, unless there are exemption cards for the tournament. Slot limit will be enforced, unless there are exemption cards for the tournament. Fish length will be determined by measurement on the official "Golden Rule"
16. At no time will any boat/team keep more than five (5) fish.
17. No boat may weigh in more than five (5) fish. Should a member attempt to weigh-in more than five fish, they shall be disqualified.
18. One courtesy measurement of a fish shall be permitted.
19. At no time during a tournament and/or before or during weigh-in, shall a team cull dead fish. Culling of dead fish shall subject the individual to immediate disqualification.
20. All boats shall be equipped with an aerated live well that shall be operational.
21. All live fish will be released by the tournament committee after weigh-in.

1. Points will be determined by the total pounds and ounces accumulated by each team during each tournament as follows:
2. Points awarded for place of finish
       1st place - 50 points
       2nd place - 45 points
       3rd place - 43 points
       4th place - 40 points
       5th place - 39 points
       6th place - 38 points........ etc
       Tournament Big Bass - 2 points
3. Those teams who participates in the tournament and weighs in no fish will be awarded ten (10) points less than the lowest scoring team that presented a caught fish at the weigh-in.
4. A team or team member who attends a regular monthly meeting will be awarded five (5) points for that team.
5. If a team or team member can not attend the reguar monthly meeting, and are fishing that months tournament,that team will pay an additionald $10.00 Classic Fund Fee in addition to the Tournamment and Big Bass fees.
6. Point accumulation will start with the first meeting of the year.

1. In the event of a tie for for any place, 1st tiebreaker will be number of live fish, 2nd tiebreaker will be weight of big fish. If still a tie, points for that position and next consecutive position shall be combined and split evenly as well as any monies.
2. Ties for Big Fish shall split the money.
3. Ties for Team Angler of the Year after the last regular season tournament:
   1. Nuber of events won.
   2. Nuber of events finishing second.
   3. Total Weight for the year.

1. 80% pay back:
   One additional place paid for every 5 boats fishing the tournament
         1-5        100%
         6-10       60%, 40%
         11-15     50%, 30%, 20%
         16-20     43%, 28%, 18%, 11%
         21-25     40%, 26%, 15%, 10%, 9%
   
2. 20% goes to the Classic Fund.

Problems During Tournament Hours:

If, during tournament hours, a boat has any problem, that boats fish can be brought to the weighed-in by another boat, provided one team member accompanies those fish to the weigh-in.

Penalties:

1. All penalties will be assessed before order of finish is determined for any chapter tournament and will be deducted from the total weight of the competitor's legal catch.
2. Late Penalty: any team who does not have their chip placed on the board at weigh-in shall be considered late and will be accessed a 1-lb. penalty for each minute they are late. After 15 minutes, the team will be disqualified.
3. Every attempt shall be made to keep each and every fish caught, living and releasable. Each legal fish presented at the scales that is deemed dead by the Tournament Director will have a penalty of .25 of a pound for each dead fish weighed-in off the Total Weight.
   1. Big Bass weight will not be affected by this penalty
4. Fish not meeting length requirements will not be weighed-in if a courtesy measure has not been asked for and the competitor's biggest fish will not be weighed-in. This applies for each short fish brought to the weigh-in.
5. Any team bringing in more than the allowed limit of fish to the scales will be disqualified.
6. Any member who has committed to fish an event and does not show up the day of the event shall forfeit his payment.
   (Only the Tournament Director can make an exception due to an unusual or emergency situation if notified prior to the event )

Protests:

Must be made within 15 minutes of the final fish being weighed. Protests made more than 15 minutes after last fish weighed in will not be considered.

Team Anglers of the Year:

1. Team that has finished first in the standings after the last regular season tournament
   1. Can launch in any position during the regular tournament season for the following year.
   2. Can fish the Club Classic with no tournament entry fee provided they qualify by fishing 7 out of 10 regular club tournaments.

Club Classic:

1. To qualify for the Club Classic:
   1. At least one member of the team must fish seven (7) of the ten (10) regular club tournaments and by paying the normal tournament fee ($50).
   2. Your partner must have fished three tournaments with you, or you fish the classic by yourself.
2. Pay back determined by the amount accrued in the Classic Fund.
3. There will be an optional Classic Big Bass pot to be decided by the participants.

Changes:

1. Changes to the rules can only be made by the Tournament Committee and Officers at a regularly scheduled meeting and by a majority vote of those members present.
2. Any active member of the club may make suggested changes in writing to the Tournament Committee and Officers at least one month prior to the next meeting. The suggested rule change will then be brought up in the next regular club meeting and any member of the club may make a statement regarding the rule change.
3. The Tournament Committee and Officers will take a vote on the suggested change at the next scheduled meeting, and the decision shall be final.
4. Should any discrepancy arise not covered in the above rules, South Pasco Bassmasters retains the right to revert to the suggested rules of the BASS National Federation Tournament Rules.