Pro Bass Fishing Tournament

[Pricilla Igoe]

Since2020, all bass clubs have been required to participate in standardized training on aquatic plant and live-well inspection, and all tournament related inspections must be performed by individuals that have received this training.

All clubs will need to provide documentation along with their affidavit that at least two members have participated in an aquatic plant and live-well inspection training program endorsed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) within the last five years.

These changes will standardize tournament inspections, and will reinforce the commitment MDIFW and the clubs have made to be good stewards and set a higher standard that reflects positively on our respective organizations.

Registration is now open for the Aquatic Plant and Live-well Inspection Training being held on October 9th from 5:30pm-7:00pm at the MDIFW Bangor Headquarters located on the Dorothea Dix Campus at 106 Hogan Road, Suite 1, Bangor ME 04401.

DEC is currently reviewing public comments received for the proposed black bass (largemouth bass and smallmouth bass) fishing tournament permit regulations, which is planned to go into effect September 1, 2024 for tournaments conducted on or after January 1, 2025. Details highlighting the regulatory purpose, as well as information on the proposed regulation are available below.

The DNR has established limits on the size and number of permitted tournaments on some lakes and rivers to minimize concerns such as crowding, the spread of invasive species and indirect fish mortality. An application fee for permits is also required to cover the increasing cost of implementing the tournament fishing program.

If none of the above apply, you still need to submit a free tournament registration for your event or series of events. These registrations are required even if the tournament is regional in nature (where specific waters to be fished are not identified) or if participants are not required to register in advance.

While you may not need a tournament fishing permit according to the above criteria, you may need to fill out a restocking permit [PDF]. A restocking permit is needed for any catch-hold-release events that result in an individual angler exceeding any daily bag limits. Please print out the application, fill in the necessary information and mail it to the local fisheries biologist for the county where the tournament waterbody is located.

You should apply at least 30 days before the start date of the fishing tournament. Applicants may apply starting on January 1st of the preceding year for traditional tournaments and April 1st of the prior year for non-traditional(everybody else) tournaments. Applications received less than 30 days before the start of the tournament will still be considered but may not have sufficient time for approval. In addition, applications received less than 30 days before the tournament begins will be charged an additional fee to cover expedited processing.

Permitted fishing tournaments (except for traditional tournaments) are not permitted to occur on weekends and holidays, which typically have elevated levels of public pressure. These time periods include the opening weekend of a fishing season of a particular species if the tournament would target that species, the 3-day Memorial Day weekend, the Fourth of July, and the 3-day Labor Day weekend. Tournaments that don't require a permit don't have any date restrictions.

Yes. However, no person may organize permitted fishing tournaments on the same body of water with starting dates separated by less than two weeks unless at least 50% of the participants in the second tournament are younger than 18 years of age or disabled.

We need to know what tournament you held, how many people and/or boats participated, the value of prizes given away for fishing, the date(s) and hours fished, what species and how many fish of each were registered, and if the fish were released or kept.

For open water tournaments, the monthly size limits are based on the length of the tournament and the number of boats expected to participate, termed boat days. For example, a one-day tournament with 60 boats will contribute 60 boat days to the monthly limits for a waterbody, whereas a two-day tournament with 30 boats will also contribute 60 boat days.

Open water tournaments (except for Great Lakes trout or salmon tournaments) must indicate a method that makes tournament participants easily identifiable on the water (e.g., ribbon, sticker, flag, apparel, etc.)

For catch-hold-release tournaments, an off-site weigh-in means the weigh-in is not located on the shoreline or adjacent to the waters and is generally characterized by the transport of fish via a public road.

SPRINGFIELD - Illinois Conservation Police have cited an Indiana man for allegedly cheating in a bass fishing tournament in Chicago this month.

David Moore, 49, of St. John's, Indiana, was cited for the following: attempting to commit theft, possession over the daily limit of three smallmouth bass, failure to immediately release smallmouth bass unharmed, taking and possessing smallmouth bass resulting in wanton waste, throwing fishing wire on the bank waters, and importing Viral Hemorrhagic Speticemia (VHS)-susceptible species into Illinois without a permit.

On May 10, conservation police received information that Moore was hiding fish on a stringer on the Calumet River, possibly for a tournament the following morning, even though tournament rules prohibited fishing in that area on the 10th.

The following morning, conservation police watched the location and observed Moore retrieve four smallmouth bass from the stringer and place them in the live well of his boat before throwing the string on the shore and driving away. Police confirmed with the Cal-Sag Bass Anglers weigh master that Moore was registered in their tournament.

Conservation police waited for Moore to return to the tournament weigh-in location. The tournament limit was five bass with a minimum length of 12 inches. The total weight of the fish in Moore's possession was 19.5 pounds. However, upon further investigation, conservation police determined Moore had caught four smallmouth bass on May 10 in Lake Michigan near Hammond, Indiana, and imported the fish into Illinois without a VHS permit.

Had Moore been allowed to proceed, he would have won the tournament by more than 4 pounds, taking home a first-place prize of $1,300.

Moore has been charged with two Class A misdemeanors, four Class B misdemeanors, and one petty offense. A court date has been set in Cook County. The charges and statements made herein are based upon probable cause, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proved guilty.

To report poaching and other illegal activity, complete the Target Illinois Poachers (TIP) incident reporting form or call 877-2DNRLAW.

I attended a national fishing tournament recently as a media observer. When the weigh-in was over, the tournament participants were taken one at a time to a room where they were given a polygraph test.

In this particular case, each of the anglers who placed in the money was hooked up to a lie-detector and asked a series of questions aimed at determining if they had fished according to the contest rules.

No one failed, but the simple fact that each had to submit to the test or risk losing their winnings exemplified for me a disconcerting fact: As long as there are fishing tournaments, there will always be a few shady individuals who will cheat to win, whether the prize is nothing more than a trophy or as substantial as thousands of dollars. As a result, tournament directors and organizations will always have to be vigilant to keep cheaters out of the sport.

Another often-used anti-cheating tool is the draw-partner system. Different partners, often complete strangers, are paired during each day of fishing, lessening the opportunities for rule bending. Each angler watches the other and, at the weigh-in, must sign a document testifying to the fish being legally caught. Invitational formats, on-the-water surveillance of suspected cheaters and strict rules also are employed to combat cheating.

Law enforcement officials also are increasingly involved. Several states have passed laws against tournament fraud, and the involvement of police officials or game and fish wardens ranges from administering polygraph tests to winners or those submitting suspect fish to shadowing suspected cheaters on the water.

Texas, for example, passed a law against fishing tournament fraud in 1985 and expanded it in 2011 to make altering the length or weight of a fish a violation and to include tournaments for saltwater fish, which are some of the biggest in that state. Violations at small tournaments are Class A misdemeanors, but offenses committed at tournaments with prizes worth $10,000 or more are third-degree felonies, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.

Penalty: The charge is considered a third-degree felony because the grand prize in the event was more than $10,000. As this was written, the case was still under investigation, and it was unclear how severely the angler would be punished.

Method of cheating: Investigators allegedly observed the two men removing previously caught bass from two 55-gallon drums in a boathouse and bringing those fish to the weigh-in of a fishing tournament in which they were competing.

Penalty: In September 2014, a judge found the pair guilty of theft by deception and tampering with a sporting event. He sentenced them to one-year suspended jail sentences, provided they serve 30 days in jail and perform 400 hours of community service. They also received two years of probation and were each ordered to pay $1,000 and court costs. The men appealed the verdict and were allowed to bond out of jail. But upon making bond, a condition of their release was that they give up their hunting and fishing licenses for the two years of their probation. Some tournament organizers have banned the men from future events. Their conviction was appealed, but the results of that appeal are uncertain.

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