Do Local and State regulations affect tournaments?

[George Cawthorn]

Hello to all from most of the time sunny California.

Guys, I was just curious to ask how Local and State fishing regulations affect tournaments.

Do the local rules apply or are they waived for the tournaments.

In California, at Castaic for example, last year the bass limit was set a two per day over 18 inches. That made things pretty tough to get keepers for us amatures and I would imagine that it would make things proportionately tougher for the pros as well.

I know that tournament fishermen are allowed to cull after a limit is in the livewell (us mere mortals are not allowed to do that) but I was wondering if they are also allowed different rules for number of fish and minimum size for the sake of consistancy in the tournaments?

And in general, how else do the local rules affect tournaments what sort of changes in the rules are allowed to the tournament fishemen around the country?

Good fishing to ya, later......... geobass

[johnnie crain outdoors]

Here in Iowa tournament rules are whatever the state rules are-no excuses. I fished a couple of events in Missouri where the fish size limit (15) inches was waived to allow for bigger weigh-ins. So I guess it's up to the tournament commitee to work with each state or local governments to decide the rules. I do know we can have 6 hour events during the summer months to keep fish mortality down, butr catch and size limits still apply. We can cull fish though tournament or not. JC

[KenWarren]

Originally Posted By: johnnie crain I do know we can have 6 hour events during the summer months to keep fish mortality down, butr catch and size limits still apply. We can cull fish though tournament or not. JC

Johnnie, This isn't exactly right. In Iowa we are not limited to 6 hours during the summer but have to weigh-in by 1pm during July and August. If clear in the morning that means launch can occur at 5:15 so still get nearly 8 hours. Also, culling is only allowed if the tournament has a permit. This is probably why many smaller clubs have paper tournaments as smaller tournaments aren't required to have permits.

The only time I have seen size limits changed is on lakes that have a higher than state standard length limits but this isn't waived often.