I have fished a lot of bigger tournaments and have seen more idiots and disrespectful adults in them than I have in high school fishing tournaments. I have been involved with setx for 3 years now and have heard very few complaints of unsafe boating. doug not sure what area you are referring to but it must not be rayburn. all of the setx tournaments are trailering events just for that reason to give everyone the ability to launch at a location close to where they want to fish without having to take unnecessary chances on the lake when the weather is bad.

There are many of the "northern" Texas lakes that are more forgiving in bad conditions. That is even with experienced tournament anglers. Rayburn and Toledo are not lakes to play around with in rough conditions. We have talked about boat operations in rough conditions numerous times here on TFF. Many people just assume that "THEIR" Boat is the best and that "THEY" are the most experienced and none of the conditions will affect them! AND many are used to the smaller lakes. This can also be applied to some of the high school captains. They just do not fully realize what can happen on the big lakes. The decision of Hunterfishes was a sound decision AND also a productive one. I am not "blasting" these organizations. In Fact I sponsor the SETX because I have seen how well the organization is run and the opportunities that it can offer. I just hope that each of the School Coaches OR somebody on that team would help to set up a TEAM GAMEPLAN to help some of the more inexperienced captains AND KIDS!
They do have to learn somehow and someway but this is one of those times that "learning by mistakes" can be a big problem. Let's support them but also try and help them. I was in contact with one of the captains from Saturday's tournament and we discussed some safe and productive locations to go try and also some patterns that had been working. No big fishing secrets just common knowledge that might not have been considered. I have always been a stickler for bad weather situations. I was an Army Helicopter Instructor for many years and the weather was always our primary consideration for planning. Many people do not "PLAN" their fishing trip and then wonder why it goes bad. OK off the soapbox now. You guys have it back and us Rayburn Troublemakers will let you go have fun!

Seems to me that for the safety of our youngsters they should have a speed limit in these high school tournaments and the TD's should call it if extreme weather is in the forecast.

I for one know I'm not the best boat captain, but serviceable. I know I'd be much more cautious with any kids in the boat whether they were my own or others.

I do think it is tremendous that there is more bass fishing among the youth and the more experienced among us should all try and promote it rather than bash the volunteers no matter how misguided they may be.

I think if you promote a culture of respect and safety the bad seeds would weed themselves out.

Some here are referring to the Northern lakes especially Fork. Fork on a bad day aint nothing compared to Rayburn or Toledo on a bad day so yes most of the guys that run these 2 are going to have more sense then guys on these other lakes. I have dropped out of tournaments due to weather at which they wouldnt allow trailering its worth loosing 250 bucks than your rig or your life.

Never been to Rayburn but, good grief - Toledo Bend is HUGE!! Only 1 trip there and quickly learned that my 18' rig is less than ideal on that lake! Can get rough in a big time hurry.
Not enough rig, not enough motor for my taste.
JMO
God Bless

Probably team adviser. I also asked if he had to do the back ground check and he said that they didn't do that at that school.

PS If a person has been thru the CHL back ground check is that good enough?

PS If a person has been thru the CHL back ground check is that good enough?


I would say no as they are looking for different things. It made no difference that I had one when I did Boy Scout background check, or TWIC. Different agencies look for different things. I will stand corrected if anyone thinks or proves otherwise.

CHL basically checks everything and should be enough I would think.

5 FINGER BECAUSE YOU CAN FISH THAT WHOLE NORTH BANK FROM RAYBURN POINT TO COLEMAN

Putting in at HARVEY? I think I will let some of the others take care of this reply!!

I don't think any background check will give an indication of "Common Sense"!

You definately right on that one.

you would have to check with the requirements of the individual school. I know our school uses their own background check agency and requires they do one and have it on file. I have a TWIC plus FERC clearance on my job but I still had to go through the schools.

You have to check the weather before you use Harvey boat ramp the more West the wind is from, the less idea it is.

I fished last Saturday and Sunday at Rayburn. I drove around to several of these ramps mentioned but I couldn't use them because I was by myself. There was no where to pull my boat up to the bank due to the rocks around the ramp. I ended up battling the wind at Cassells-Boykin because they had a pier. Adding a few more piers around the lake sure would be nice to see.

Surely he means to put in at 5 Fingers?