Txduckhunter is correct. We do have mandatory meetings before the State and Regional events. It would be impossible to have a boat captain meeting at the beginning of season as most teams don't have captains lined up yet. Plus like mentioned above. It is already asking a lot for them to volunteer their time to take them fishing.

Each team should be having meetings and explaining all of this beforehand. It doesn't happen as much as we would like. It is better than used to be.

As stated having mandatory meetings for the boat captains before each tournament would be about impossible. Out of 13 kids we have two with boats, one being me, and the other student with a boat has only fished one tournament. She fished the first tournament and hasn't fished since. It's not easy finding boat captains as it is and every tournament I'm doing everything I can to get a new boat captain so these kids can fish.

Off topic, but the frustrating part for me and my son is we can't get the kids to try and find their own boat captain. We have one student that posts on here and he's been able to find a new captains every tournament. They have typically been "locals" so they are able to do the local tournament but not the others. I have the utmost respect for guys volunteering their time and boat to do this. I'm learning myself but overall from what I've seen everyone has done a great job. We've actually had very experienced boat captains so we've been lucky in that aspect. It's a balancing act for me. If I try and enforce some rules both the parents and students get mad. I can't imagine being a teacher these days.

again, like I stated earlier in the topic, get a Tournament Marshal to enforce rule violations. The Marshal can deal with the rules violations and enforcement while the TD worked the tournament.I understand that things are hard and tuff to get all the people in line but for the vast majority that do follow the rules and such, they deserve to be respected. The vast majority of boat Cpts and coaches, do a thankless job and they teach their kids respect and the spirit of competition, for the ones that don't, well that needs to be addressed and not ignored or shrugged of. jmo

Weigh-in is a bigger problem, a lot of times, than take-off. Take-off has been addressed now by the trailering rule, this should make it easier on most captains.
Captains - make sure your kids don't carry their fish up to weigh UNLESS THEY HAVE AN OFFICIAL BAG. This will make it so much easier on the TD and weigh staff. I've seen 50+ teams standing around with fish in non-regulation bags, waiting on a regulation bag. HAve them keep their fish in the boat until it's time to weigh.
Some tourneys, no one has fish, and at some EVERYONE has fish to weigh. This is part of the reason for the "official" bags. (at the "everyone has fish" tourneys, they usually make an announcement telling everyone to relax and they will get their fish weighed with no weight penalty. Provided they have already checked in on time)
My boys have a pretty good system worked out to where one will go get a bag and the other will wait at the boat. The guy who gets the bag will stand and watch to see how the line is moving and then return. Then they both go weigh in. I have a cheap reinforced weigh bag that they will put the official bag, w/water and fish, into to carry to the line. Sometimes the provided bags leak so this system will get them into line and to the holding tanks.
I've only been a captain for the last 3 years. I've seen some things that flat-out pizzed me off and some things that have made me shake my head in disbelief. I've also seen this program grow with a growth rate that is unbelievable and the guys at THSBA have changed and improved how they do things EVERY year. As captains, it is up to us to help them by doing OUR part in teaching these upcoming anglers how to do things and help instill ethics that we all wish to see on the water.

Txduckhunter, thank you for helping spread the word. You are correct on the weigh in bags. We the THSBA do try and adjust on the fly. Next year will bring a lot of different changes as well.

Thanks for what you do.

I was a high school angler last year and am now boat captaining for my school. In our club meetings once per month, on the water etiquette is always discussed. The problems that I see that need to be addressed is launching and loading smoothly. Some parents are allowing their students to back in trailers, whom are not experienced enough to do so in a crowded area. Also another area needing to be addressed is when waiting in the water for take off. At the Lake fork tournament last year, my team witnessed a dad hit another boat with his prop. The only way I know to fix this is for every captain to take a boaters safety course like all of the 90's kids had to.

We did change all the events to trailering in hopes to cut down on all the issues listed above

I think THSBA does a great job. I fish the TTT and TTO and a few select other tournaments. I can say out of experience it doesn't matter what trail you are fishing you will always have a few idiots at the ramp and on the water. THSBA has done an outstanding job. And making the qualifying tournaments to get to state throughout the year a trailering event has made it even smoother. I say that from experience from the west division only. This program has grown each and every year and they have handled this very well. The only change I would make has nothing to do with the staff that runs THSBA. In fact I feel it is each school or clubs responsibility to educate their teams and captains of proper etiquette. Thanks you THSBA for all that you guys do. I am excited about the future of the sport and what you guys have done to put more kids on the water and share our passion. I do not think those that have complaints really need to understand how much planning and work goes in to these high school tournaments. You have so much paperwork and like our school which fielded 21 teams. It takes volunteers from parents to help make all this happen for them.

As far as the captains go maybe a video should be made and each captain before they are aloud to captain a tournament each year must review the rules and watch a short video of etiquette on the ramp unloading and loading as well as on the water etiquette . The same requirement that rec league volunteers must do for other sports. Just a suggestion. All in all I am happy and excited what the future holds for this sport going forward on the high school level. I tell my two boys every tournament how lucky they are to have this program and how I wish it was in place when I went to school.

Thank you sir, we try very hard to make this a smooth event. We learn to adapt from year to year.