Yep...I was cut off about 10 years ago.

I got a feeling it's just like anything else. You have a bunch of parents just wanting their kid to win so they try and find the best captains. I know this happens. Anytime money is involved...

Somehow even with 3 months planning and the interweb I didn�t even know the SETX HS was gonna happen last Sat. We were there Thurs-Sun afternoon and fished all the mid lake creeks both sides and East all the way up to San Augustine park (a bit murky up there). Caught fish everywhere but mostly small which was a little dissappinting but the weather and scenery fantastic. There was definitely a �crowd� Sat with both the HS tourney and lots of non-tourney boats - I can tell that on Sat I did not have one single unpleasant encounter or anybody cut us off or any other goofy behavior around me and still found plenty of areas to fish without a crowd even Sat. I did roll through the general TwinD, Umphrey, Mill Creek area trailering to another ramp around 3:00 Sat and it was quite a spectacle with all those trying to get to weigh in and load / unload boats around the weigh in area. Did seem like the size of the whole thing may detract from the �fun� I get out of fishing but perhaps the big crowd IS the fun for others. So my congrats to everyone including the kids and the Captains out there.

^^^^^^^
THIS 100%

They really haven't ever bothered me but you can tell when they are fishing with someone that knows the ins and outs of tournament mornings or just what tournament fishing really is. The fact is a LOT of these captains are just as experienced as the team they are being a captain for. That's why I'm all for school qualifiers that lets everybody fish, then cuts down on numbers for the big tournies.

I was on Ray Roberts weekend before last when they had a big HS tourney out there. Every boat that I met on the water was courteous and pleasant to talk to. Anytime you get 200+ boats on the water you're going to have a few bad apples.

And I look forward to the day I do find your boat parked in the way for an extended period of time so I can unload on your [censored].

Let start by saying that SETX is entirely to big. Also for the record there was actually more boats at the first tournament back in January. This is our first year fishing these high school tournaments. I fished tournament all over Texas back before I had a family so I�m not new to tournament. So far in the first tournament I had a captain come past me less than 15 feet wide open before daylight just out of the no wake zone. Second tournament fishing up in a creek this is about 100 yards wide that had about 15 boats fishing all with no problems guy comes in at 40 mph runs to back turns around and runs out wfo. Tournament 3 on Toledo was running boat lane bad visibility rain storm watched a skeeter come by at safe distance when another skeeterjumped on plain in boat lane both boats about 100 in front of me when 1 skeeter almost ran over the back of the other. It was close enough that my kid start hollering they crashed. I captained for a couple kids in thsba Houston division and never did I experience what I have with SETX. When your school only fishes a certain division or tournament trail with the rules that are currently in place it is hard to make a change (no options). I will say that if they don�t change the boat counts and crack down on the stupidity it�s not if a accident happens it�s gonna be when and how bad. I like everyone else do not want that cause it may push back all the positives that have came from getting a lot of kids fishing that may have never even had the opportunity to compete in this sport. I have read earlier post about qualifying to go fish the big tournaments. I really don�t think that is answer cause I think you would then be discouraging a lot of teams just starting to fish. I think they should break the schools down into divisions with about 200 per division. Then send the top 20% to the championship then however many from there to state. That is my 2 cents. Good luck and God bless.

Best post I've read in a LONG time!!!!........what needs to happen is all the guys raising hell need to get off their [censored] and volunteer as a captain and show the kids how it should be done!!!

Agreed. Awesome Post. If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem!! I think what SETX does is absolutely phenomenal when you consider what they are dealing with.

We need to build more lakes. Big ones.

Something doesn�t add up.

He was �just out of a no wake zone� but running wide open?

You would make a good lawyer. Nice catch there.

Getting on plane (holeshot) realistically is wide open throttle, I guess.

I wonder if you asked 10 different tournament anglers how they would define the term "cut off". My bet is there would not be 10 identical answers?

Might be a good idea if someone on this thread that has some time collect all of the good inputs and sent them to the various High School Tournament organizations. I am sure they could post the information on "etiquette" somewhere on their sites for boat captains to review. I am sure there are many first time captains out there that would like to review that info along with the safety guidance.