High school fishing team question??

So yesterday while on l.o.p I watched a "boat captain" allow the (I will be nice) young person running the trolling motor pull up on 2 different boats as soon as they started catching fish. The said boat came from over 200 yards away and parked right on the first boats spot where they were casting. The captain asked them to move in a very nice way and said you are where we were casting and the captain told him we were here first and sat there for 15 to 20 min exactly on that spot. A short time later the same high school team got close enough to the second boat (not a high school boat) that they could almost touch them with a rod and the guy asked them if he wanted him to open his live well so they could fish in it and they said nothing back just grinned and set there. the man in the second boat told the so called captain in a polite but straight forward way that he was showing them boys the wrong way to be professionals and still just got a smart [censored] grin from all of them. They set there for about 15 to 20 min and then trolled off. Now this is the first time I have been around one of the high school events and I have to ask myself does this happen a lot and if yes how and why?

In general we are a good bunch of captains and young anglers, was this by the spillway by chance?

No it was at Johnson creek bridge. I also saw plenty of very professional and polite teams and hats off to the captains and the teams

It happens. You have to correct this improper etiquette as soon as it happens. If not it is considered ok and it keeps on happening. I have had to say something a couple of times about it to the people responsable. Most know they are doing it but some have very little if any fishing experience. That goes for the captains also. I believe in the unwritten etiquette of letting others have there space, and would not want it done to me. I would not do it to others no matter how bad I wanted to fish there or needed the fish. It is our job as anglers to show respect to each other and at times educate the uneducated. IMO, this needs to be addressed right when it happens and not a day later. If not we as anglers are creating future generations of fishermen that have no respect on the water for anyone, and that does no one of any age anygood. Also, if this was reported to the organization that was fishing that day, I am quite certain it would have been addressed promptly if it needed to go that far.

As for addressing it a day later if I would have known who to talk to I would have ask them. I brought it up wondering if anyone else had seen or heard it. Had I known who or where I would have ask them. IMO, Also thought maybe it had happened to some one else and maybe they had talked to some one. Just asking.

I also asked one of the other captains about how close they are allowed to the other boats and he told me that there is no rule in the high school league about how close you can get to another competitor. If this is true maybe they should address it and go to a standard such as 25 yards or 50 yards with poles down or anchored.

Regardless of what the boat captain you spoke with says, we do have a rule stating that you must remain 50 yards away from a boat that was first anchored in place, including shallow water anchors such as a power pole.

I will remind our team advisors to get with their boat captains to review the rules and follow proper etiquette and common sense. I apologize that you witnessed this type of behavior. Whenever something like this gets brought to our attention, we do deal with it directly. Please do not let the actions of one inconsiderate boat captain teaching kids the wrong way to do things on the water affect your view of high school fishing as 99.9% of the folks involved in this activity are in it for all the right reasons...the students.

Thanks,

Tim Haugh

Yes, it happens quite a bit but this is pretty extreme. What school was the offending team from?

I also saw captains riding around at weigh in with their anglers standing on the deck, holding bags of fish and not wearing their PFD.

I do not know what school they were from. No apologies needed for I know this is probably a one time issue and to me will not reflect on any of the other teams. I think what you people are doing is great and I will not judge any of you by what I saw. I would like to think that the captain in the first boat said something to the person in charge because some people are not as tolerant as these gentlemen were.

I think one of the issues is high school fishing has grown very fast. They may need to limit their fields or possibly split the tournaments into 2 days to give everyone a little more room.

This is definetly an issue, and it will continue to be an issue moving forward unless they split into additional divisions to spread the kids out. The west division tournament on eagle mountain next weekend should be interesting. There isn't a ramp on the lake that will hold 140+ boats/parking and the tournament won't allow trailering.

Regarding this incident.....I'm a HS Boat captain, and I assure you the boys in my boat will be taught better than this. God, Honesty, integrity, and sportsmanship are first and foremost in my boat.

Doug, your right about the growth. They split and added a division this year.

I try to keep on mind that a lot of the captains are not "seasoned" tourney veterans and don't know/think about things. Silly things like staying off the loading dock unless you picking someone up, knowing that your boat 115 so there is no sense in getting up by the release boat/dock and blocking everyone else until they are calling 100, learning how to drive the boat around other boats, etc,etc.
On the other hand, I'm seeing a few guys who are seem to think that a flat brim hat, cool boat and a cool jersey somehow entitle them to be able to do what they want - and that is setting a bad example for ALL the kids out there.
With that said, HS tourney fishing is great for the kids and our sport. It's going to have some growing pains.

Like anything else it will take time to polish and hone it into what some envision it could be.

It's nice to see the kids getting on the water and learning to enjoy and respect our great outdoors.

Perhaps they need some mandatory boat captain training classes to help expedite some of the growing pains.

I was a captain on Pines yesterday and I would have to agree it was a cluster, including the way it was laid out

C.O.D, I was at LOP this weekend as a boat captain, and fortunately did not witness any poor etiquette at his event. However, I did have a similar event happen to our team at Lake Palestine. We had a boat come in and cut us off as we were working down a bank of boathouses, and started fishing in front of us where I could have flipped into their boat. I did have words with the boat captain and tried to explain that this was setting a poor example for his team. By his response, it was clear that he did not see it as wrong. I used this opportunity to explain to my boys about why you give people their fishing space, and what acceptable distances are, and that you always try to treat others as you would like to be treated on the water.

I would have to agree with the others who believe that the number of entries per tournament are going to have to be limited; based on the size of lake, facilities readily available, and quality/ease of use of the ramp or launch site where the tournament is being launched from. Finding out the morning of tournament that we would not be able to launch from the host site ramp at LOP caused quite a bit of panic and confusion for a field of well over 150 boats.

I love that high school fishing clubs are growing so fast, and that the Texas High School Bass Association has helped create opportunities for kids to learn and compete in such a wholesome sport. I can't wait to watch the growth of the program over the next several years that my son will be able to compete. However, knowing that the growth rate of the program is so fast, we have to keep in mind at all times that we are maintaining a safe and "encouraging" environment for our kids to learn and enjoy tournament fishing. If we allow the division events to get too big, I feel what they notice the most is all the negatives that inherently come along with large, overcrowded events. I applaud the THSBA for changing the Martin Creek event to Lake fork, as I felt that this event would be very difficult to carry out without tempers flaring and safety being compromised due to the limited launch access and the size of the field competing for limited (warmer) lake space in February.

Thanks to the THSBA for taking on such a challenge, and doing their very best to create opportunities for parents and kids to fish, learn, and make awesome memories!!

Did They changed boat ramps the morning of the event????

The boat captains need to be educated. At Ray Hubbard at take off, there were so many high boat numbers blocking the dock when your number was called. One day when someone bumps another boat it won't be good.

I'm interested in seeing how 150 plus boats go out of westbay Sat.on eagle.

This was PK also... To many high boat number blocking the path so they could do live well check. I was fishing way back in a creek at PK with my high school team and another boat came all the way back. They could not get around us because the creek was not wide and we were back at the end of it. I yelled out 25 yard rule and he just laughed. I took a pic of his boat and TX number and told him next time I will turn it into the TD. He left. I do believe that many do not know the rules of tournament fishing..

You and me both... They need to trailer..

[quote=Doug R.]I think one of the issues is high school fishing has grown very fast. They may need to limit their fields or possibly split the tournaments into 2 days to give everyone a little more room.

[/quote

I'm a boat captain from Winnsboro and not trying to speak for THSBA.
To limit the field would defeat the purpose, the idea is to get both types of kids onto the water, the ones who have grown up fishing as well as the ones who haven't.
THSBA has done a great job to this point, they added a new division this year to help with the growth.

All our captains are volunteers, most are educated in the ways of tournaments and we try to teach the ones who are just starting out the rights & wrongs of tournament fishing.
Just as in any larger tournament there will be a couple bad apples, Tim does a great job in addressing the concerns that are brought to his attention.

What I have noticed is that some of the boat captains and anglers are new to tournament fishing, and simply do not know any better. Most are good guys that have an understanding of the rules and the etiquette that is expected while fishing. The ones that don't know better will learn.

That kinda thing happened to me too. We were at Palestine and about a short cast away from our spot and then this pontoon came flying in right on top of our spot. After watching him pull about 10 fish out(all keepers) he told us that we had the whole bank in the other derection to fish and to leave him alone. We were about 40 feet away. It made me mad but we just sort of sat there and fished while we waited for him to leave. 15 minutes later he started up his big motor, did two loops directly on the spotted were waiting on and then sped off.

These kinds of actions have nothing to do with an anglers tournament experience or lack there of. I've had plenty of "tournament" anglers & non tournament anglers crowd me off a spot before. To me these kinds of actions are the result of a lack of respect for our fellow anglers & a lack of good sportsmanship. Heck, just watch an Elite tournament & you will see these pros doing the same things to each other.

They need to have a boat captain's class before the start of the season and go over all the rules for the season. Most of the boat captains know the rules, but there is always a few that don't. Teach the kids the right way to treat someone on the water.

So how many boats are going to be on Eagle Mountain this weekend?

there were over 140 boats on pk so it should be around that number

Old Man Skeeter, we can't even get 1/4 of the team advisors to attend a meeting, I don't know how we could get all the boat captains together. That should be on the boat captain and the team advisors. The rules are online for everyone to see.

I wish it was a simple as some are saying, fish some a Saturday then some on Sunday. How decides who fishes which day. It's bad enough when we draw random numbers on the computer, people get upset they didn't get the number they wanted. Imagine, if they had to fish beat up water on Sunday.

When the schedule was set, we went off last years number. Most we had in the West division was around 85, that's why the West division teams voted on their lakes. The board does not pick lakes. We let the team advisors that are present at the meeting pick the lakes. Then we (THSBA Board) picks dates.

Not very one has to launch at the same ramp, you can launch elsewhere and come to take off. Once again, we done this to cut down on the races at take off. With a controlled take off , you don't have Billybob with the faster holeshot trying to outrun everyone to the best spot.

But to answer the OP's question . There are unfortunately boat captains that are not teaching these kids the proper etiquette on the water and that is unfortunate . They will grow up to be what some tournament anglers face on a weekly bases out there on the water.

The THSBA did split into 4 divisions this year to help cut down on the field sizes and we will again next year if needed to be. We had discussed 2 years ago about limiting the size of the fields , but that takes away from the kids that are wanting to fish.

You all have very good concerns and comments. We thank you all for the kind words. In the end , it is about getting kids on the water and experiencing what we all have grown to love.

I hope no one takes this the wrong way as I am not trying to start a debate or argument . We the THSBA are watching and taking notes. It is a very fast growing sport and association. We will have our growing pains. We are looking at the lakes after the split also.

Thanks

Ken Starling

I'm not a big fan of changing the format too much from what it is now. It just needs (and will always need) some tweaking as it grows.
Ken, you and the others are doing a thankless job that is always going to draw second guessing from those of us in the peanut gallery. I've been there and done that with a youth program.
So, thank you.
Ya'll keep doing what your doing and we'll do our best to keep kids in the boat and involved with the program.

Thank you sir, I know there is always second guessing , we do it ourselves . It has been and continues to be a experience and a learning process.

To date, I've fished two tournaments in the East Division as a captain and have seen nothing out of the ordinary one would expect from a tournament with 150 boats. Have I had some WTH moments???....of course!! But Ken, you guys are going a GREAT job and I commend you all!! "Thank You"!!!

Just for the record I do not want any one thinking I was trying to start anything or be negative towards the high school circuit. I thought the right people would see this and I think they did. The more kids you keep hooked on fishing the less will get hooked on something bad. Other than the one boat every kid I saw was smiling, having a good time and determined to catch fish. Again you gentlemen are doing a heck of a job and keep up the good work.

Never thought that. Its all good. I didnt want to come across as being upset either. This has been a crazy ride the past few years.