Trust me, I told the kid and the dad what I thought. Kid told me it was a waste of time and he wasn’t fishing. I told him I got up a 3AM, it was pouring rain and freezing cold, and he’d better get to fishing. My son fished by himself from then on, that was the end of having a partner.

We had a dad that tried to hire a guide a couple days before a tournament. I told him if he did I’d report him and he’d be out of the club. Dad got mad, it was all my fault, and just more drama from some other parents because I was enforcing the rules. Now, the same dad helps oversee the club.

.

There are lots of great kids but way too many parents and kids buying their way in to the top. Yes, that’s life and we all know life isn’t always fair. But, maybe not fishing because you don’t have a boat or the dad is too lazy to take the kid fishing is life and fair also.

Yep, the Captain deal is way out of control in THSBA..., hoping they get control of it soon or it will ruin a great format for the kids.
We have a team on our school team that the dad “hires” a guy to take his kid and his partner. The rest of the teams all try to help each other at each event but they do their own deal and the kids aren’t stupid, they know what’s going on so some are leaving the club.

I enjoy the time with my boys when we “hammer em” and also when we struggle...these are days I’ll always remember

We had the exact same scenario. I was told by one of the kids that he and his partner had to swear to their boat captain to not give out any info whatsoever to any other club member. They wouldn’t give depth, baits, not one single bit of info even after the tournament. I’d rather suck at every tournament and never catch a fish and do it on my own than to buy my kids way to the top.

Kid still has to hook and land the fish regardless of who is sitting behind the steering wheel. JMO.

so the kid gets better at casting, great. Truth is, those kids are being robbed of some extremely valuable life long lessons fishing teaches that a lot of kids are lacking the chance to learn these days. JMO

I see both sides. Even if a kid can fish he’s only good as his captain or where his captain is willing to go. So it gets tough for a parent to watch their kid get killed, for the simple fact their Captain won’t go in Kickapoo to fish, or run up the river at Hubbard. A friend of mine sons fishes in caddo, and he had a tournament on Palastine last year where his captain literally fished the middle of the lake for 7 hours. Said they were looking for bass following the sand bass schools or something like that. He weighed in one fish with the guy the entire last season. It was so bad I started thinking that maybe this guy was purposely trying to keep those boys from catching fish. Which now that I think about it I guess if a parent was real crazy could go to somebody and say hey I don’t want you to do good so my Kid can win. Kind of like being paid to throw a game. I don’t think that happened but he could’ve literally got in a boat never having seen any of those lakes, and beat the bank every tournament for seven or eight hours and caught more than one keeper the whole year. I felt bad for him so I offered to let him fish TTO with me this year. After just the first tournament he was begging me to be his Captain for this year, and said he saw more fish caught then all of his tournaments combined last year. I just don’t have the time. Now if daddy wants to buy me a brand new skeeter....😂😂😂😂

Trust me, this ain't totally true.
Up until this year, I would have agreed with you. You would think that sheer volume of cast(s) would equate into at least one keeper a day...……..sadly, it isn't so. This has been the worst year I've ever had in THSBA (as far as getting the kids on fish and getting those fish to the boat)

It definitely could be very tough last year with 250 plus boats before they split up the Houston division. Generally small lakes, way too many boats, it was a total mess at times. Somerville was beyond ridiculous, we had guys cutting right in front of us. One boat captain tried to get between me and the bank and I was maybe 15 feet off the bank in a very narrow creek His big motor was running, was literally inches from my boat and about to hit it, his prop hitting the bottom so it messed up the entire area.

It’s just a joke allowing boat captains to be compensated with no limit. We had numerous dads with boats and they sought after boat captains that were much better for one reason; so their kids could place much higher. They told me this directly. We had a dad that got very mad at me because I wouldn’t give his son GPS waypoints. He said it was unfair. His son never pre fished and still doesn’t, just shows up tournament morning. He then went out and sought the top five guys in Houston, at least what he thought was the top five. He contacted each one and got a volunteer. Yeah, they still have to catch the fish but everyone knows that’s the easy part if you’re put on the fish, told what rod, bait, etc.

There are kids that get up at 2-3 AM for numerous days and drive 3 hours to pre fish every weekend. They do all of the scouting, put in a lot of hours, and can fish very good. Then you have the kids that show up tournament morning with their local boat captain, never even been on the particular lake, didn’t pre fish one time, and get in the top ten or win. That’s a joke, plain and simple.

Problem is, it’s about impossible to enforce a lot of rules even if they were implemented. Most schools aren’t involved in the clubs, tournaments aren’t school sanctioned, hard to prove a lot of the things we don’t like about it. We had a team that broke numerous club rules, dad cursed me out numerous times so I finally kicked the team out of the club. Tournament director told them they could fish anyways because they didn’t violate their rules. That’s kinda what changed my view about a lot of it. This was also the same team that wanted the GPS waypoints and demanded other club members give them their waypoints.

That's been the toughest thing for me over the past three years. You can put them on 'em, but you can't make the fish bite for them. I probably fish 90% offshore fun fishing and tourney fishing and have force fed the two teams I captain those patterns over the past three years. Most of the field is beating the banks and I just feel their best chance to win is fishing offshore. Both teams are finally coming around and seeing some success fishing offshore now. And to stay on topic, I do not get paid for captaining. One team is my oldest son and his best friend, and the best friend's family provides drinks and snacks for each tourney. The other team started out as a friend of a friend deal three years ago. I get the occasional gift card, but the main kid does anything I ask of him to help. (Clean the boat, organize tackle, organize the boat, clean storage, etc.) His dad is a mechanic and has done hub and brake work on the trailer, gives me great deals on mechanic work on our vehicles etc. Overall it has been an awesome experience and I love being on the water with these young men. I wish this was around when I was in HS.

As I’m reading more and more of these, and there are dads trying to find the “best guys” for particular tournaments, and seeing who it looks like it is chaotic at times, I wonder how many of those boat captains that are getting hired or paid end up contributing fish to the kids stringers?? I’ve never done it before. My son is 12 years old and I fish so much I’m probably going to have the kids that hate to fish LOL. But it definitely seems like some people enjoy and have good experiences and other people not so good and there’s a lot of [censored] to deal with. But I guess that’s with everything. Seems like the rules should be tightened a little more though. Seems like an easy fix would be once you start with a Captain you can not switch that season. That would keep people from hiring local guides or good tournament anglers on that specific lake. Then maybe you could have guys that would agree to be standby captains who don’t want to fish all the time but if for some reason a kids captain could not make a tournament because they were sick or forever reason there would be a list of three or four standby captains that they could choose for that one tournament.

Polygraph is real and functional in both THSBA and SETX for top finishers. I was fortunate enough to get polygraphed a couple times the past two years and "did you catch any of the fish that your team weighed in today" and "did you break any of the organization rules today" are both standard questions. There is a high probability that there are a few cheaters out there, but I feel certain that if they win, they'll get caught.

That’s not always the case. We had a team in our club that saw another team with a guide a couple days before the tournament. The boat captain was next door neighbors with the guide and had known him for many years. The team that witnessed it told the tournament director at weigh in. They were told they didn’t bring the polygraph test so they couldn’t administer it. They did call the accused team up and ask them and they said no. Team got 1st or 2nd place, can’t remember which. Like I said we had a dad that was going to do it. Whether he did or not I don’t know. I told him to just fish, teach his son the right way of doing things, and to not cheat, and if I found out I’d call the tournament director. Sad, but it’s today’s society.

I helped my son start his club and my wife and I oversaw it for three years. It’s shocking what parents will do and I don’t see how teachers do what they do. Most of the kids are great, parents not so much. I talked to a lot of other club advisors also, they all dealt with the same issues. Most parents/kids are great but there are the ones that are a nightmare and I got zero backing from the tournament directors. But as soon as a check bounced, which happened more than once, they’d call me directly wanting their money.

In theory, your idea is sound but it won't work. There are kids that scrabble for a captain at EVERY tournament. A lot of them are happy if they just get to go...
I don't like pinch hitting all that much. I don't usually know the kids, how they are/act, how serious they are (ask and they are all KVD), what their skill level is, etc, etc. I prefer to have a team where I can get to know the kids, teach them how to actually fish and watch them grow as anglers and young people. I've been very fortunate with this approach, the two guys I had for 4 years still call every couple of weeks and still come to the house to raid the fridge..
I guess for the last three year, Ive been a "paid" captain. One club gave a $25 gas card to each captain for every tournament the current club I help give $50 cash for every tourney. I usually stop and use the cash to buy the boys and myself something to eat on the way home.
Keep in mind that this program has gotten big enough and has enough recognition that most bass fishing guides are well aware of it, the rules for it and the reputable guides will let the parents/potential clients know that what they are asking is not allowed. Some have gone to the trouble to call the directors with the info on the offending teams, which led to a DQ before the event.
We as captains have the final say in how this will end up. You can't regulate it out, polygraph it out or write enough rules to make it go away, just as this started as a grass roots program(s) - it will be best tended by those of us that actually care about the sport as a whole.

I've gotta disagree on that. Catching fish is the easy part... nearly any skill level angler can catch fish if they're put on em. "Here's the spot, cast right over there" Guides are a prime example, if you know any ask them about some of their stories about no skill having clients catching fish. They'll be the first ones to tell you any Joe Schmoe can catch em, the difference in a spare and a pro is the ability to locate fish and adjust.


You guys are giving the THSBA a bum rap... look at how far they've come since this thing took off. The sheer size of this organization in Texas is mind numbing and its just a handful of people trying to hold it all together. We can all come up with a bunch of ideas on how to do things better, thats just dudes in general but throw in fishing dudes and holy cow... everyone knows a better way to do everything imaginable. Sure they still have some tweeks to do, those of you that have kids in High School could always volunteer your time, money, and efforts to continue improving the organization instead of just complaining about the short comings. Do something about it, make it better for the next round of kids so they dont have to deal with all this non sense.

28. BOAT CAPTAINS • All boat captains must comply with these rules:
a. Cannot have been hired as a guide on the lake to which they are a boat captain on within the past 30 days.

This rule, the way it was explained to me, encompasses the thought that if someone "hires" a boat captain, that would be the same as said boat captain guiding on tournament lake within that 30 day window. I may be wrong, but isn't this what the THSBA is trying to prevent under their set of rules? I'm not against throwing boat captains some cash for their time, but bidding on the best local stick at each tournament lake so your kids have a competitive advantage? Come on.......you guys don't actually agree with that concept do you?