i was at boat ramp recently. The conversation was regarding HS fishing tournaments. The debate seemed to be that some teams are captain by fisherman who are very highly skilled on the use of eletronics/livescope. The conversations got somewhat heated and it seems that most teams do not have that advantage. The teams winnig tournaments are the ones with the experienced CAPTAIN who is basically locates the fish and all the kids have to do is present the bait.I really know very little about HS Tournament but i suspect very few kids would have access to 8 or 10 thousand dollars in electronics. Are the teams allowed to fish with a guide. i could see where if this is true it could discourage most kids.The idea I would assume is to get kids interested in this great sport. Not sure if its about the kids or the Dads bragging rights Where could i find the rules. i dont have a dog in the fight just found it interesting and it seems a little unfair

Check out all the rules at Texas High School Bass Association

There are a lot of teams that have fathers or grandfathers that basically catch the fish for them and have 80,000+ rigs. But I know a few kids that can just flat-out catch them without help. In collegiate-level fishing is where you find out who doesn't need help. I wish THSBA could find a way to show what the anglers know and not the boat skills.

Been with THSBA almost since its inception. Only once has the boat not been to a regional event and twice we have missed the cut to State. (barely) There have been many checks and prizes won out of my boat, we rarely fish "deep" and I don't own a 'scope.
We do study maps. We do look at Google Earth. We do practice casting, pitching and flipping in the yard. We talk about what we have found. I have them ask "why" - a lot. We pay attention to silly things like retrieval speed, water conditions, weather conditions, how the fish bit, what cover was it in - this all goes back to the "why" and establishing a pattern.
You hear a bit about a team winning using the scope but not near what you could think. I see guys using it at every event and rarely see them on stage holding up their winnings - just because you can see them doesn't mean you can catch them. You would also be surprised by the amount of boats that do have 5-10k of electronics today. Somewhere, I have a couple of photos from the National Championship, in them are a couple of photos of a 16' flats boat from Florida with a 90hp with one 10" graph - they finished 4th on Pickwick fishing deep ledges....... it's the arrow, not the Indian.
No, you cannot hire a guide within a specified period.
As to it being "unfair" - life isn't fair. If you duck something because you think it might not be fair, your gonna miss out on a lot of life. IMO, lowering the bar is a whole lot of why this country is in the state it is in right now. No one benefits by lowering the bar to make things "fair".

Rules can be located at THSBA.org.

If we are worried about Livescope being the issue it would seem pretty easy to me to have those head units removed prior to take off - could be checked at same time live well checks are done. But there will still always be inequality because there are so many factors from boat performance to tackle, and yes even a knowledgeable captain in the boat or not (but to me that's no different than having a knowledgeable coach, like in any other school-sponsored sporting event or extracurricular activity).

Just my 2 cents...

Unfortunately THSBA runs this like a tournament trail. Their statement on the site states this very thing. So to be fair you have to know what you are getting into and yes there would be and will be those that will do what they can to win. I do not mean cheating, but it is up the captain to get them on fish.

This is my first year and not sure we will return because of the tournament trail. We are thinking we will just go back to tournaments which are better if that is what you are seaking. I was hoping for an organization that was to help kids learn and enjoy fishing, but that is not this organizations goal.

Since you stated this is your first year, I will let you in on a what we have tried in the past that has not worked when you were not involved. On more than one occasion we (THSBA) have tried to put together seminars and programs and such to help the students and captains, with very, very little interest. Heck, one year with the help of Fun N Sun, we put together a nice program where some of the Fun N Sun pros and several other very experienced anglers were involved to teach students and captains things like how to read graphs, on the water safety, on the water etiquette, boat ramp etiquette, etc. Several good and useful programs in one seminar. Fifteen, yes only 15, folks showed up in an area where, back then, was the area of our 2 largest divisions with over 250 teams each. So, we have tried with no interest. So regardless of what you may think, it has been our goal but when you get no interest, there’s not much else you can do.

With that, I’m not going to apologize for running a tournament trail like, well, a tournament trail.

I am a second year captain with a 25yo ranger and 2d sonar and gps maps. I have tried to teach my son the way I was taught to fish, and the way we fished for years without electronics. We work on our boat together and discuss plans and patterns. We made regionals last year and missed state by about a pound. Any 1 of the 2 fish we lost that day would have gotten us there. We are sitting in the 30's in our division this year. I have nothing against FFS and would use it if I had it. It dose give an advantage in a sense but still cant make them bite. Fork last month proved that. I do feel the Pro/ Semi pro captain is a more advantageous part of it all. I know of teams that the anglers do not pre-fish and the captain dose all the work. That will hurt them if they are able to make it to the next level. It also takes away scholarships and money for others. With all that said THSBA is and has done a great thing and I hope it continues for years. They do their best to keep things fair and safe while giving youth anglers opportunities to learn grow and earn scholarship. You will always have the $85-100,000 rigs out there and the haves and have nots. Guess were somewhere in the middle.

I agree with you, I think that when tournaments are held among schoolchildren, they should be simpler without the use of complex equipment. The rules can be found on the THSBA website. But still, school tournaments are not professional tournaments. I think it would be better for everyone if the competition would be more fair.

You guys could always find your local kidfish event and enter it......

By the time a kid is playing HS varsity sports, it is always about the win. Successful varsity players have put the time in to be at the top of their game. HS fishing is the same.
If you think that the top kids in fishing are only there because of their captains .....then your only fooling yourself.

Couldn't agree with this more...I've been a HS Captain for 2 years. You can easily see which kids are on top and will be on top for the schools. They are the ones who spend time on the water and don't let other activities sway them. Heck, both years I've seen student anglers on their phone more than fishing. I don't allow that on my boat as it allows for possibility of breaking rules. Time on the water focusing on your skills is key.

Interesting thread. Seems to me that the captain is equivalent to the football coach. And the boat is equivalent to the training facilities and stadiums. Should we only allow amateur coaches to coach our HS football teams? Should we only allow low level training facilities? Some schools, some teams have more. Some do not. It's just a fact of life. Get over it.

My son is going into HS next year and is unbelievably excited about the Fishing program. As of right now, our school has no captain, so the old Nitro sitting next to the barn that has not run in two years is fixing to get an overhaul. Without a quality captain who knows how to fish and how to find fish (I do not qualify as that), he is going to be at a huge disadvantage. Hopefully, we will find a captain. If not we will have a crappy coach and crappy facilities. Losing can be a good life lesson. Putting forth the effort, gathering knowledge, and putting in the work to succeed despite your being at a disadvantage can be a good life lesson too. High School is supposed to be about preparing our kids for the real world. Making everything even by dumbing down the competition isn't going to prepare them for anything.

He will never lose.
He will either win or he will learn.

Win or lose, he should be learning either way. There's still winners and losers in every sport.

If you count yourself beat because your kid doesn't have a hired gun captain, you might as well not even enter the tournaments. I can't speak for every division, but I know for a fact that the division my kids fish in all the top 5 teams consisted of teams that the captain was the parent of at least one of the kids. The kids still have to catch the fish, and it is rarely easy fishing in these things. A majority of the regular season is in the fall which is always tough. Then add the fact that most tournaments are around 200 boats. The fishing is tough and if the kids want to place at the top, they have to be good fishermen. Missing one fish is often the difference in 20+ places. Put more focus on making the kid a better angler and less on hiring a captain. If you take that route you will be successful. Just putting in the time on the water and learning how to prefish will beat 75% of the teams.