I agree it is the tournament director’s responsibility to make the correct call. To send kids out in the weather, or not to send them. Calling for the TD’s termination isn’t the right knee jerk reaction. This needs to be learned from and actions taken place to prevent it from happening in the future is all.

Like said above, HS football games are postponed during lightning. The big “but” here is the ability to communicate to the people and students in attendance. If it’s supposed to rain, the tickets are still sold and the people still show up. Same with fishing. It’s supposed to rain…you don’t cancel the day. The problem is communication to the captains and anglers. There needs to be a way to call boats to safety during a weather related event. There needs to be a plan in effect for stuff like this. Sending out 750 text messages all at once probably isn’t even a possibility for a TD.

It needs to be looked into, not a knee jerk kinda reaction.

If I am remembering correctly, happened on Roberts a couple of years back as well and that one almost got someone hurt...

Steez, I don’t know much about how these hs tournaments function.

I understand it may be easier to shut down a football game.

What you’re saying is there is no protocol, process, rules for putting over 200 boats full of kids out on a lake with a thunderstorm in the forecast? Is this real? A text message, if there is cell service saying the tournament is postponed seems very feasible.

Firing is mostly a joke, but someone should at least have some explaining to do.

They have rules in place for this situation. I was there and at times it was dangerous. There were windows of cold rain when you could fish safely and if you monitored a radar you could see the periods of thunderstorms coming. I pulled my kids off the water at 11:00 for 30 minutes and we called it a day at 1:00 when a large thunderstorm was almost on us.

Sounds like everything is on track for tragedy, If all of this is true, the ‘ol Swiss cheese model to risk mgmt still holds some validity.

They don’t cancel sports because of rain. They don’t cancel sports because of lightning. They will, however, move people to safety during unsafe periods. This is what is needed during these fishing events is what I’m saying. Who that responsibility rests upon is the question. Ultimately, I’d say the TD would have final say so, so maybe it would make the TD the responsible person. I’m sure there are waivers that are signed relieving the TD and his employees from responsibility. This would put the control directly into the captains hands….

This is why I say it needs to be looked into and a plan in place for these situations. A plan that suspends fishing during this time, to prevent one team from gaining an advantage or being placed at a disadvantage.

No heads need to roll. Heads need to be used.

I’d love to hear why anyone thinks it was safe to have kids out in that, if you’re line is levitating above the water you don’t need a lightning map app to know you should be…not on water. Really glad everyone dodged the bullets. If this has happend before like was mentioned. How many more bullets are you all willing to let your kids dodge? After all they are trying to catch little green fish…

I've beached the boat during storms (and know a couple of other captains that did as well) or took cover in someone's boat slip.
I've also been in a HS event that was called early due to weather. We were already in a slip taking cover when the call came and we just waited until it blew through before we loaded up. I did call and make contact with the TD to let them know we were "stuck" but safe and we would proceed when it was safe to move about. There was no lightning near us but the cells coming were showing to be really bad. It was the right call, even though we were a little pissed because we felt we needed to make a couple more culls and believed we could have done it. (still got the "W" though)

If your worried about your kids dodging bullets with someone else, you have a few options.
Buy a boat and take them yourself.
Find a captain you trust with your kids.
Buy your kids "Bassmaster" on Xbox and keep them home in your comfortable living room.

Do kids like winning when most of their competition has their boats on trailers headed home because they didn’t want to be fried?

If you’re the TD, and you see people packing up and heading home in a lightning storm, what goes through your mind? “They must just not be biting”

I bet it really worked out for someone willing to brave the storm, I think everyone been on a good bite before the storm and left them biting…

I probably will keep my kids inside in a lightning storm, correct.

I can, idiots run that league.

I think what most fail to understand is that there are all kinds of kids in the event.
Some want to have fun just being on the water/outdoors.
Some want to catch fish.
Some are just trying it out to see what it is.
Some have ZERO interest in doing it in the cold, wet, hot or nasty.
Some say they want to win but don't want to do the work.
And then there are those few who want to win, don't mind doing the work and could care less what kind of weather they are in. The drive to succeed is just that strong in them. These kids would excel at whatever they chose to take on. They are going to do well if half the field leaves or stays - doesn't matter to them.
I've carried almost all of these types of kids. I have enjoyed it with them all but I won't lie - that last category is the one that I enjoy most and will do all I can on my part to help them achieve their dreams.

There are apps that can do it, but they aren't free and they require setup. We use one at work for emergency communications, mass casualty events, etc. Ours functions as an email to text app. We have several groups already setup with both email addresses and cell numbers. When you send an email to one of the groups, both an email and a text message goes out to them. Works great.

Me and my guys fish the northeast Texas division of THSBA and fished through some cold heavy rain on Sandlin this year. I told my guys when we left the boat ramp that if we saw lightning anywhere we were headed for the truck and wouldn't return to the water until I felt it was safe to go back.
I've had some run ins with lightning and feel I'm fortunate to be alive. There are probably a half a dozen incidents where it should have killed me.
I agree it would be hard for a tournament director to pull the plug without some sort of system in place that was mentioned above. Given what I saw here at the house this weekend if they launched ahead of that, I probably wouldn't have unloaded. I love tournament fishing and my guys do to, but it's not worth dying over.

You are 100% right. The kids are all at different levels and motivations. But guess what, so are the boat captains. This whole thread is about an organization and TD who did not take into account that they had adults in the field who neither had the judgement nor experience to make the right call regarding the weather. I asked about the weather when the kids picked up their bracelets. The TD’s response was use your best judgement. Which essentially means you signed a waiver and if you are dumb enough to get struck by lightning then I have no liability. Is that attitude in the best interest of children?

^^^ This ^^^

It's rather simple and there are many programs to send mass texts. That is why most "larger" tournament organizations ask for a cell phone #. They build a data base containing everyone's contact info and it take seconds to text the entire data base.