My wife and I entered into our 1st bass tournament ever this coming weekend at a local lake. Tourney starts at 7am with weigh-in at 3pm.

My wife asks "what if it gets too hot and we want to get off the water before 3pm?". Is it common or possible to weigh-in early or does it mostly depend on the tournament directors?

You better ask the TD. A lot of tournaments won`t allow you to leave the boat.

Man up


Its the same temp for everyone. If ya can't handle the heat better start playing bingo. Atleast its got AC

I think alot of the tournaments open their weigh ins 1 hour before the check in.

Totally up to what the TD does. When my wife and I fished C.A.S.T. years ago. If it got really cold, I would take her back to the Marina and I continued to fish. Just a thought.

All tournaments are different and you must check their rules or contact the TD of the tournament. In the Bud Light Trail program, we open our scales by noon at every tournament and during the summer we are open by 10am. If you have a problem fish and or a big fish, you can call our TD and he will allow you to weigh in as many of your five fish limit as you wish during the day. The angler can then return to the lake and continue fishing, if a limit is not weighed in. Once the fish have been weighed in you cannot cull any of them.

We always have at least one person who is trained to fizz and or work with the fish to help them recover. In the summer months we always bring a large fish holding tank that has cooled water and chemicals added to help the fish recover before being released back into the lake.

We extend the same courtesy to the fishermen. If you or your wife are hot or cold, the BLT program will allow you to take care of the situation and then return to the lake.

The fear of cheating, in my opinion, is the primary reason why some tournament programs have more stringent rules. We depend on the integrity of 99.9999999% of the tournament anglers, written protests by those who observed the rules being violated and random polygraphs to help prevent cheating.

FYI,
BLT staff

If the tourney director is fishing the tourney, which most of them do in little trails, then the weigh in scale isnt opening until he gets off the water. Will probably be real close to 3.
I would not recommend sitting in the parking lot with a livewell full of fish and no new water to recirculate. Unless you want an earful from fellow fishermen.

See if you will be allowed to drop her off should she become miserable with the heat and you can keep fishing. If its her first tournament, work with her to be accomodating and she has a good time. You want the memories of her first tournament to be enjoyable. Summer time tournaments can be tough especially if there is little wind and no cloud cover.

Appreciate all the insight opinions and info fellas. Contacting the TD to see what he says. Can't find any this info in there rules anywhere.

Thanks

Try to help her keep comfortable.Plenty of cold drinks.Get her a big floppy straw beach hat.Make sure she has light clothes.Keep a hand towel and wet it in a little ice water for her neck.Find a place like a bridge to rest in the shade a little during the day.

If none of this works tell her your girfriend didn't have any complaints!

+1

When i fished tournys years ago, if it was a flat out calm hot day then when i wanted to get out of the heat i would try and find a bridge and start fishing the colums and the creek channel that normally goes under them. I have won tournys by fishing the brdiges before in the summer before, a lot of huge bass will hang around them.
Also make sure you have plenty of cold water or drinks with you, you can also try the wraps that you put in the freexer the night before and wear them around your head and neck to stay cooler also. But tournys are tournys and more time on the water will increase your odds of catching fish.

100% correct.