I have seen both and was wondering if anyone had any particular opinions about either. Currently, we pre-register for a tournament, and can start fishing anywhere on the entire lake at the given time, a lot of honor system here. Then at weigh in, we would pay our entry fees. I like the idea of registering before the tournament starts, and then everyone starting at the same place and ending at the same place....but yet, I also like the idea of being able to drive to the other side of the lake (or any other part of the lake) and launching from there. I think the "starting from same place" idea is a bit more fair to everyone but yet limits fishing to possibly just one area of the lake, not the whole lake. I don't know, what do you think?

Nevermind.

Lzydeus Pisceus

I'm not the expert, but the way Bass-n-Tubes is setup everyone must be at the launch area at "blast-off" time but can then get in their vehicles and drive to a different area to launch and fish. They must then return to the "blast-off" location for the weigh-in, of course. This practice is known as "running".

This has some advantages:
1) Money is collected up front. Otherwise, someone who had a bad day could just go home, which wouldn't be fair to everyone else.
2) A livewell check could be done just to keep everyone honest (although I don't think that's really a problem)

Some disadvantages:
1) If you launch at a ramp other than the blast-off, you might have to pay 2 separate launch/day-use fees.
2) You need a method to transport the fish and keep them alive. Most of our guys have livewells, so again this isn't a big issue.
3) You lose fishing time driving to/from the other location, plus any setup/teardown/packing time.

the godfather

From knowledge of problems in the past I would recommend to have everyone start at the same location. You have to think, in a boat tourney, what do they do? Of course they start at the same location, pay everything up front and if they are running to a spot 50 miles from blast off, it is their choice and their time. I realize you probably have not fished one of BnTs or SCBBBCs but when fishing a large lake like Clear Lake there are always guys who are willing to sacrafice time on the road to fish other spots. The Delta is another example of a place where people are running all over the place and taking their time to do it.

Believe me, the more you can cut down on potential problems to start with, the better off you are going to be in the long run. You just never know and want to keep it fair for everyone participating. Again, I know...

E-mail me offline if you would like to discuss this in further detail. sfo1tmi@ups.com

Todd