Jim Austin
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770-912-6364
Dan Bojo
PR & Info
205-333-5448
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Jim Austin
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Fishing w/Jim Austin 2008 Tournament Rules
Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament — $20,000 to 1st Place Team (with 100 Boats Participants). Register online or open and print a
Mail/Fax Registration Form.
Anglers who are qualified to enter this tournament: Anglers who live more than 100 miles of lake (less than 100 miles of lake cannot fish unless have previously fished in a Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament.)
Annual Membership: $25.00
Tournament Rules
- Rules Changes: the following rules will remain unchanged throughout the event unless State of local laws are in conflict. Interpretation and enforcement of these rules shall be left exclusively to the Tournament director. In the event of a rule violation, the tournaments Director may impose sanctions as he deems appropriate, including, without limitation, disqualification, forfeiture of prizes entry fee and prohibition from participation in subsequent tournaments. The decision of the Tournament Director and tournament officials shall be final in all matters. It is the Director’s discretion to make a change where safety of the contestants is a concern. All Federal, State and local laws must be obeyed and it is the contestant’'s responsibility to know these laws. Protests must be made in writing within 30 minutes of the official check-in time of the final flight of each tournaments day.
- Participants and Eligibility: Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournaments are open to members of the Angler’s Paradise Club and Jim Austin Buddy Trail only. Membership is open to men and women aged 18 and above. A properly completed and signed official entry and full entry fee payment must be received at headquarters no later than the established deadline.
- Point Standings: 250 points will be awarded to the winner of each tournament, 249 to 2nd, 248 to 3rd, etc. All anglers who receive weight credit will receive points. The top 100 pros and 100 co-angers from the point standings after the five qualifying tournaments will be invited to compete for 1st place grand prize at the Classic. All other contestants will compete for open field prizes.
- Pre-Tournament Practice: The off-limits period begins 25 days prior to the first official practice day (with the exceptions of the Saturday and Sunday prior to tournament date). The first official practice day is 2 days prior to the tournament date. If not present, it is required to have made previous arrangements with tournament officials. No contestant may be on the tournament waters after the start of the pre-tournament meeting except during tournament hours. There will be no purchasing of information, no hiring of services, no exchange of information freely or otherwise, including information provided by another participant for 25 days prior to the first official practice day and during the 2 day official practice time. The only participant that you are allowed to communicate with during the 4-day practice will be the co-angler that travels with you. However, contestants may employ all available resources for assistance prior to this off-limits period.
- Registration and Pre-Tournament Meeting: Each contestant must register in person at the designated site during the official registration hours, 3:00–6:00 P.M. local time the day before the tournament.
NEW RULE AND PENALTY: 1 team member must attend meeting and sign in or pay $20 late fee at landing. For more information call:
Jim Austin at 770-912-6364 or 770-862-0657
Dan Bojo at 205-310-0213 - Safety: Safe boating must be observed at all times. Each contestant is required to wear a fastened, U.S. Coast Guard approved personal flotation device any time the combustion engine is in operation from boat check until weigh-in. All boats must be equipped with an emergency ignition shut-off device that must be securely attached to the driver’s body whenever the combustion engine is in operation. At the discretion of the tournament director, tournament days may be shortened or cancelled due to unsafe weather or water conditions.
- Sportsmanship: All contestants are required to follow high standards of sportsmanship, courtesy and conservation and to conduct themselves in a manner that will be a credit to themselves.
Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament, sponsors, the sport of fishing and the efforts of
Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament to promote the sport. Examples of conduct not complying with those standards include, but are not limited to: Consumption and/or possession of alcoholic beverage or any kind of mind-altering substance during registration, the pre-tournament meeting or during tournament hours extending through the weigh-in procedures. Abuse of, or addiction to mind altering substance, conviction of a felony within the past 36 months. Any other words, conduct or actions reflecting unfavorably upon efforts to promote safety, sportsmanship, fair competition and compliance with tournament rules.
In case of any conduct not complying with sportsmanship standards, Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament shall have the right to refuse any application or to deny a confirmed application by returning the entry fee of a previously accepted application or by disqualifying a contestant. - Boat and Horsepower Regulation: All boats must be a minimum of 15 feet in length. All boats must be equipped with wheel steering. No other steering device will be permitted. No barges or similar cumbersome crafts will be permitted. Each boat must have all required U.S. Coast Guard safety equipment. Boats must contain a properly aerated live well space to maintain alive a limit catch of bass by both contestants. Maximum horsepower for all outboards used in tournament competition must not exceed the horsepower limitations as set by the U.S. Coast Guard, but have a minimum of 40 horsepower rating plate attached to the boat by the manufacturer. The horsepower of the outboard engine must not exceed the rating specified on this rating plate.
- Officials’ Boats: Officials will be on the lake for boat inspection and observation during tournament hours. Contestants are required to cooperate with all requests made by tournament officials.
- Permitted Fishing Methods: All bass must be caught alive in a conventional sporting manner. Only artificial lures may be used, with the exception of pork trailers. Only one fishing rod may be used at a time. Trolling as a method of fishing is prohibited.
- Permitted Fishing Locations: Contestants may fish anywhere on tournament waters accessible by boat except for areas designated as “off-limits” or “no fishing” by local, state or federal officials; within 50 years of a marina gas pump; or within 50 years of a competitor’s boat, which was first anchored (an anchored boat is a boat held in a stable position by a line attached to a weight with the trolling motor in the up position). All angling must be conducted from the boat. At no time may a contestant leave the boat to land a fish or to make the boat more accessible to fishing waters. Contestants must leave and return to the official checkpoint by boat. The boat must remain in the tournament water during the tournament day. No tournament boat may be loaded on the trailer before the weigh-in except with the permission of the tournament director. In the event of equipment failure or emergency, there will be only two permitted methods of returning to the official check-in: (1) by both partners remaining in their boat and being towed by water or (2) by both partners entering the boat of another tournament contestant. Under these two conditions, the contestants’ catches may be counted without a penalty (except for late penalties, dead fish penalties or other penalties pertaining to other tournament rules). Contestants who elect to return to the official check-in by any other means than cited above will forfeit their day’s catch to that point in time of the tournament day. Any contestant returning to the check-in point will be eligible to restart and resume competition only under the supervision of the tournament director or his designated tournament official. It is the sole responsibility of contestants to locate the tournament director to request a restart. Partners must remain together at all times and within sight of each other until weigh-in slips are signed in order for their catches for that day to be counted. In the case of male/female partners sharing a boat, the momentary condition of being out of sight of each other for restroom breaks is permitted. If a contestant must violate any part of this rule due to an emergency or for any other reason, his catch for that day will not be counted.
- Official Checkpoints: There will be only one official checkpoint for boat check-in each morning and one official check-in point each afternoon. Failure to go through boat check and check-out in the morning or failure to check in at the check-in point will result in disqualification. All fishing must ease upon check-in.
- Late Penalty: Contestants who are not at the official check-in area at the appointed time will be penalized 1 pound per minute, which will be deducted from the total weight including any weight to be counted toward a big bass award. Any contestant more than 15 minutes late will lose credit for that day’s weight.
- Live fish: Every effort must be made to keep bass alive through the use of a properly aerated livewell. Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament recommends use of chemical livewell additives that promote the healthy return of bass to their natural habitat. Six ounces will be deducted from the total weight for each dead bass presented for weigh-in.
- Scoring: Scoring will be determined by the pounds and ounces of each contestant’s catch during teach round of qualifying tournament. Only largemouth, spotted, red eye or smallmouth bass are accepted species. The limit will be five unless the state or lake limit is less than five, in which case the state or lake limit will prevail. Any contestant who possesses more than the tournament limit will have his catch for that day disqualified. The official minimum length limit for bass will be 12 inches unless the state or lake limit is more than 12 inches, in which case the state or lake limit will prevail. Bass presented for weigh-in that fail to measure the prescribed length limit will be penalized at the rate of one pound for each non-legal bass presented. Each contestant’s catch must be presented in an official weigh-in bag and verified by the signature of this partner. On day 1 of the Classic tournaments, the top 20 Pros and 20 Co-anglers from the first round will compete starting over at zero.
- Ties: If both teams have the same number of fish, then the contestant with the biggest fish will break the tie. If the tied contestants share the same number of fish and their largest fish have the same weight, then the Tournament Director will determine another method to break the tie.
- Insurance: Liability insurance is required of all contestants in Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament.
- Polygraph: All contestants, winners and non-winners are subject to a polygraph test. Failure to submit to a polygraph test will result in immediate disqualification. Any contestant who fails a polygraph test for cheating in connection with the Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament or whose polygraph results are inconclusive will not be eligible to compete in any Fishing w/Jim Austin Buddy Tournament.
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