Simply Fishing’s 2005 Muskie Classic
Tournament Rules 


             

(1) All judges decisions will be FINAL, with no legal recourse to an appeal process.

(2) Participation is open to those that have met all entry requirements. Entrants must be at least 18 years of age or have the captain of their team be the paent or legal guardian, and furnish proof of such. A completed entry form must have been submitted and full payment received prior to the published entry deadline. This a team tournament, with a team consisting of no more than two people fishing from one boat.  The entry fee is $2,600 per team. The tournament field is limited to 100 teams, based on receipt of entry forms.  The sum of $500.00 must accompany entry form, a second payment of $500,00 is due by May 15^th of the tournament year, and the balance of $1600.00 is due by July 15th preceeding the tournament. Any entry forms received after dates in payment schedule, nust include all payments required to the current date. All payments for entry are NON-refundable. A team captain may transfer his paid berth to another party, upon written notice to the tournament director. In such catastrophic event that the tournament is cancelled, all payments will be refunded.

(3) Pre-Tournament practice will commence anytime prior to the Tuesday cutoff during tournament week. All anglers will take notice there will be NO pre-fishing, scouting, or on water research exhibited on Tuesday of tournament week. Check postings for updates on prefishing rules.

(4) Registration and pre-tournament meeting will be held Tuesday of tournament week. Registration is from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM.  Rules Meeting starts at 6:30 PM (Mandatory For Full Team, any team arriving late by more than fifteen minutes will forfeit their departure position, and will be moved to the end of the departure rotation.)

(5) Tournament hours:
     Full Field          Wednesday    from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Last Flight)

     Full Field          Thursday          from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Last Flight)

     Full Field          Friday           from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Last Flight)

     30 Boat Field         Saturday       from 7:00 AM to 4:00PM

    10 Boat Field      Sunday         from 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM

(6) Tournament days, or hours can and will be shortened, or canceled due to unsafe weather conditions. This action will be the sole decision of the tournament director, and tournament judge committee, and will stand as the final decision. There will be no make up days in the event of the loss of a day, or portion of a day due to weather. All rankings will be determined at the time of the decision and will be based on the anglers performance up until the decision period.

(7) Reporting Fish:  CELL PHONES AND MARINE RADIOS are mandatory. All contestants will report their fish via the following methods. 1st, Use your cell phone to communicate with headquarters. Headquarters will then report your phone number, and location to the appropriate on water judge boat. 2nd, Upon failure of the cell phone a team can request judges assistance via your marine band radio. This is not a protected channel, and any information given will be at the risk of the team reporting the fish.

(8) All fish will be received and measured by an official judge. NO EXCEPTIONS. All fish will be released alive to receive full points. Any fish reported, measured, and unable to be released alive will result in the loss of fifty percent of live release totals for that fish, and constitute the end of the day for that angler. Angling from the penalized teams boat will be carried out by ONLY the remaining angler. All fish will be measured during and only during official tournament hours. Any fish reported on or before the official end of tournament hours will be accepted.        

(9) Flights: Teams will leave in three flights. Flights will be staggered by 20 minute intervals. Teams will fish each day to the limit of their flight period. ( Example) Boats in flight #1 will depart each day at regular posted start time, and will complete their day 40 minutes short of the post ending period, or 3:20 PM, flight two will follow suit. Ease out order will be determined by a drawing promptly at 6:00 PM on September 16th. Drawing of rotation will be final. Teams will be divided into 3 flights. Flights will rotate each day, with flight #1 departing first on day one, flight #2  departing second, and flight #3 departing last. On day 2 flight #2 will depart first, with flight #1 going out last. On day 3 of qualifying, flight #3 will depart first, with flight #2 departing last. The Saturday semifinal Top 30 teams and the Sunday final top 10 teams will go out in order of point standing.

(10) Boating safety will be observed at all times, any infraction resulting in a citation will be grounds for immediate disqualification. All anglers will wear a certified U.S. Coast Guard approved flotation devise, at all times while boat is under main outboard power. Anglers trolling with kicker motors will be exempt of this ruling while trolling ONLY. Any visual infraction of this rule by a judge will result in disqualification. Kill switches should be attached and used while your large combustion engine is in use.

(11) Good sportsmanship will be observed at all times, on and off the water. Any non sportsman like conduct on or off the water will result in a disqualification. All contestants are asked, and expected to exhibit the highest standards found in the sport of muskie fishing. Conduct concerns would include but not be limited to ones self conduct, one’s courtesy toward the resource and fellow anglers. All contestants will use their best effort to cooperate with television and other media personnel for interviews, video and photography sessions.  Contestants give their right to Simply Fishing, Inc. to use video, photography and interview materials in production of programming and advertising materials.         

(12) All boats will be not less than 16 feet  and not greater than 23 feet in length. No pontoons or barges will be permitted. Each boat must have on board and operational, all the necessary  and required coast guard equipment. Marine radios will be required for all contestant boats. Maximum horsepower will not exceed 250 hp or the recommended Coast Guard limitation (See boat manufactures BIA rating plate for recommended horsepower limitations). Any angler found violating the tournament by operating an overpowered boat will be disqualified. Only fuel carried in factory installed fuel tanks will be allowed.

(13) All muskies will be caught and released alive, within accepted conventional sporting manners. Only artificial baits will be accepted and used during ALL PRE-FISHING and TOURNAMENT hours. Only one rod will be used at a time. Trolling will be permitted, however, ALL trollers will maintain a distance of not less than 100 feet from any other contestants boat while in the process of trolling.

(14) Boundaries: The entire lake within it’s natural boundaries will be accepted as official tournament waters, with the exception of posted non fishing areas, posted by state or local officials. This means any rivers and or marinas will be off limits, from shore point to shore point of the main lake. Posted areas will be avoided by at least 50 yards.

(15) Buoy Use: Any angling team marking a spot with a marker buoy ( buoy must have the boat owners name, address, and phone number marked permanently on the buoy) will be given a 50 yard radius of protection of said buoy, as long as, the contestants boat stays within the protected 50 yard radius. Leaving the protected area will result in nullification the buoy’s intent. A Team may have only one buoy in use at any time.

(16) Scoring Fish: Scoring fish will be as follows: Fifty (50) points for each legal 40” fish, and one (1) point for each quarter inch over the legal 40” length. Example: a 45 “ fish would equal 70 points, a 50” fish would equal 100 points. Judges will measure with open tail. All measurements will be officially announced until the end of each  day. Only the top 30 teams in point standing who have caught fish, will proceed past the qualifying cut into the semifinal round on Saturday. For Saturday’s team standings, only points earned that day will be used to rank this field of 30 teams, with the exception that all ties will be broken by using the qualifying round team points.  Only the top 10 teams by Saturday’s point standings will proceed to Sunday, the final day.  Only points earned on Sunday will be used to rank the final teams, with the exception that all ties will be broken by using total team points earned in the tournament, both qualifying and semifinal points.  Tournament purse payout will be awarded to the top 20 teams catching fish in the tournament, as placed by final round standings, and then semifinal round standings. Once a team that has been eliminated from the tournament, the team members are not permitted to fish on tournament waters. 
 

(17) Ties: All ties will be decided by the flip of a coin. With the exception of the 1st place championship. In the case of first place, the winner will be decided by the team that has the greatest quantity of OVER ALL points. This will take into account every legal fish the teams have caught. If a tie still exists, the winner will be determined by the longest fish caught by a tying team member.

(18) In the event of equipment failure, contestants are asked to phone in their locations for retrieval reasons.

(19) Alcohol/Drug Control:  The use of alcohol or any other controlled substance used during event hours will be grounds for disqualification.   Possession of alcohol or any other controlled substances is not permitted in boats.  Disqualification will be immediate, final and totally at the discretion of the tournament officials.

(20)  Any protest must be in writing not more than 20  minutes following any fishing period, ie. 1st  flight 3:20, 2nd flight 3:40 and 3rd flight 4:00 respectively or at the end of each of the following final two days.  All cash award recipients subject to lie detector testing.

All inquires should be directed to:                     
     Simply Fishing Inc.

     1890 Center Street
     Hugo, MN  55038

     Office  651-429-3351

     Fax      651-653-0015

Contact persons are:     
     Bob Mehsikomer, Tournament Director

     Office 651-429-3351

     Cell 612-670-0744

     Email   bob@simplyfishing.com

Tournament Sponsor Information: 

     Rich Tuomi

     Office 651-429-3351

     Cell 612-325-2156

     Email  rich@simplyfishing.com