I fish 2 tournaments a year. One in the first of may and the other the first of september. Its put on by the same guy and has been put on for tge last 30 years. I absolutely love the format. We fish for 12 hrs. 2 man teams. 6 fish limit. But only 3 of those fish can be over 18 inches. This rule was incorporated about 10 years ago. We dont all fish the same water. Its an open tourney. We meet up at 5am and meet back up for weigh in at 5pm. Keeps things super interesting. Last year was the first year we placed in the money and i won big bass at 5lb 10oz. Just a little insight to my favorite tourney format in southern indiana

having a 2 big fish and being able to fish different waters is really cool. hope it continues for many more years. 

Sounds cool

 

A local tackle shop used to do a month long tournament . You had to physically bring the fish there to weigh.There were almost no other rules. It was the top 10 biggest fish of the month and each place had a prize.I placed a couple times and won a nice combo with one of them. It wasnt a high pay- out but was really fun for those of us who fished anyway . You could fish anywhere.

It was also great for the tackle store because it produced more business.But sadly,that store went out of business eventually.

I think I'd rather just have a 3 fish format and forget keeping those fish under 18". 

16 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I think I'd rather just have a 3 fish format and forget keeping those fish under 18". 

It definitely adds some strategy to the tourney. 

KTBA does a double shot team format. Two weigh ins, best combined weight wins. 

On 4/9/2017 at 6:19 PM, N Florida Mike said:

A local tackle shop used to do a month long tournament . You had to physically bring the fish there to weigh.There were almost no other rules. It was the top 10 biggest fish of the month and each place had a prize.I placed a couple times and won a nice combo with one of them. 

It was also great for the tackle store because it produced more business.But sadly,that store went out of business eventually.

 

We had a local shop do something similar on a small local lake that was only about 300 acres in size and was electric motor only. So as you can imagine, most of the boats on this lake didn't even have working livewells. So guys would catch a fish, load up the boat, drive a few miles up the road, measure and weigh the fish, and then they could drive back and release the fish, given it was still alive...

After two or three summers of this, that lake went completely downhill because every decent sized fish was being kept for this "tournament".

Wouldn't you be worried about guys going to private lakes or something?  Places not everyone has access to, where the fishing pressure is but a fraction compared to public waters.  I'm definitely not implying that teams participating could cheat, but that format kinda lends itself to it rather easily.

 

I'm not a fan of derbies like this.  There's one every year close to home on Lake Ontario.  The locals and guides (very few tournament fishermen) go out and slaughter dozens of 4 to 6 pound smallmouth.  When everyone involved is coming from different areas/lakes back to some central location for weigh in...there's just no way you can keep most of those fish alive or well enough to release them.    

2 hours ago, RichF said:

Wouldn't you be worried about guys going to private lakes or something?  Places not everyone has access to, where the fishing pressure is but a fraction compared to public waters.  I'm definitely not implying that teams participating could cheat, but that format kinda lends itself to it rather easily.

 

I'm not a fan of derbies like this.  There's one every year close to home on Lake Ontario.  The locals and guides (very few tournament fishermen) go out and slaughter dozens of 4 to 6 pound smallmouth.  When everyone involved is coming from different areas/lakes back to some central location for weigh in...there's just no way you can keep most of those fish alive or well enough to release them.    

We all go to private lakes, our best spots, and usually out of 10-17 teams, there may be 2 dead fish. Which is very impressive. But yes the cheating thing is possible if someone was putting fish in a cage/basket days prior to the tourney. 

Definitely impressive to keep most of those fish alive.  Glad to hear that.