OHIO CENTRAL BASIN BASS CLUB RULES

Club Rules

CENTRAL BASIN BASS CLUB RULES

Club meetings will be held on the second Thursday of each month. Club meetings will begin at 7:00 pm. No meeting is held in December.

MEMBERSHIP
Club officer positions include: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Tournament Director, Youth/Environmental Officer and Webmaster. Club officer term is two years.

The minimum age for club membership application is sixteen (16) years old. An active club member must sponsor all new club membership applicants. To become a member, a prospective new member must attend one meeting as a guest and participate in one Club activity that earns standings points (i.e. fish one tournament as a guest, attend a youth, environmental project, etc.) Having completed these requirements, membership acceptance will be subject to a vote by the active membership body at the next regular club meeting. Upon acceptance, the new member’s points from the qualifying event as a guest will count toward the year end points total.

The club membership is limited to twenty members. The number of co-angler members shall never exceed the number of boat owning members (Boaters) in the club.

Membership with the Ohio Bass Federation (OBF), The Bass Federation (TBF) and MLF is mandatory for all club members. The club membership dues are $100 per year. Dues include annual association fees, a club fee and the annual $5 big bass pot. The fees are subject to change each year. The fee breakdown is OBF $30, TBF $15, MLF $35, Big Bass $5, CBBC $15. The total Big Bass pot (number of members times $5) is awarded to the member weighing in the heaviest bass for the year.

Dues for a new year must be paid by the January club meeting. Our goal is to have our re-affiliation OBF/TBF/MLF submitted by the OBF Open Meeting, which is usually held in late January or early February. If a member fails to pay dues by the January meeting, the re-affiliation roster will not include the member. If dues are paid after the January meeting, a $25 late fee will be applied in order to renew membership.

TOURNAMENTS
One goal of the Central Basin Bass Club is to advance the membership to competition beyond the club level. A club entry to the advanced tournaments is one boater and one co-angler. This applies to Regional Tournament and the National Semi Finals (NSF). The Club will assist members advancing beyond Regionals in identifying areas to fish and fishing patterns.

Advancement to these tournaments will be determined by the final standing order from the prior year. For Regionals, we will send all members wanting to fish the tournament. Should we not be able to send a boater/co-angler pair, we will contact the Regional Director to try to pair our lone member with someone from another club. For the NSF, the top angler (boater) and top co-angler have the first opportunity to fish the tournament. For the boater, we will go down the final standings until a boater decides to fish the tournament. We will do the same for the co-anglers. If no co-angler wants to participate, we will go to the top of the available boater list to fill this spot. If no boater wants to fish the NSF, we will not have a club entry into the NSF. The Club agrees to support National Federation Championship (Nationals) qualifiers based funds being available. The maximum club payout will be $200 per year. If one member qualifies, we pay $100. If more than one qualifies, the $200 will be split equally among the qualifiers.

In the event a club tournament conflicts with an advanced tournament, and to keep from penalizing a member for competing in the advanced tournament, we will average the weight caught at the club tournament and award that average plus the five show up points to the member for participation in the advance tournament.

All tournaments will be conducted under MLF rules. However, the club boat horsepower limit is 300hp. All tournaments will be one-day events and be nine hours duration from the specified launch time for that event. When a tournament is held at a site where the travel time is 2 hours or more from MK Automotive in North Olmsted, we will shorten that tournament to eight hours.

Our season runs from April through November. This keeps all tournaments in the same calendar year. Tournament dates for the year will be set by the March meeting. Lake selection for club tournaments will be the responsibility of the Club.

We will allow members to bring a guest to a tournament. A member may not exceed bringing three (3) guests in a single season. We also require that bringing a guest does not prevent a member co-angler from fishing a tournament. If a boater is open after the draw, the boater can choose to bring a family member. This choice does not count as a guest. There is no limit on how often this situation can occur.

For Safety, all tournaments held on Lake Erie will have a three (3) foot maximum wave height limit. If Lake Erie is running over three feet waves, the lake will be off limits. The Tournament Director will make every effort to decide whether or not to fish Lake Erie by 3:00 pm the day prior to the tournament based on available wind/wave information. On Lake Erie blow off days, we fish the site of the following year’s Regional tournament, if known. Annually, we will review the requirement to fish the site of Regionals once the Regionals location is known. The exception is when the wind is from the SW/S/SE. In this condition, the club will decide by vote at the lake the morning of the tournament whether or not to fish Lake Erie.

Also for safety, it is mandatory that every boater have some form of voice communication (cell phone or radio) on board while fishing. For all tournaments held on sites adjacent or connected to Lake Erie (Sandusky Bay, Portage River, Black River, etc.) participants must notify the another club member the participant decides to go on Lake Erie to fish.

BOATERS
A member must be listed as a boater on the club records for the majority of the qualifying season in order to fish Regionals (and beyond) as a boater. All boaters must assure a current boat insurance certificate is on file with the Club Secretary.

Boaters with open boats following the co-angler draw may pair-up to fish a tournament.

CO-ANGLERS
The co-angler will pay a $25.00 expense fee to the boat owner prior to boat launch. This MANDATORY rule is to help offset the boater’s expenses. By mutual agreement, for long boat runs the co-angler can share in the additional cost of fuel to make the long run.

Tournament pairings (boater/co-angler) will be determined by a draw at a club meeting prior to a tournament event. No teaming-up will be permitted. To the extent possible, a co-angler should fish only one tournament per season with each boater. Once a co-angler has fished with all the boaters participating in a particular tournament the co-angler is allowed to fish again with a boater within the same year.

POINT SYSTEM FOR SCORING
The club scoring format is two separate groups: a boater category and a co-angler category. Both groups will annually have a top angler. At the start of the year, members must declare which group they will compete in. That decision lasts for the full year. Exception - if a co-angler buys a boat during the season and wants to finish the remainder of the year as a boater, we will allow his points to transfer to the boater category.

There is a five fish creel limit for tournaments. Only largemouth bass, smallmouth bass or spotted bass may be included in the creel. Tournament water legal possession length limit will apply.

Club members earn points for working the club environmental project and the youth project. Five (5) points are earned for participation in each project. We use the Benefit Tournament for both projects.

Each tournament participant is awarded five (5) points for fishing a tournament. Each tournament participant is also awarded points according to the creel weight. Example: for a creel weight of 5.43 pounds, the participant is awarded 5.43 points. Each tournament participant is also awarded one (1) point for each fish in the weigh-in creel. No penalty will be assessed for dead fish. So, in this example, if 5 fish are in the creel, then the tournament is worth 15.43 points (5 points for fishing the tournament, 5 points for number of fish in creel and 5.43 points for the creel weight) in the season standings.

The club Angler of the Year and Co-angler of the Year will be determined based on the final total points accumulated in the season. This includes all tournaments fished and the points awarded for working the annual Benefit Tournament. The two lowest point total tournaments will be dropped in the final total to allow members the opportunity to miss two tournaments without being penalized. Primarily this is for vacations, work, emergencies, etc.

We will allow a member to fish a same day, same lake tournament other than a club tournament and count the weight as club weight under the following conditions: The tournament has to be on the same body of water and be an individual format. The tournament hours have to be the same duration or less than the club tournament. The member has to present an official weigh-in slip for the weight to the club. This option for not fishing the club tournament to fish another tournament can only be used once per season. The member does lose the five points for fishing the club tournament but gets the points for number of fish in the weigh-in creel and the weight of the creel.

DISCIPLINE

Grounds for disciplinary action or membership revocation include: failure to follow high standards of sportsmanship, courtesy, safety, conservation, falsification of information, cheating, use or alcohol/drugs during a tournament, practice or other actions detrimental to the future of the Federation, Region or Club.
Procedure
A written protest must be made to a club officer.
Discussion of protest at a Club meeting to allow all parties involved to explain various sides of protest.
Vote to decide on the action Club will take. Requires majority of members present to pass on an action.
Disciplinary action steps:
Minor incident - deduct 10 standings points (second minor in 12 months = one major)
Major incident - deduct 20 standings points (two majors = automatic membership revocation)
Membership revocation requires two thirds of membership to be present, a secret ballot and two thirds of vote in favor, excluding the member in question.
Club is then required to report the incident to the State Federation President for review/action. The President will obtain approval from the State Federation Board of Directors. Appeals must be made in writing to the Board within 30 days of notification of Federation action.

RESIGNATIONS
Any member who wishes to resign from the club during a season must present a written resignation to a club officer. If the resigning member qualified for Regionals, participation in Regionals is forfeited.

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