Press Release. Weigh in procedures, and something new!!!
To insure FLW Canada and our anglers take 100% best efforts to preserve our resources, we feel this is by far the best any organization can offer. Unfortunately this system puts the "show" second in priority over fish care.
FLW Canada firmly believes the best for our resources is a very fast weighin and returning fish to their home environment as fast as possible. We also feel this eliminates the possibilities for a accidental fish kill in a live release boat be it from dead pumps, over crowded tanks, over heating water, and many other small issues that can occur. FLW Canada does not take chances as our boat was built to help fish that truly need help.
This system does require a little more assistance and cooperation from the anglers to take part to help protect our resources. This also allows you the angler to see for yourself the survival of your hard days catch and not just trust it in others hands.
Weigh in procedures:
1. Teams come in, in flights of 40 every 30 mins.
2. The dock master will address each team when to proceed to bag their fish. A max of 3 boats at a time will be allowed in the holding tanks. No team will be allowed to bag fish until told by the Dock master.
3. When teams have loaded the Shimano Bag in a Bag, teams will then head to the staging area, remove the water holding bag and place the liner bag into the water temperature sensored, oxygenated holding tanks and proceed from tank to tank. The last tank will be no further from the stage than 20 feet and will then be pre checked for size, limit and health.
4. The team will then bring his bag onto the stage handing it to the weigh master and proceed to the emcee.
5. The Weigh Master will then weigh the fish in the mesh bag and return the mesh bag inside the water bag filled with fresh water and return it to the angler.
6. The angler then must return his fish to his live well, and pass the bags back to the dock master.
7. The team must then proceed to the live release boat to be released in front of him if they are in healthy enough condition to swim away. If they are not, the live release boat will take those fish and hopefully revive them back to health.
(FLW Canada has a special award for sportmanship to encourage anglers to point out a fish needs special care and NOT be shamed of it. Please let our boat do its job to help fish that truly need it).
8. Teams final weight will not be registered until they have been cleared by the live release boat. If a team dumps fish without his clearance they will be disqualified.
Note:
Rules WILL state that all teams MUST keep live wells and recirc pumps fully running through out the weigh in until you have been cleared by the live release boat.
SPECIAL NEW FEATURE!!!
FLW Canada will also be running a "scales open all day" incase teams have fish in trouble. Teams may keep fishing after they check in a stressed or big fish to insure it survives and not gamble it's life forcing it to stay in a live well all day. You may not cull a early weighed in fish.
The live release boat will be staged in a "fish safe zone" This zone will be out of bounds for tournament fishing. The live release boat will stay on site a minimum 15 minutes after the last team releases his fish to insure no fish come up.
We have also arranged 2 spy boats that will be stratigicly placed between the dock and live release boat to insure no passing of fish can happen. Limit Fish Media will also be filming the event, so trust us when we say if somebody tries funny business, they will be caught.
Thank you for your support of FLW Canada as we try and offer the best payback, the best show, and the best treatment to our communities, our anglers and our resources.
