Dates, waters, launch windows, scoring platform, identifier format, approved boards, points, and championship qualification remain subject to final director, permit, and insurance approval.
1. Eligibility and registration
- Events are open to properly registered anglers who meet the published membership or guest requirements.
- Participants must hold every fishing license, watercraft registration, permit, or access credential required by law or the venue.
- Participants under 18 require parent or legal-guardian consent and must follow any event-specific adult-accompaniment rule.
- Registration is personal and may not be transferred without director approval.
2. Safety
- A properly fitted U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device must be worn and securely fastened whenever the participant is on the water.
- Participants must carry required signaling, lighting, and communication equipment and comply with all boating laws.
- Alcohol, illegal drugs, and impairment are prohibited during competition. A director may remove an angler when safety is in doubt.
- Each angler is responsible for evaluating weather, water, health, and equipment. CIKBS may delay, shorten, relocate, or cancel an event.
3. Watercraft and propulsion
Competition is conducted from a single-person kayak or other director-approved human-powered fishing craft. Pedal drives and electric motors may be allowed when legal for the venue and disclosed during registration. Gas-powered propulsion is prohibited. The craft must be launched from a legal, event-approved access.
4. Fishing methods
- Only artificial lures may be used unless an event announcement expressly states otherwise.
- One rod may be actively used at a time. Trolling is permitted only where legal and not excluded by event instructions.
- Fish must be hooked, fought, landed, photographed, and released by the registered angler.
- Anglers may not receive fishing assistance, share fish, intentionally crowd another competitor, or fish from land or a dock during competition.
5. Eligible fish and scoring
Largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass at least 12.00 inches long are eligible unless an event-specific rule establishes a different legal minimum. An angler's five longest accepted fish determine the event score. Lengths are recorded to the scoring platform's supported increment. Highest total length wins.
6. Measurement and photographs
- Use only a measuring board approved for that event.
- Place the fish with its left side facing up unless the event briefing authorizes otherwise, mouth closed and touching the board's zero stop, and tail lying naturally on the board.
- The entire fish, zero stop, measurement marks, and official event identifier must be visible and readable in one photograph.
- Hands may restrain the fish without covering the eye, mouth, identifier, or scored tail mark. Fish-gripping devices may not remain attached in the scoring photograph.
- Blurred, obstructed, altered, duplicate, or otherwise unverifiable submissions may be denied or penalized.
7. Catch care and release
All fish must be handled carefully and released promptly near the place of capture unless law or venue rules require otherwise. Stringers, livewells, transport, and intentional retention of tournament fish are prohibited. Deliberate mistreatment may result in disqualification.
8. Boundaries and time
Only water identified in the event briefing is eligible. Fishing may begin at the published lines-in time. A fish must be landed and photographed before lines-out and submitted by the published deadline. Late submissions may be denied. Portaging or crossing private or restricted property is prohibited.
9. Scoring decisions and penalties
Authorized judges determine whether a submission satisfies the rules. Penalties may include a length deduction, denial of a fish, loss of event points, or disqualification, depending on the violation and published scoring standards. Intentional falsification, fish sharing, altered media, or repeated unsafe conduct may result in suspension from the series.
10. Ties
Event ties are broken by comparing each angler's longest accepted fish, then second-longest through fifth-longest. If still tied, the earliest time the final scoring fish was submitted wins. The director may publish a different championship tiebreaker before registration.
11. Sportsmanship and access
Participants must respect other anglers, officials, volunteers, the public, property, ramps, and natural resources. Harassment, threats, discrimination, cheating, littering, wake conflicts, or conduct that materially harms the series may result in removal or discipline.
12. Protests
A protest must be submitted privately to the tournament director with specific facts and available evidence within 30 minutes after preliminary results are posted, unless the event briefing states another deadline. The director's decision after reasonable review is final for that event.
13. Season points and championship
Only members in good standing earn season points. The final points scale, drop-event policy, qualification threshold, and championship carryover will be published before the first paid event. Guest results do not earn season points unless the director announces otherwise before registration.
14. Director authority
The tournament director may interpret these rules, address circumstances not expressly covered, correct administrative errors, and make safety-based changes. Material changes will be communicated as early as reasonably possible and applied consistently.