Busted at Lake St. Clair

[Marinadan]

Three weeks ago our club had a two day tournament in Michigan on Lake St.Clair.
We are from just North of Indy. There were eleven boats, just a small club. On the second
day of the tournament after the weighin, I was approached by a DNR officer who asked me
If I had a registration to conduct a tournament. I told him I was not aware the we needed to
have a registration to have a tournament. He ended up writing me a citation for an unregistered
Fishing tournament. I called the court the next day to find out what the fine was. The court secretary
Told me they had not processed such a citation before and she took my pH # and said she would
call me back. Two weeks have gone by and I got a call today from the Secretary to inform me the
fine was $300. I can understand the fine if it was a second offense, but $300?? I looked on
the DNR website and found the fine could have been up to $500 and 90 days in jail!!
If you have a tournament in Michigan, you had better be registered. Fishing is getting really scary.

[JHelms]

Did you disqualify your weight for violation of state law?

[mactlman]

michigan is heading BLUE quickly!! such a waste!!

[posmallie]

If you read some of the Michigan fishing forums, the guys from Indiana have a terrible reputation for how they handle their fish at St. Clair. I'm not accusing you or your club of any wrongdoing; just telling you what I've been reading for years on those forums. My guess is the DNR had enough complaints that they wanted to make an example. Our CO's also don't give warnings in Michigan. Everyone gets a ticket.

[billnorman1]

Same laws here. No fees (yet). It's all about control. We got along without DNR interference for 30 years or more, but now we need (Government)'s hand in our organization.

[Marinadan]

I figured it up, in four days (2 days practice and 2 days tournament) we spent ove $5000
on licenses, rooms, food, gas and ramp fees. Michigan's loss next year.

[SAL321]

The CO's and the in-state anglers have not been happy with some of the out-of-state folks are treating the resource to be frank. I launch out of Crocker almost every weekend. There are numerous tournaments that are rogue. Rules are rules.

There are some ignorant folks, there were more dead bass released by a group than would be considered normal and there was a CO that was asking questions. It was even more frustrating to see that they weren't fish I would carry around in my livewell all day. To each his own and if they paid the money for a license they have every right to keep the fish, but not keep it all day, weigh it in as dead or dying and then dump them back into the lake make their way back home.

They are really clamping down....just be aware and I complain every time I see it which is way to often.

[Erie660]

Three weeks ago our club had a two day tournament in Michigan on Lake St.Clair.
We are from just North of Indy. There were eleven boats, just a small club. On the second
day of the tournament after the weighin, I was approached by a DNR officer who asked me
If I had a registration to conduct a tournament. I told him I was not aware the we needed to
have a registration to have a tournament. He ended up writing me a citation for an unregistered
Fishing tournament. I called the court the next day to find out what the fine was. The court secretary
Told me they had not processed such a citation before and she took my pH # and said she would
call me back. Two weeks have gone by and I got a call today from the Secretary to inform me the
fine was $300. I can understand the fine if it was a second offense, but $300?? I looked on
the DNR website and found the fine could have been up to $500 and 90 days in jail!!
If you have a tournament in Michigan, you had better be registered. Fishing is getting really scary.

I read about this on some other forums. It was also reported that some guys were caught trying to throw some dead bass in the bushes and also some dead fish in the water. I did not see this but is there any truth to it?

[MikeF]

I told him I was not aware the we needed to
have a registration to have a tournament.

Don't know if ya don't ask.

2 minute Goggle search

For your future tournaments.

https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/4682...%20tournaments.



https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,...0410--,00.html

[jc2bg]

This is the second year, I believe, that Michigan has had a tournament registration law/ordinance on the books. It doesn’t cost to register, and it’s not an application per se. They primarily want to know how the resources are being used, and to what extent, so they can do some tracking and planning. It would be easy to overlook such ordinances if you are from out of state. I know that in our club, the main reason that our club event this year *was* registered [and last year, too] was that our tournament director was willing to take it upon himself to see that it got done. I’d hate to be paying that fine, but truthfully, it’s relatively in line. We had 12-14 guys go up there for 2 days, and each of them probably spent at least $200 to fish for the weekend, possibly $300. A $50 fine wouldn’t have scared them much if they were too lazy to register [speaking about our guys, not the OP] or thought the risk of getting busted was low enough.

For comparison, within Ohio we have to *apply* for tournament permits, and may or may not get one, depending upon demand and how many ramps will hold how many rigs. Most of our ramps, however, are small enough that if you tried to sneak a tournament in where one was already scheduled, you’d be shooting yourself in the foot, because you might not have a place to park.

[NY29T]

Why did you say you weren’t just fun fishing. Having a friendly tournament . Man

[rakkc]

whats a permit cost? here in planet UT you get to pay the state and the feds (~$350 in permit fees), plus all boaters must complete quaggi mussel prevention training, and if from out of state do the same training and plus pay a $30 quaggi mussel prevention fee. lot of the local clubs just schedule there stuff too be held in ID, permit is $25.

[BigFishSteve]

Just one ticket? How did you get it? Where you the TD?

[ECobb91]

Well at this point just have to lick your wounds and move on. Don’t get mad for not following state laws. Pretty sure almost every state you have to get permits to hold a tournament.. it’s not just MI.

Here You need a permit to use any state owned launch when holding a tournament of more than 20 people (so approx. 10 boats). Anything less than that amount and you’re exempt. I’m the club VP and deal with all the state and private permits even though our club is less than 20 members. Better to be safe than sorry.. We get guys all the time from PA, NJ, Mass and CT coming to ny and playing the “were just a group of guys fishing together” card to get out of having to apply for permits. I’ve seen a few out of state clubs get kicked out of Private Ramps too when they don’t have permits. It’s not just them, a club out of Rome NY is notorious for not applying for permits and they’ve been asked to leave the site before take off sometimes because another club shows up with proper documents.It’s just frustrating that some people purposely skirt around the laws due to laziness and will ruin it for everyone else.

[1BADAIR]

yep. Every event should be listed on this site.
https://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/fishingtournaments/

[Marinadan]

We have a two fish limit on smallmouth waters to protect the fish. I did a search on the Mi.
DNR site for fishing tournament permit and it came back"not found". The difference is permit
Versus registration.

[THOEFT]

michigan is heading BLUE quickly!! such a waste!!

Yeah that’s why they are trying to take care of their fisheries. You can turn anything political

[Marinadan]

The officer took my drivers license and went to the ramp to look for dead fish. There were
none. We take pride in taking care of our fish.

[geodebasser]

I live on Lake Guntersville. I wish Alabama DNR would do that. There are too many out of state tournaments where they don’t take care of fish.

[jc2bg]

I figured it up, in four days (2 days practice and 2 days tournament) we spent ove $5000
on licenses, rooms, food, gas and ramp fees. Michigan's loss next year.

I don’t want to be argumentative, but Michigan will survive the loss. I’m not wild about the nonresident license fees or ramp fees that we typically pay in Michigan, but I hope Michigan natives at least meet me on equal terms, realizing that we’re both paying our fair share [as determined by the state] and that I’ll try my darndest to play by their rules. It’s a privilege for me to get to fish there, and for our club to get to taste a different and better variety of fishing than we regularly see. I get on the guys in our club, too, who pooh-pooh the no power loading ordinance. Their house; their rules.