With this year’s extra travel in mind, we’ve updated the Off-Limits Period and Official Practice Period for our Tour Events this year. This update is similar to the policy used for the West Coast Championship, and the BassMaster Kayak series.
Off-Limits Period
The body of water is completely off-limits for two weeks before the Official Practice Period. That means you are not allowed on the water in any manner, and fishing is not allowed on the body of water.
Official Practice Period
You can prefish, chart graphs, and explore from the Saturday before the event, until the day before the event. Times will match the Lines In and Off the Water times for the event. If we have evidence of an angler on the water or fishing before or after these times, they will be disqualified from the event.
We are likely to update the rules to disallow any uploads to the Season Long Online Challenge on that body of water during the Off-Limits Period and the Official Practice Period from any KFNW angler, to encourage smarter prefishing and less fish handling. Use hookless lures, don’t set the hook, or let those fish shake your hook. It will only make the fishing better on tournament day.
These changes have been made to the Tour Event details that are live.
We are also likely to bolster our “information sharing” rules in the coming months.
Our goal has always been to do our best to ensure good fishing on tournament day. With that end goal, we have tried to enforce practice rules that helped us prevent people burning, sore lipping, and basically ruining the experience for others. Don’t be that person this year or you will likely find yourself in hot water with us for unsportsmanlike conduct and you may be disqualified.