courtesy bump/BFL

[motocross269]

This may be a stupid question...I did a search here and checked the rules and couldn't find anything.  Are you allowed a courtesy bump in BFL and some of the bigger tourneys??  This past weekends club tournament I was the courtesy bump king...That is why my name is so far down the list.
Thanks,

[dashaver63]

I've fished 1 other BFL and a couple Everstart/Stren tournaments and have never seen one. I believe they used a Golden Rule so that would be the board I would have.

[SODY]

They should always have a courtesy bump board available at the larger tournaments. My feeling is they should be at every weigh in. I have bumped at four BFL's and have not had any trouble finding the board. It is usually adjacent to the holding tanks so as not to interfere to much with the weigh -in. Tournament etiquette is that the bump board should be the same type and style as the weigh master is using to check your fish. If its a golden rule , then a golden rule should be in the bump area. This is why we carry different boards for different series to make sure our fish are measured with their ruler type.

FOM uses a Pro-Rule ruler as an example and spells out the mouth-closed etc as to procedure. This is always in the formal rules.

Words of caution you should use the same procedure and when in doubt throw it out. If you are comfortable with your fish chances are the guy doing the checking is going to be, an official chewed me out for 1/16th of an inch and it was embarrassing....It was the Grand River and Boy did that penalty hurt....I can still feel it.!

[motocross269]

Thanks alot for the advice.  From what I hear about the Grand river lately It would be hard to throw back any fish that is close.

[djkimmel]

Courtesy bump in BFL is up to the anglers, not the tournament crew. I haven't used on in a BFL in so long, I can't remember if there's one lying around or not. I thought they had been announcing there wouldn't be one for a few years now?

Anyway, I just make sure my fish are definitely going to measure on a good board - the one I got from BFL a while back - before I take them up to get in line. Too chaotic up near the weighin line.

Of course, once you hand them to the weighin staff, you are no longer in control of the fish at all.

[Eric]

BFL always has a separate little tub with a courtesy board in it, somewhere near the wiegh in line, knd of out of the way.

[djkimmel]

That's what I kind of remembered later as I worked the cobwebs in the recessed corners of my memory. I just haven't done it that way in a long time.