High School Fishing Teams

Does anyone have advice for boat captains on these high school fishing teams?

I got sort of pulled in to the local school. It seems a bit disorganized to me at this point. There's no tournament schedule, kids don't have all their permission slips in, the rules aren't in writing.

Really, I know they don't want my opinion. For instance I asked at the meeting if the kids were supposed to bring their own life jackets. The answer was no, that's the boater's responsibility. I have 1 kid that is 6'6" and weighs 300 lbs wears a 4X life jacket and the other kid is about 5' tall and 90 lbs. I don't own a 4X jacket and the only jacket I have to fit the other kid is my daughter's pink jacket. It seems to me that's asking a lot of the boater to have to buy life jackets to fit. I can see the lawyers now if something happened and you had an ill fitting jacket or one that the lawyer blamed for being defective etc.

There's the liability thing. I know a waiver isn't worth the paper it's written on, but every draw tournament I've ever fished had one. I sign one as a Marshal with BASS Elite. Of course kids can't sign a waiver. The school wants insurance decs on my truck and boat. Judging by the paperwork, the school wants to make me responsible for any accident that happens be it negligence on my part or not. That is scary. I feel like the school arse holes would throw me to the wolves for volunteering for their program. Understand, Insurance is what I do for a living. I see 8 to 10 lawsuits filed a week. I know what asshats lawyers are. That part scares me. In some cases, it appears parents want to make the boat captain a baby sitter.

Then there's the expectation of you being able to put the kid on fish. Saturday it was cold. 11 degrees at blast off. To put it mildly, catching a fish Saturday for even seasoned anglers would have been a challenge. They put in on the lower end of the lake. I normally fish up in the river and planned to go up river. However, with a 45 mph speed limit and 11 degree weather I thought better of making a long run in the interest of safety. The next tournament is on Cumberland and I frankly don't fish Cumberland. I'm not saying I haven't, just that I don't on any kind of regular basis. I haven't been on it on the lower end in a few years. I've caught fish on Cumberland when I've went there, it's just I'm not that experienced on that lake. I feel obligated to help the kid catch fish and feel like I can't deliver. I mostly fish in Tennessee but they can't cross state lines.

 

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