- A fishing tournament is identified as one, wherein a number of anglers are gathered at a predetermined time and place, on specified Bella Vista lakes, with permits obtained, prizes awarded and/or fees collected.
- A fishing club is identified as a group of fishermen, competing in fishing tournaments, having a minimum of three tournaments per year, and registered with the Lakes & Fisheries Office. Tournament fishing clubs participating on Bella Vista lakes shall be limited to no more than ten (10) clubs.
- For tournaments utilizing motorized boats, tournament fishing lakes within Bella Vista are identified as Loch Lomond, Lake Windsor, and Lake Ann. The maximum number of boats participating for any given fishing tournament shall be (16) for Loch Lomond, (16) for Lake Windsor, and (10) for Lake Ann.
- For tournaments utilizing manual propulsion, all lakes are open to tournament angling. Tournaments utilizing motorized boats have precedence over manual propulsion on Loch Lomond, Lake Windsor, or Lake Ann. The maximum number of manual propulsion tournament boats for any given fishing tournament shall be (30) for Loch Lomond, (25) for Lake Windsor, (20) for Lake Ann, (15) for Lake Avalon, and (12) each for Lakes Brittany, Norwood, and Rayburn.
- No more than six (6) tournaments per lake by an organization per year are permitted. Further, no more than one (1) tournament will be held on any given lake per week.
- Tournament Fishing from June 15 to September 15 shall be restricted to the hours from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. for events that have an end of tournament weigh-in. Tournaments that practice catch-measure-release have no restrictions as to time of day.
- All fishing boats participating in a tournament shall be registered with the POA and subject to inspection by POA authorized personnel.
- For tournaments with an end of event weigh-in, each boat must contain sufficient live well capacity to maintain healthy fish, prior to release, at the close of the tournament. No more than five (5) fish per boat may be in the live well at any time.
- Weigh-in procedures shall be directed toward keeping the fish from each boat in a circulating live well until called for weighing, and then immediately returned to the lake. Anglers will be given a number which corresponds to the weigh-in order. No more than 2 teams are allowed to be in line at any one time. Teams with leaky weigh in bags may be disqualified at the discretion of the tournament organizer, POA fisheries biologist, or lake ranger. Fish must be released in depths of over 15 feet during the months of July and August.
- Transporting of fish from one lake to another, is prohibited on Bella Vista Lakes.
- Safety measures for all boats shall include safe intervals in starting time from the no-wake zone, wearing of life preservers when underway, observing safe speed on the lakes, kill switches must be used when underway, and running lights during night fishing. Safe boating practices should always be in effect.
- A tournament fishing result form provided by the Lakes & Fisheries Office must be completed and returned to the Lake Office at the close of the tournament.
Revision – January 2019 Lakes Committee
