Beach Competition Rules
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1. Beach boundaries will be determined at the Annual General Meeting.
2. Competitions will start and finish at the stated time, and is left to the honesty of the members to comply with this.
3. Any member deliberately contravening Rule 11 of the Constitution shall, after due deliberation by three or more Committee Members, forfeit any further participation or benefits of the competition in question.
4. Second rod with a trace is allowed, but only one rod and gear can be in use (i.e. in the water at one time). Three Hooks may be used, one of which may be a treble. But only one treble may be include in a trace.
4a If the All Day Open Beach Trophy is fished on the breakwater at Dover two rods may be used but only three hooks in total may be used between them.
5. Competitors’ rods must not be handled by anyone but the competitors themselves unless in danger. A member may be permitted to cast for another, provided that relevant facts have been submitted to the commencement of the competition and permission obtained.
6. A member can ask for assistance with gaff or net.
7. Booking in with the beach secretary at the venue to be nominated by them. Booking in for competitions will commence 1 hour prior to the start of the competition.
8. A fine of £1.00 will be levied per fish for any undersized fish brought to the weigh- in.
9. Competitors must weigh- in at the Association hut, Fisherman’s Beach, within 30 minutes of the termination of the competition except for peg and zone competitions which will be weigh-in midway between the competition venue.
10. Specimens for Federation Medals must be weighed in, as per N.F.S.A. Rules.
11. The decision of the Committee will be final in all matters regarding competitions.
12. Re-fishing of postponed competitions will be left to the decision of the Competition Secretary, or any three Committee Members.
13. Members taking part on any of the Association competitions must fish inside the stated boundaries. Failure to do so will disqualify the Member for the rest of the season.
14. Mackerel are banned from the weigh-in, with exception of the mixed pairs, when 2 mackerel will be allowed, but other fish will take priority.
15. An optional snowball with fees for same payable at the start of the year shall be paid to the competitor catching the best specimen in competitions.
16. The Gillette Salver and inter-teams competitions shall not count towards Club championships.
17. Christmas Competition results are not applicable to the Club Championship. Lugworm, squid and fish baits only can be used for this competition.
18. Complaints have to be brought to the attention of a Committee Member 5 minutes before close of scales.
19. The Competition Secretary has the right to change the venue on the night. All changes to match fixtures, times or type of match are down to the Beach Secretary’s discretion.
20. No pre-booking is allowed. If a member is late, they must liaise with a Committee Member on the beach.
21. No fish to be accepted at the scales by any person/member, other than the person/member who caught them.
22. In the interests of conservation, in pegged matches only, and at the discretion of the Beach Secretary, any Lesser Spotted Dogfish [LSD] caught will be entered on the peg card provided if, at the time of capture, a signature and peg no is obtained from the competitor on the next peg. The fish should then be returned to the water and a weight of 1lb per fish will be credited to the captor at the weigh-in.
In these circumstances LSD's will be excluded from the ‘heaviest fish' pool as it is possible many competitors will have the same 1lb heaviest fish. It will be left up to the individual to decide if he/she wants to retain an LSD for purposes of Specimen Fish trophy or Club Record fish claim. This ruling is not applicable to Smoothounds, Bullhuss or Spurdog.
23. In the case of a draw between competitors (equal weights) the following applies