"Baikal Kamchatka - 2003" Ice-fishing Championship

• Visa support and invitations are provided by Green Express Travel Company.

1. The winner will be determined by the largest combined weight of all the fish caught by the team;
   • The participants are allowed to use just one fishing rod with one fly;
   • The fly's length with out hook may be no more than 15 mm;
   • No additional tackle will be allowed;
   • The fishermen may have spare fishing tackle and also two marker flags;
   • At the competitions first level each sportsman will be provided with two marker flags and competitor number;
2. Participants will be allowed to use any artificial, natural and plant bait except for live, dead and artificial fish, their parts, and caviar or ant eggs. Fish food lures are permitted but not fish feeding devices;
3. Competitions will begin only if the ice is no less than 10 cm thick. The competitions may be held only if the organizers determine that the air temperature is acceptable depending on the climatic zone;
4. A part of the reservoir will be chosen in which the bottom relief, depth and vegetation are identical across the entire competition area;
   • This competition area will be divided into sections according to the number of fishermen in the teams;
   • In each section there is one sportsman from each team;
   • Each fisherman has 400 sq.m. of fishing area;
   • The sections will be marked with letters A, B, C and so on;
   • The boarders will be marked with flags;
   • The width of the neutral zone between the sections is 5 meters;
   • Only team coaches and journalists are allowed to be in the neutral zone.
5. Before the first signal indicating the beginning of the competition, each fisherman must present himself to the judges for verification of his identity and registration;
   • On the first signal "GO" the fishermen are allowed to occupy their places, which they have chosen for drilling and have marked with flags;
   • These flags are 10X10 cm in size, and the height of their pole is 25 cm;
   • Ice drills / augers should remain in their carrying cases until the fisherman arrives at the place where he will drill;
   • The fishermen may remove their ice drills / augers from their carrying cases only upon their arrival at the drilling place;
6. The fishermen in each section must remain at least 5 meters from each other;
   • In the case of a dispute when the flags are placed closer than 5 meters to each other the judge will determine whose flag should be moved;
   • The fisherman who was the first to mark his spot with a flag will be given preference;
   • If the judge has no direct knowledge of who had placed his flag first, he may toss a coin to determine who will move his flag;
   • Fishermen may not throw their flags for the purpose of occupying a place;
7. After the "Start" signal the fishermen may drill as many ice holes, as they want;
   • The ice whole diameters must not be large enough to be dangerous or other wise prohibit movement around them;
   • Each Fisherman can occupy 2 ice wholes;
   • Fishermen are not allowed to pass from one section of the competition area to another during the competition;
   • During the competition fishermen are not allowed to help each other;
8. Fishermen are not allowed to leave baited hooks in the water unattended;
9. Changing broken ice drills is allowed;
10. The competition duration is 3 hours.

1. Five minutes before the start there will be a warning signal indicating that the competition will soon begin. On this signal the fishermen are allowed to enter their fishing section. Another signal will be given after five minutes. This second signal will be the start signal for the beginning of drilling;
2. Five minutes before the end of the competition a warning signal will be given. At this time coaches and journalists must leave ice-fishing zones. When the "finish" signal has been given, the fishermen must stop fishing and wait for the judge(s);
3. After the competition the fish will be weighed;
4. The accepted fish types are: perch, roach, omul, sig (white fish), grayling, ruff, bull head;
5. Participants are not allowed to use electronic communication devices;
6. An official orientation, explanation and information session will be held the day before the competition to fully explain all rules and regulations and answer any questions.

1. Each fisherman's catch of fish will be weighed in the same container on scales with a margin of error not exceeding five grams;
   • Each fisherman will verify his reported weight with his signature;
   • After each fisherman verifies his catch weight no dispute claims will be accepted;
2. One point will be given for each gram of the catch weight;
3. The individual fisherman having the greatest catch weight of a fish will be declared the winner;
4. The team of fishermen with the greatest combined catch weight will be declared the overall competition champions.

• An opening ceremony will be conducted on the day before the competition begins;
• The team-winner will be rewarded with CUP, the individual team members of the champion team will be awarded and presented the certificates of recognition;
• The second and third place teams will also be awarded with prizes and certificates of recognition;
• The first, second and third place individual fishermen are awarded with prizes and certificates of recognition;
• There will also be prizes and awards:
  • For the first fish caught;
  • For the biggest fish caught;
  • For sportsmanship;
  • For the fastest ice-hole driller.