2023 Battle River Reeler’s Ice Classic Fishing Tournament 

Driedmeat Lake, Alberta

January 27-29, 2023

Official Rules

General:

1. This is a Catch, Photo, Release tournament to be held on Driedmeat Lake.  A contestant caught breaking this rule will be disqualified and entry fee will not be refunded. The tournament will be run using the MyCatch mobile app, which is a property of Angler’s Atlas.

2. Abuse of tournament officials and volunteers will not be tolerated.

3. Anglers 15 and younger must be fishing with an adult.

4. The entry fee for the Adult division is $60 and the entry fee for the Youth division is $25 - Youth for this event is anyone 15 and under

5. Each contestant must have a valid Alberta or otherwise be exempt from needing one.

6. Fish finders are allowed in the tournament.

7. Driedmeat Lake in its entirety is the fishing boundary for the tournament.  No other lake will be permitted to be fished. A map of the fishable area is included online on the tournament webpage (www.anglersatlas.com/tournaments).  It is the angler’s responsibility to know and understand the boundary for this event.

8. Anglers may record fish between 12:01 am Friday January 27, 2023, to 4:00 pm Sunday January 29, 2023.

9. Once the tournament concludes, a full review process will begin between the Organizer and their team and the Tournament Director.  Results will not be confirmed, announced, or made public until the morning of Wednesday February 1st, and no cash prizes will be awarded or sent until after the winner’s announcement has been made.

10. This is a mandatory Catch, Photo, Release event for Northern Pike only tournament, no other species will be permitted.

11.  Only fish caught by hook and line will be allowed.  This is a mandatory barbless tournament.  There will be spot checks made throughout the tournament by tournament officials and if an angler is caught using a barbed hook they will be immediately disqualified, and entry fees will not be refunded.

12.  Anglers must register and pay the entry fee for the tournament online at https://www.anglersatlas.com/tournament/620/2023-battle-river-reelers-ice-classic-driedmeat-lake-2023. Following this, the registered anglers need to download and use the MyCatch app (available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store) to submit their fish for the tournament. If you need help with the registration process, please watch this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o3PzcIoGo4 

13.  All registration and payment must be completed online at https://www.anglersatlas.com/tournament/620/2023-battle-river-reelers-ice-classic-driedmeat-lake-2023 using a credit card or PayPal. You cannot pay via cash or eTransfer, and your spot is not reserved until payment has been received. 

14.  There will be no refunds, no exceptions. If an angler cannot make the tournament, it is the angler’s responsibility to sell the registration, handle the transfer of funds, and contact Angler’s Atlas ([email protected]) to have the registration name transferred to the new registrant.

15.  During the tournament, anglers will submit all their fish via the MyCatch app (for a video showing you exactly how to do this, watch here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqwbAFFQE-w&t=2s). You cannot submit fish for this event any other way, and the photos MUST be taken in the app.

Entering Fish:

16.  Measuring and Submitting Fish

1. All photos must be taken on the MyCatch app, and you MUST use a commercially available bump board for your measurements (no measuring tapes, no homemade boards). If you are unsure about your board being legal, please reach out to [email protected] for verification. Commonly used boards include the Judge Tournament Ruler and the Cabela’s Canada Measure Board, but other commercially available boards are acceptable.

2. Fish must be recorded immediately after they’ve been caught, and released following a successful submission on the app.

3. This is a total length measurement tournament. NOT fork length. The total length of a fish is measured from the tip of the nose or jaw to the tip of the tail.  The tail may be pinched to the width of the board or left unpinched.  

4. All submissions must include:

1. The Measurement Photo (fish on measure board)

2. A Hero photo of the angler holding the fish

3. A Release Video of the fish being released alive

4. The mouth of the fish is allowed to be closed, open, or anywhere in between, so long as the upper and/or lower jaw of the head of the fish is clearly touching the bump of the board at 0 cm and the fish submission meets all of the requirements outlined in this section.

5. Fish must be measured right-side-down (i.e., right side of the fish is touching the bump board)

6. All applicants must have their fish submitted before 4:00 pm on Sunday January 29, 2023. It is the applicant’s duty to ensure they have full cell service and all fish are synced before the deadline. Any fish synced to the app after 4:00 pm will not be judged. 

17.  Practice using the MyCatch app ahead of time

1. Watch all four videos available at this link to familiarize yourself with the app: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1Yp9OqZ6saBgaKklT5jh6DkuTbai3NeJ

2. Test the app before you go out on the ice (note: the app allows you to record fish for your own personal logbook while not in an active tournament. Some features will appear slightly different when you are not in an active event, so please make sure you watch the YouTube videos at the link above).

18.  MyCatch in poor reception areas

1. The app will work without WiFi or any or strong cell service. If you submit a fish without any or strong enough service, the app will tell you that the fish has been recorded, and that it will sync up to the server once you return to service. Every fish you log (whether in good service or not) will appear in your app’s Log View (2nd icon from the left at the bottom). If you have fish “awaiting sync,” it will indicate this here. The submissions will eventually come through on their own once you return to service, but you can help speed up the process by “manually syncing” those pending logs (see how here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU-AwLc8OLY) once you’re in service. The logs are time/date/location stamped to the moment that they were taken, so even if the submission is delayed, the time on that submission will still be accurate.

19.  Missing pictures on the Leaderboard 

2. Fish DO NOT show up on the leaderboard until they have been approved by the Organizer’s Team, so don’t expect to see them reflected on the leaderboard immediately.  If you want to ensure that your fish was recorded successfully, check the Log View of your app (2nd icon from the left at the bottom).  If your fish is there, it logged successfully.

3. All photo submissions may be used by MyCatch by Angler's Atlas for future use.

General Rules:

20.  Tournament Organizer

1. Promoters and organizers assisting in the tournament operation are not responsible for death, injury, damage, liability, theft, fire or any loss to any contestants.

2. The interpretation and enforcement of the rules is at the sole discretion of the Organizer, aided by his committee and Angler’s Atlas representatives.  The tournament Organizer may change rules or impose sanctions as they deem appropriate, including but not limited to disqualifications, forfeiture of prizes, and prohibition from competing in future tournaments.  All decisions made by the tournament director are final.

3. Following the conclusion of the event, all fish in prize-winning positions will be reviewed and adjusted by the Organizer’sTeam and the Tournament Director.  Following this review process, the results will be final.

21.  Sportsmanship

1. All participants are expected to follow high standards of sportsmanship, courtesy, safety, and conservation.  Any participant who displays poor sportsmanship, violates these rules, or brings unfavorable publicity to the sport of fishing could be disqualified. Encroachment is considered a sportsmanship rule.

22.  Inclement Weather/Cancelation

1. Keep mobile phones on throughout the tournament in order to receive communication from the Organizer in the event of postponement or cancellation.  Due to the nature of tournament fishing, no refunds will be issued.  This is at the discretion of your tournament Organizer.

23.  Prizes (all prizes based on registrations and fundraising)

1. Grand Prize - Adult Division - $2,500 (Largest fish of the tournament)

2. Day 1 - Adult Longest Fish Entered - $500

3. Day 2 - Adult Longest Fish Entered - $500

4. Day 3 - Adult Longest Fish Entered - $500

5. Grand Prize - Youth Division - $500 (Largest Fish of the Tournament)

6. Day 1 - Youth Longest Fish Entered - $200

7. Day 2 - Youth Longest Fish Entered - $200

8. Day 3 - Youth Longest Fish Entered - $200

9. Other donated Prizes to be added and awarded as they become available. All prizes to be accepted as awarded.

24.  Tiebreakers

1. The tournament director will consider options for determining a tie, in this order:

1. Time of submission

2. The next largest fish submitted by each angler 

25. Laws and Regulations

1. All federal, provincial, and local laws and all fishing rules must be abided by.

2. Failure to comply with any tournament rules subjects participants to disqualification and removal from the tournament, as determined by the tournament officials.  The right to refuse sale and/or revoke a competition entry to anyone is hereby reserved.

26.  Cheating

1. All protests must be brought to the director’s attention before the end of the tournament.

2. Anyone caught breaking the law or disobeying the rules will be disqualified.

3. Fish must be hooked and caught live in a conventional manner.  Fish cannot be snagged, netted, speared etc.

27.  Safety 

1. Participants are responsible for their own safety, actions, and property at all times.

2. This is an ice fishing event. Practice ice safety at all times! Fishing is only allowed on a minimum of at least 4 inches of ice. Only walk and fish where it is safe to do so. 

3. Measure fish inside tents or ice shacks whenever possible, especially when temperatures dip below -10 degrees celsius

4. Wet your boards/rulers prior to measuring fish in cold conditions to help prevent freezing the fish to the board, especially if you are using a Judge or other aluminum/metal boards.

28.  Data Privacy and Fisheries Research on the MyCatch app

“Secret Fishing Spots Stay Secret” — This is our primary commitment to anglers who report their catches through MyCatch. So, what does this mean in practice? See below:

1.  Angler’s Atlas does not release MyCatch GPS data (latitude and longitude) to the public. It is treated as confidential and is provided to fisheries researchers under strict conditions. 

2. Every research team we work with must sign a data sharing agreement that sets the terms of use for the data.

3. Data is anonymized before it is provided to the researcher.

4. Researchers agree not to share the data with anyone else.

5.  Researchers cannot use the data for any purpose other than the research specified in the agreement.

6.  Exact location data cannot be published as part of the scientific research. Instead, it must be generalized to a larger region so the location cannot be reverse engineered.

7. Angler’s Atlas may release data to a law enforcement agency if compelled to do so under court order.

These data privacy rules are designed to protect our angler’s private data, to conserve the fisheries, and to make sure we maintain a trusting relationship with our angler’s into the future. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to reach out to Angler’s Atlas President directly via email ([email protected]).

1. Advertising is not permitted until a licence number has been issued. All event advertisements  shall include the Competitive Fishing Event (CFE) licence number in the advertisement. 

2. This CFE shall take place as per the event rules specified in the Battle River Reelers Ice Classic CFE application submitted to Alberta Environment and Protected Areas on November 21, 2022  and updated on December 5, 2022. 

3. This CFE only permits the use of photography; fish must not be killed, retained, transported or  weighed. 

4. Organizers shall ensure that participants only photograph fish species listed as Eligible Species on the CFE licence. 

5. The organizer must maintain a list of all participants that are registered for the event and noting  that each participant was issued a registration package, whereby the participants understand and  agree to follow all CFE rules and licence conditions. 

6. The organizer shall clearly post a copy of the CFE licence conditions along with directions on how  and where to contact the organizers. 

7. The organizer shall ensure that all participants understand that photographed fish shall be  handled in a manner that causes them least harm and released back into the waters from which  they were taken. 

8. Organizers are responsible for enforcing all event rules. A copy of the CFE licence and conditions as well as the organizer’s event rules shall be provided to all registered participants. 

9. The organizer shall complete and return a Competitive Fishing Event Reporting Form and  associated worksheets within 14 business days from the conclusion of the event.

A. The reporting form for this CFE is due no later than: February 13, 2023
B. The report shall also include a list of all rule infractions relating this event. 

C. The report shall also include a break down of all monies collected, awarded for prizes  and used to defray reasonable expenses. 

10. Fizzing of fish is prohibited. 

A. Fizzing refers to the practice of releasing, or attempting to release air from the air bladder  of a fish caught from deep water. 

11. All participants in the licenced CFE must possess a valid Alberta Sportfishing Licence (except  those legally exempted from the Alberta Sportfishing Licence requirement i.e. under 16 years of  age, an Alberta resident aged 65 or older, or a First Nations person who is defined as Indigenous  under the federal Indian Act, or during a designated Family Fishing Weekend) and follow all  angling regulations unless otherwise specified in this Schedule A. 

12. Participants in this CFE must practice catch-and-release for all fish species caught during  the event. 

13. Fish shall not be marked, cut or physically altered in any way. 

14. All participants must use barbless hooks only. For the purposes of interpreting this condition: 

A. A hook means a single, double or triple pointed hook on a common shaft, and includes hooks  attached to a line or lure, and; 

B. Barbless hooks includes hooks with barbs removed or hooks with pinched barbs lying flat  against the shaft of the hook such that they are not functional. 

15. This license is subject to cancellation at any time and shall be surrendered to the issuer upon  written notice of its cancellation. 

16. This license is non-transferable. This license is only valid for the listed licence holder and/or  individuals listed on the licence.