On my boat everyone has their own 2 rods that they are responsible for. You only reel in a fish if it is on one of your 2 rods. If your fish wins a prize it is your prize to claim. I would hope that if one of my boat mates wins the boat or a bigger prize the captain would get a little kick back but it is not required.

Also usually everyone throws down for gas.

I think this is probably the easiest and fairest way to handle it. I'm sure others do it differently.

Hi John,
I do not feel confident that I will win the boat but that doesn't mean everyone who is on a boat crew shouldn't decide BEFORE winning what will be done just so there are no hard feelings or friendship-ending arguements.

Our boat has always worked like this:
-The person that catches the winning fish wins the boat - end of story
-we put one guy as "up" and he will pick up the first rod that pops - the next guy in line is the net man and will also be responsible for removing any rods in the way or picking up the second rod if it pops.
-batting order is established on the way out. Since we catch a decent amount of fish, everyone gets plenty of tries and nobody arguees about who is first (what's the chance that your first fish will be the boat winner anyhow).

Each person can do what ever they want with the winning boat or any other prize for that fact. I would recommend everyone should think on this ahead of time. Personally, I would be selling the new boat AND my current boat and with the proceeds would then:
-Pay the humongus tax bill coming your way (50% of the new boat value or about $10G)
-Put the rest on a downpayment on a REALLY nice upgrade boat. For me that would probably be a 20 ft Lund Pro Fisherman with all the goodies.

-I am pretty sure you have to take the boat and money is not an option
-I see nothing in the derby rules dictating you must be in a boat. HOWEVER, you must have a witness so if you are on shore, you better have a partner. Of course winning from shore would truley be a feat but I watche a kid catch an enormous salmon from the dock in Wolfboro a few years ago that would have easily won a boat....2weeks after the derby


Good luck on the big lake this weekend. I am heading up tomorrow morning and hope to be on the water by noon at the latest. I want to do some pre-fishing before the weather moves in late in the day. We fish a lot of the same water John so I'm sure I'll see you out there. I have no radio but I'll be the grey Lund with the red stripe. Feel free to pull along side and give me a shout out.

My fishing partner for the derby is my 14 year old daughter Catie Kelley. She assures me that if she's lucky enough to land a boat winning fish (and the kid is lucky), the boat is all hers. I told her good luck trying to get the thing registered. Having fished the derby with her for the last 5 years, I can also tell you that any fish that comes off is all Dad's fault...

On the Tubb it's simple, we also have a batting order and which ever rod pops the first person up takes it, then it follows down the line. If I happen to win a boat I'm just gonna send the tax bill to Big John LOL Or see how much I can get for the wife LMAO I need my own boat so let's see Nah I'll figure a way to pay the taxes and keep the boat, and the wife too in that order LMAO Take Care god bless LOL Dave P.S. Good Luck Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

...oh and I didn't mention the last criteria for "next up" in the batting order. As soon as the fish is "seen" it is "on". that means if we see a fish jump as it's throwing the hook, the "batter is out" and the next batter is up. If you fight a fish for 5 minutes but it never shows it self and comes off, batter is still up.

It makes for some funny moments when "fish on" - it jumps and shakes the hook so the net man grabs the rod from him and says "saw it".

I'm also sure that many of you will agree that "net man" is the most stressful job on the boat.

I might see some of you at Guiseppes tomorrow night but am not sure if we are all going all the way down to Merideth. We might try to hit something in Center Harbor.

My boat partner Mike G. and I always swap the order, first one up any rod that pops and so on. If someone else comes on board, they are always the fist up, and the game is played the same, in order of sequence.

Our boat is the upgrade boat, so we would sell the prize boat and put the after tax profit toward lowering our present boat payment. If we have visitors on the boat the winning prize is theirs and hopefully they remember us.

You never know if the first fish will be the winner.
3 or 4 years ago in the lake O. fall LOC derby, on a very crappy (windy day) I brought on all the guys in our group that couldn't get out with their smaller boats. My freind Bob's son, (I don't think he had caught a King yet that week) was first up. After a 45 minute battle, a spent teenager brought in his prize. (my memery is bad 32+ lbs, Bob?) someone asked if I had hit the waypoint, I said yes but we have to go weight this fish! really? yes, scant amount of boats on the water, good chance of winning the daily prize ($100), long story short, that fish held 2nd place until the last day and that fish, Bob's son and my boat are in the LOC derby fall record book 3rd place.

Good luck to all this weekend.

Mike P.

Have fished the derby around 20 yrs. with 4 differant partners. My ole Uncle Vinnie,Strings,G.W. & the daughter.
Daily prizes to who ever gets the fish.
Always been only 2 people on board so 2 poles each.
If a boat was won, the person who got the fish keeps all the gear, etc. Then we sell the boat, motor trailer pay the taxes & split $$. Which means with the daughter it all goes to the college. W-Fat

This is what I did when I won the LT Div. a bunch of years back.

I had already agreed with my fishing partner that we would split things 50/50 if one of us was lucky enough to win something. We split all costs as well. Gas, bait, lures, lodging, etc.

I reeled in the winning fish so I was the one who entered the fish at the weigh station. That night (Sat.) we won a Penn downrigger. The fish held until the end of the derby. I claimed the boat so I was the one to give my SS number. We had a friend come up to tow the boat home. Was told that the boat had a value of about $10K by the marina that supplied the boat. Put a for sale sign on it and sold it for $8K 2 weeks later. Paid my fishing partner by check and got his SS number. Come tax time, I had my accountant send my fishing partner a form for half of what I was taxed/ won by the Winni derby people. The Penn DR was sold and we split the $$ we got for it as well.

Fair is fair. We each paid our taxes for what we got.

Just make sure you are clear with the people on the boat before you start the derby.