Frequently Asked Questions

No. AITT regular-season tournaments are open to eligible members and non-members. Membership is not required to purchase the required Tournament Entry. Member-only benefits and competitions remain restricted to eligible members.

Yes. Tournament Entry is required for every solo or team registration. Optional add-ons cannot be entered without Tournament Entry.

Annual AITT membership is $40 per angler. Membership status is determined separately for each angler.

Eligible members may receive access to AOY points, Championship qualification, the Bronze, Silver, or Gold member bonus pots, the Insurance Pot, one official practice day immediately before an event, and other opportunities published by AITT.

Yes. Both registered anglers must be current members, or purchase membership during registration, for the team to receive member-only benefits.

Yes. An entry may compete as one solo angler or as a team of two anglers. A solo angler competes against the same tournament field under the same tournament, safety, and fishing rules.

Online registration remains available until the Tournament Director temporarily suspends it. A cancelled, postponed, unavailable, or capacity-limited tournament cannot accept new registrations.

No. A draft, quote, payment attempt, browser message, payment redirect, or Square receipt by itself does not constitute a confirmed tournament registration. Payment must be verified and AITT must complete the registration workflow.

Yes. Tournament-Morning Registration is a normal in-person registration period conducted by the Tournament Director. It is recorded in WeighFish and is not submitted through the AITT website.

Online card and supported digital-wallet payments are processed through Square. Tournament-morning payments may be made by cash or through the Square reader. A SQUARE SERVICE FEE (3%) applies to payments processed through Square; cash payments have no service fee.

No. Paying an entry fee without physically launching and competing does not count as tournament participation for AOY or Championship qualification.

No. Substitute partners are not permitted. AOY, Championship qualification, member side pots, and season-long awards are earned by the registered Competitive Record, not by interchangeable partners.

The Team registration may continue to identify both established partners, with all season credit belonging to that Team Competitive Record. The remaining angler may instead register as Solo, but all season credit from that registration belongs only to the separate Solo Competitive Record.

No. Team and Solo Competitive Records are independent. Tournament results, AOY points, Championship qualification, and other season credit do not transfer between them.

A pairing with a different partner is treated as a new team entry. That new team does not earn AOY points, Championship participation credit, or member-side-pot eligibility for the original team.

The Insurance Pot is optional and members-only. The Insurance Pot uses a true 1-in-5 payout, with a minimum of one paid place whenever there are Insurance Pot entries. Payouts begin with the first eligible team outside the Tournament Entry payout. Entries that did not join the Insurance Pot are skipped.

Yes. The entire Insurance Pot is distributed. AITT retains none of the Insurance Pot, and every winning entry receives an equal payout, subject only to one-cent adjustments needed to distribute the exact total.

The Insurance Pot uses a true 1-in-5 payout. Payouts begin with the first eligible team outside the Tournament Entry payout.

The optional Big Bass side pot pays two places. Big Bass is an optional add-on to Tournament Entry and is not a standalone entry.

No. Only legal live fish are eligible for a Big Bass payout. A fish presented dead at weigh-in is not eligible for either Big Bass payout.

A fish that does not meet the tournament's minimum legal length receives no tournament weight, does not count toward the legal tournament limit, and is not eligible for Big Bass.

A one-pound penalty is deducted for each legal fish presented dead at weigh-in.

WeighFish owns the tournament-day roster, check-in, weigh-in, scoring, and official results. Official results are published after weigh-in and the required review.

The normal tournament limit is five legal fish. Designated Bass Stack events use the separate cumulative-weight format instead.

A one-pound penalty is assessed for each minute an individual or team is late, up to fifteen minutes. An entry arriving more than fifteen minutes late forfeits that day's catch and may not weigh fish.

Tournament Officials determine official check-in time using the tournament's designated official timekeeping device.

No. Participants must never operate a vessel unsafely in an attempt to avoid a late penalty. Safety always takes precedence over tournament competition.

The Tournament Director has final authority over safety, weather, delays, postponements, cancellations, and rescheduling.

AccuWeather and Weather Underground are primary human decision references. Weather data does not automatically make a tournament decision.

Wind gusts of 30 MPH or greater will normally result in a delay or postponement. The Tournament Director makes the final operational decision.

Beginning at 12:00 AM midnight on Monday of tournament week, tournament waters are off-limits to non-member anglers registered to compete in that tournament.

A current AITT member registered for that specific tournament may choose one official practice day immediately before the tournament. The member may practice either Friday or Saturday, but may not practice on both days.

No. The angler must be both a current member and registered for the applicable tournament.

No. A participant may not direct another person to scout tournament waters on the participant's behalf during an applicable off-limits period.

No. Forward-facing sonar is prohibited during official AITT tournament competition.

Yes. Forward-facing sonar may be used during legal practice periods unless another published event rule states otherwise.

Bass Stack is a cumulative-weight format used only at designated events. Every legal bass officially weighed contributes to the entry's cumulative tournament weight.

Final placement is determined by cumulative official tournament weight after all penalties have been assessed.

A competitor may possess a maximum of three legal bass in the livewell at one time during a Bass Stack event.

No more than three legal bass may be presented during any single Bass Stack weigh-in.

Competitors may weigh fish as many times as desired during official tournament hours. Every official weigh-in becomes part of the cumulative tournament total.

For the 2026–2027 season, Bass Stack is designated for tournament #5 at Squaw Creek and tournament #8 at Lewisville.

AOY points are available only to eligible member entries. Both anglers on a team must be members for the team to earn AOY points.

The regular season contains eight scheduled tournaments. Each Competitive Record's five highest point totals determine its final AOY score. The three lowest totals, including tournaments not fished, are dropped.

Official tournament results remain unchanged. Ineligible competitors are removed only from the AOY calculation, and eligible Competitive Records are reranked in their original relative finishing order.

An eligible Competitive Record must physically compete in at least five of the eight regular-season tournaments.

No. Payment without physically launching and competing does not count as participation.

A Solo Competitive Record must satisfy the applicable membership and participation requirements. Both anglers on a Team Competitive Record must satisfy the membership requirements for the Team to receive Championship eligibility.

Published AOY standings are available on the Standings page after official tournament results and AOY points have been processed.