With the many Pro and Team Tournament events now available on the West Coast, sport fishermen need to be appraised of various rules and regulations. However, the major organizations have some rules in common, and one of these important rules is encroachment .
Encroachment means honoring and maintaining space.
In other words, anyone violating a specified distance in relation to another boat can be asked to leave, in which case the fisherman will have to back off to the organizations identified distance. Each organization has its own distance that must be maintained between boats, and this can vary from 25 yards to 100 yards. To determine the encroachment distance, merely ask the attending director before the start of an event. Most tournament fishermen are well disciplined and are out for the fun of the sport. However, by not adhering to the basic principal of encroachment some individuals can cause a big concern to the sport, to the boats they are approaching, and to the tournament director.