Rules of international ice fishing competitions on
mormyshka between nations' teams

01.01.2004.
Organisation

I. International official competitions are organized by National Federations affiliated to the International Confederation of Sport Fishing ( C.I.P.S ). The organizing federation is officially responsible for competitions.
2. Only national teams of National Federations (further we will use the word "Federations”) who are members of C.I.P.S and who pay subscriptions as well as sport clubs affiliated to these federations can participate in the competitions. They must have appropriate authorities from their Federations. Fishermen of the Clubs' and National Federations' teams must have the nationality of the country they compete for.

Club teams are allowed to have one foreign fisherman on condition that he lives in that country or he is the member of the club. He must have all necessary papers confirming his status.

The fisherman, who has once taken part in the World Championship or in any other international competitions as a member of the national team, cannot compete for the team of another country.

Participants of the competitions must prove their nationality by the identity card, passport or any other official document.

Only national federations' teams are allowed to take part in the World Championship between national teams.
3. Every country - member of F.I.P.S can set out only one team; the team consists of five fishermen; the team can also have one reserve fisherman who has been declared before the first drawing, one captain and one delegate. None of the fishermen can participate individually.
4. The competitions are carried out on freshwater areas: on big and small rivers, canals, lakes and reservoirs. In the area of competitions the whole surface of the water must be allowed for fishing. The depth  in the area of competitions must be not less than 1.5 meters. The width of the water area must not be less than 25 meters.
5. The teams who do not wish to use accommodations offered by the organizers must pay the registration fee of 900$ (this sum also includes the cost of the closing banquet ) during the procedure of registration. Registration is obligatory for the teams comprising not more than 8 members ( 6 fishermen, 1 captain, 1 delegate). Registration is not obligatory for supporters. They should just pay the cost of their participation and may take part in the closing banquet if they wish. If the team does not put forward any special requirements for accommodation by the fixed time, it must observe in due order terms of accommodation offered by the organizers.
With the permission of the organizers fishermen can get to the area of competitions using their own transport.

6. Fishing sections must be separated from the spectators' places. For this purpose fences are installed and ropes are stretched. The pathway for officials participating in the competitions is defined in the same way.
The captain of the team can stay in the neutral section and he can call the fisherman of his team to the line of the section informing the main referee about it. He can give instructions to the fisherman only verbally.

The captain and the fisherman are forbidden to cross the line of the section. The captain must wear the identification badge defining his duty.

The captains' meeting.

7. The captains' meeting should be carried out the day before the first round of drawing. According to 31 article of the Rules the international jury must be formed. Then the usual order of the day is carried out. It includes the following items:
1)Call-over of the nations.
2) Nations' drawing numbers in the alphabetic order to define the sequence of the nations at the drawing of the first round. According to the results of this drawing every team receives the number for every competitor. All the fishermen of the team will compete under this number.

If the captain or the delegate of the team is not present at the meeting, the delegate of F.I.P.S draws lots instead of those absent.


Drawing.

8. The drawing of each round must be checked and inspected by the organizers, captains or delegates and F.I.P.C. It is usually carried out not earlier than 180 minutes before the competition starts.
During this drawing sections are chosen ( A,B,C and so on). Only one competitor of the team is allowed to the section.
9. On the second day of the competitions, the drawing is carried out in the reverse order according to the list of the first day.
10. When competitions take place on big and small rivers and reservoirs, section A always downstream. When competitions take place on large water areas ( lakes, ponds ) section A should always locate on the left if you look at the lake from the bank.
11. Captains receive badges for each fisherman of the team. Only inscriptions approved by F.I.P.S can be written on the badges.

If it is necessary to write some other information which does not refer to fishing, article 41 of the present Rules comes into force.

General recommendations.

12. Fishing on mormyshka competitions are carried out when ice thickness is not less than 10cm. The allowed air temperature is defined by the organizers. It depends on the peculiarities of the climate zone
13.a) During ice - fishing on mormyshka it is allowed to use one fishing rod, equipped with one mormyshka. The length of mormyshka without a hook is not more than 15 mm, the hook is single, soldered in. The color and the form of mormyshka are chosen at will. It is prohibited to install any other devices on the fishing line. Fishermen are allowed to have any number of spare fishing rods.

b) Organizers of the competitions must provide every fisherman with two signal flags for marking the hole in the ice. The backnumber of the fisherman should be written on the flag. It must be pointed out that flags must be easily seen by the fishermen and referees
c) It is allowed to use any kinds of ground bait and bait except live, dead or artificial fishes and their parts. It is also prohibited to use roe and ant ova.
It is allowed to use ground bait without using stationary feeders. The amount of ground bait can be limited by the organizers.
14. For the ice - fishing competitions the organizers try to chose the part of the water area with similar parameters as far as the bottom relief, depth and vegetation are concerned. It is afterwards divided into sections according to the number of fishermen in the team. One fisherman from each team should occupy one section. The length of each section looking to the bank is not less than 10 meters for every sportsman. It is the major referee board which takes into account all the peculiarities of the water area and determines the place for sections.
The size of the sections is determined with due regard to the fact that one fisherman must have not less than 400m2.
Sections are marked with stencil letters A, B, C, etc., boundaries are marked with flags, the width of the neutral section is not less than 5 meters. Sizes of the stencil letters and flags are defined at will. They must be seen by the fishermen and spectators clearly. The area of competitions must be separated from the spectators from all sides by the neutral section. The width of this section is not less than 5 meters. Only captains of the teams and pressmen accredited in the organizing center of the competitions are allowed to stay in the neutral section. Pressmen must not disturb the sportsmen.
Sections for the second round of competitions are made on a new place of the same water area.

15.a) Before the first signal is given the sportsmen make a mark in the referee's list of results. Then they allocate around the section. With the first signal " Entrance to the section " ( not less than 5 minutes before the start) fishermen are allowed to enter the section and occupy the place for drilling a hole and mark this place with a flag. When the fisherman enters the section the knives of the ice - axe must be covered with a jacket. The jacket can be taken off when the sportsman comes up to the place of drilling the hole.

b) Inside the section the competitors should not sit closer than 5 meters from each other. In case of debate , when the flags of the fishermen are situated closer than 5 meters from each other, the problem is solved by the referee. In this case he can even use drawing lots. The competitor, who has arrived to the section
fastest of all, has an advantage. It is prohibited to throw the flag for occupying the place.

16. After the signal "Start" sportsmen can freely move inside their sections and make any amount of holes. The place is considered to be occupied when the drilling of the marked holes begins. When the ice - axe touches the ice it means the beginning of drilling. Fishing is allowed not closer than 5 meters from the rest of holes marked with flags. When you fish on mormyshka it is allowed to occupy two holes marked with flags. The flag must be put at the distance not more than 30sm from the hole. It must be clearly seen by referees and fishermen . The fishermen are allowed to leave at the holes any things except boxes for carrying equipment, fishing tackles and ice -axes.

It is prohibited to fish in the unmarked hole. Using the hole in any way including drilling and feeding can be regarded by the referee as the process of fishing.

Inside the section the ice - axe must be in the vertical position with knives down.
17. While fishing competitors are not allowed to get any kind of help except the medical one. With permission of the referee it is possible to replace the broken ice - axe. It is prohibited to use motor - axes. After the signal "Start" fishermen in the section are prohibited to take ground bait and bait outside.
18. There is the main referee and some commissioners in each section. They must know the rules of competitions perfectly well..
The duties of the commissioner are the following. - control the amount of bait if it is necessary.
a) control the process of fishing in his section.
b) when the round is over, he continues to check the catch of the fisherman and he does not allow non - authorized persons into the section till the referees, who carry out the weighing, come or till collecting of the catches is over.

19. The participants must observe the rules of fishing, concerning sizes of the protected fish, if they are mentioned in the local rules of fishing. This data must be announced at the captains' meeting (the captains must inform the fishermen in their turn ). At the weighing fish must be clean. It should be kept in similar plastic bags given out by the organizers.
20. In case the amount of ground bait and bait is limited it must be measured and checked by the commissioner. After training exercises and rounds of competitions are over , throwing the rest of bait into the water is strictly prohibited.
21. The competitions consist of two rounds. Each round lasts three hours. In case of insuperable difficulties, the round is considered legitimate if it lasted more than 1.5 hours.
The time of the round can be reduced by the organizers because of weather conditions (strong frost). This must be announced before the round starts.
22.The catch of fish is counted even if it was not hooked by mouth. Fish gaffing on purpose is prohibited.
23. Fishermen can prepare any number of fishing rods., but they can fish only with one rod at a time. The competitor must hold his fishing - rod in his hand while fishing. It is prohibited to leave fishing - rods with mormyshka in water.
24. Landing gaffs can be used only by those sportsmen who land fish.
25. Inside their sections sportsmen should not make noise or disturb other competitors.
26. Five minutes before the round is over, the organizers give the third signal which warns the competitors that only 5 minutes are left.
The fourth signal "Finish" indicates the end of the round. Only the caught and landed fish is supposed to be the catch.
27. Every competitor must strictly .observe the rules of the competitions.

Weighing.
28. Weighing is carried out by sections' main referees. The fish is taken out of plastic bags and weighed on similar scales. It should be noted that each section will have its own scales.

29. The caught fish goes to the member of the referee team. The catch is weighed but not counted. Being weighed, the fish is at the organizers' disposal ( if the local law does not say the opposite ).
30. The competitor must be present at the weighing process and check it. Then he signs the list of results where the weight of his catch is indicated. After signing the list no claims on the weight of the catch are accepted.

Jury.

31. The international jury is formed to solve disputable questions and apply sanctions, provided by the rules. This jury is formed on the eve of the first round during the first captains' meeting. The jury consists of 7 members:
- F.Ī.P.S chairman or the substitute appointed by the chairman.
- General secretary of the F.I.P.S.
c) Chairman of the organizing federation, if his nationality differs from that of Chairman or General Secretary of F.I.P.S. In case his nationality is similar to the previous two, 5 delegates of different nations instead of 4 will be appointed by drawing lots.
d) 4 delegates of 4 different nations chosen by drawing lots. These delegates should not be of the same nationality as Chairman and General Secretary of F.I.P.S as well as the chairman of the organizing federation. These delegates are to be included in the team registration list ( the captains cannot be regarded as delegates ).
Members of the JURY have to wear a distinctive badge with the world "JURY". These members should be present at the place of the competitions to solve any problems and complaints. The place where one or several JURY members are permanently present should be specially marked.

32. Complaints, except the ones concerning classification, must be submitted to the JURY not later than one hour after the round is finished. First, complaints may be made verbally but then they must be confirmed in written form immediately.
Complaints, concerning classification, are to be submitted not later than 30 minutes after the official results have been announced. The time of publishing of the official results must be indicated on the information board of results. Every written complaint, addressed to the JURY, is to be accompanied with a deposit of 50$. If the complaint is not accepted as the valid one, the deposit is paid to the account of F.I.P.S. If the complaint is accepted the deposit is returned.
The JURY must be immediately informed of all violations and warnings. Only the JURY has the right to announce disqualification. The disqualified sportsman must be informed immediately. The members of the JURY as well as the main referees must know the rules perfectly well and inspect that they are observed.
33. The members of the JURY and captains of the teams should be supplied with the rules of competitions, written in three official languages.

Decisions are made by the majority of votes. The voice of the F.I.P.S chairman and his substitute are the casting votes in case of balance of votes.
Members of the executive committee of F.I.P.S wear individual badges which enable them to enter the section designated for officials. These badges are valid during 4 years after these members have been elected on their posts.

List of sanctions.

34.a) a warning will be given for the violations of articles 15a, 15b, 16, 17, 19, 20,25.

b) a disqualification will be given for the violations of articles 13a, 13b, 24 and 26 and the violation of the rules the second time after the warning on articles 15,16,17,19,20,25 has already been made.

c) if a sportsman is disqualified he will get the number of points equal to the number of participating countries plus one. If a sportsman is disqualified, all the sportsmen classified after him will keep their initial positions ( for example: sportsman X is disqualified, he has the 8th position; the following sportsmen will keep their positions and get the ninth, the tenth positions, etc ).
d) the warning of the team is valid for 3 years. In case a new violation of rules is made it is considered repeated and the jury makes its own decision according to the regulations and the list of sanctions.

e) the warning of a sportsman is valid for unlimited time. A new violation of rules is considered repeated and the jury makes its decision according to the list of sanctions.
35. Only persons with official referee licenses, given by President of F.I.P.S, can enter the section of competitions informing the main referee and state the violation of rules.

CLASSIFICATION.

36. Team classification.

a) The first round.

1) According to the summing up of the places, obtained by the fishermen of one team in their sections.

The competitors having equal catch weight in the same section are given the number of points which equals to the average of places they must have shared. (Example 1: two fishermen claiming to the 5th place get (5+6):2 = 5.5 points each. Example 2: 3 fishermen claiming to the 8th place get (8+9+10)=9 points each).

2) The team with the fewest number of points will be classified as the first one, etc.

3) The fisherman without a catch gets the number of points that equals to the average of places of the same fishermen (without a catch ) in the same section. (Example 1: 24 fishermen, 12 are classified with the first 12 places according to their catches, other 12 fishermen get (13+24):2 = 18.5 points. Example 2: 29 fishermen, 5 are classified from 1 to 5 places, other 24 fishermen will get (6+29):2 = 17.5 points each. Example 3: 29 fishermen,26 are classified, the 3 fishermen without fish will get (27+29):2 = 28 points. If there is only one fisherman without fish in the section or a missing fisherman he will get the number of points equal to the last place ( for example, 29 fishermen, 28 are classified, the last one, without a catch, gets 29 points).


B The second round. The classification is similar to the first round.

C. General classification.

1) The sum of places obtained during two rounds is counted. The team with the fewest number of points will be classified as the first one, etc.

2) When two or several teams get equal number of points, the highest place is given to the team with the highest catch weight for two rounds of competitions.

3) If the catch weight during 2 rounds is equal, the team with the highest catch weight in the second round possesses an advantage.



Individual classification.

1) The points of two rounds are summed up: the sportsman with the fewest number of points is announced the world champion in individual classification.

2) If the number of points of 2 or more fishermen is equal, the total catch weight of every sportsman during 2 rounds is counted. The sportsman with the highest catch weight during 2 rounds is announced the winner.

3) In case the catch weights are equal, the sportsman with the highest catch in the second round is announced the winner.

4) In case of equality of weights similar places are defined (2 first places and one third place or one first place and 2 second places )

5) The sportsmen participating only in one round take places at the bottom of the table for individual classification according to the places they got.

37.Classification is carried out by the organizers under control of the president of F.I.P.S or his delegate as well as members of the JURY.

Insurance

38. Organizers must conclude the "CIVIL RESPONSIBILITY" treaty for the time of competitions with the insurance company. Organizers must have the certificate of the insurance company proving that competitions are protected by the "CIVIL RESPONSIBILITY" agreement.

Training.

39. a) Official training is carried out outside the area of competitions but on the same water area.

b) Official training is carried out 3 days before the competitions start (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday ).On the last day the training finishes before 13.00 a.m..

c) Beginning with the first day of official training, organizers give the teams a part of the water area with similar parameters. It is done to provide teams with equal opportunities for training. According to the schedule, organizers must indicate the beginning of the training with a sound signal. Teams must follow the schedule.
Limitations for baits during the championship are also valid during three days of training.

Electrical constructions.


40. The fishermen are forbidden to locate closer less than 25 meters from an electrical constructions ( electricity transmission wires, transformers, lattice masts of high - voltage lines ).

Badge information.

41. In case of writing on the badges information, which does not refer to fishing, organizers must find sponsors and discuss with them the cost of publishing. T/T must be noted that 300 dollars of this payment should go to the budget of F.I.P.S. Publishing of additional information is not obligatory.

The size of the letters on the badges should not be more than 6 mm in height. Information, which does not refer to fishing, must be written at the bottom part of the front and back numbers. Two examples of badges with additional information must be sent to the central office of F.I.P.S one month before the competitions start. Then one of them will be given back to the organizers with the F.I.P.S visa.

MODEL OF THE BADGE                F.I.P.S

                                                        10

                                      advertisement information

Every team pays a fee of 100 dollars to the F.I.P.S budget. The organizing federation should pay a fee 300 dollars.


Opening and awarding ceremonies.


42. The opening ceremony and teams' parade is carried out on the eve of the first round.

Three first teams and winners of individual classification are awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals. According to the international traditions, awarding is accompanied by national anthems and hoisting of the national flag. Medals are given at the expense of F.I.P.S and awarded by F.I.P.S delegates. All other expenses are paid by the country - members equally. Every team comes to competitions with the national flag and a cassette with the national anthem.

Translation of rules.

43. In case of questionable translation the Russian language is considered to be the original one.

Signed by:

President of F.I.P.S Fortune Jaquelin

General Secretary of F.I.P.S Jackie Dupuis