Inshore Bite · Official Rules v1.7 · Final October 7, 2026 · Published October 7, 2026

Halloween Slam Open 2026

Official Rules

Version: 1.7 (final) Status: FINAL v1.7. Approved by Will McLean (counsel and Tournament Director) on October 7, 2026. Replaces v1.6. In force on the date it is published and shown on the accept screen. Companion: Participation Agreement (waiver) then in force. Slug: halloween-slam-open-2026

Tournament Presenter. Inshore Bite (“Presenter,” “we,” “us”) presents this tournament. The legal entity behind Presenter is MCLEAN GAS COMPANY LLC, Saint Petersburg, Florida. Will McLean acts as Tournament Director for Presenter and is also a released party. Apple and Google are not involved and do not present or sponsor this contest. Outside brands that supply prize product are prize suppliers only — they do not run the contest.

Tournament Director. Will McLean is the Tournament Director. He makes every ruling for Presenter. His rulings are final (see §6).

These Official Rules control scoring, seats, entries, and the prize. The Participation Agreement controls risk, release, and indemnity.

1. What this event is

This is a skill contest, not a game of chance. You photograph legal inshore fish. We score measured length. The longest redfish, longest snook, and longest spotted seatrout are added together. That sum is your slam.

There is also the Inshore Bite Best Pics Bounty: three separate $100 awards, one for each Slam species, judged by the Tournament Director on an optional angler photo (§7A). Best Pics do not affect your slam score.

Fish must be caught in Florida waters. The event is aimed at Tampa Bay, Sarasota, Charlotte Harbor, Naples, Biscayne, and Florida Bay. We may refuse a fish from water we do not cover.

2. Two steps: roster, then prize eligibility

Step 1 — Founding roster (what the first Register tap is). Your first tap puts you on the founding roster. That is pre-registration. It is not official registration. It is not contest entry. It does not make you prize-eligible.

Step 2 — Prize eligibility. You become prize-eligible only after Official Rules are in force, the prize description is final (the Official Prize Pack in §7), and you accept that dated in-force version. We may send a push and an email when that accept is ready. Will McLean approves every send. If you never accept the in-force version, you are not in the prize field.

Accept before you submit a catch. Every registrant must accept this version (v1.7) of the Official Rules before submitting any catch. You can accept at any time, including after fishing starts on October 17, 2026. The app will not take a catch entry until you do. If you accepted v1.6, the app will prompt you to accept v1.7.

Once the Official Prize Pack in §7 is final, an equal-or-greater-value item substitution under §7 does not hold Step 2 or require a new accept.

3. Who can take a seat

You need a real Inshore Bite account. You must be 18 or older, or a parent or legal guardian accepts for you. Follow Florida law and FWC rules. Void where prohibited.

No purchase necessary. You do not need to buy anything, pay anything, or have a Pro subscription or trial to register, take a seat, enter fish, or win. A free Inshore Bite account is enough. Buying Pro gives no advantage in scoring, seats, or prize eligibility.

Premium features stay paid. Inshore Bite's Premium (Pro) app features are not part of this event and are not free because you registered. If you choose to subscribe, that is a separate purchase under the app's own terms.

There is no entry fee of any kind for this event.

4. How the slam is scored

Species that count: redfish (red drum), common snook, spotted seatrout. Nothing else.

Score is length only. We add your longest eligible fish of each species. You need all three for a complete slam. An incomplete slam can show on the board. It cannot beat a complete slam.

You may enter up to six fish. Only the longest of each species counts. If we throw one out, the next longest of that species (if you logged one) takes its place.

Each fish must be caught by you, in Florida waters, during the fishing window, legal under FWC, photographed as §5 says, logged in the app during the fishing window, and submitted to this event while entry is open.

The length that counts is the length the Tournament Director records on final review, not only the number that first appears on the board.

5. Photo and measure

Required evidence. The photo must show the whole fish and the measuring device in one frame. Flat surface. Mouth closed. Tail pinched. Readable inch marks. We score the last whole inch we can read.

Measuring device. Any measuring board, stick, or tape is acceptable. No official board is required. Lay the fish and the device flat and parallel to each other, with the numbers readable, so the length can be verified. A clean, complete photo, with the whole fish and the full device in frame, clear and readable, helps us verify the full length without adjustment. If a submitted measurement is unclear, the entry may still be accepted, with the length adjusted as the Tournament Director determines under this §5 and §6.

Upload the file during the fishing window. That is the hard gate. A camera-roll photo is allowed. We may look at time and place on the file. Those are checks, not automatic disqualifiers.

Angler photo is separate. You may also add one optional angler photo of the same fish (§7A). It is used only for the Best Pics Bounty. It never replaces the measurement photo, and we do not score length from it. The Tournament Director may look at it only to confirm it shows the same fish.

Optional video. You may also submit a short video as supporting evidence. Video is optional. The required evidence is still the photo with the measuring device in one frame. We do not have to watch or rely on a video.

Measurement is not perfect. Scoring length from a photo is not the same as a certified scale or a measured board on a dock. Everyone who enters understands that. Marks can be hard to read. Angles can foreshorten the fish. A device can look off or a little inaccurate. That is part of a catch-photo contest.

Final ruling on length. When you submit a fish you may both show a photo and self-report a size. The Tournament Director may adjust the scored length for a final ruling if:

- the photo is unclear; - the measuring device looks suspect or a little inaccurate; - the photo and the self-reported size do not line up; or - we cannot fairly read the last whole inch.

The Tournament Director may score a lower readable inch, ask for another frame of the same fish, or reject the entry. A board number that first appears is provisional until final review.

Do not reuse, edit, generate, or submit a photo of a fish that is not the logged catch. That can disqualify the fish or you.

We strip location and camera data before a photo goes to social or the public board. Release is encouraged. A kept fish must be legal. This event is not written as catch-and-release-only.

6. The board, ties, review, and final rulings

A fish may show on the board when you submit it. That is not a final ruling. We can review, adjust length, hold, or remove a fish later — including after the fishing window and after we name a potential winner.

Ties. If two complete slams have the same inches, the earlier slam wins. “Earlier” means the server time when the third species was entered — the fish that completes the winning combination — not the phone’s catch clock. If that is still tied, the earlier seat wins. If that is still tied, the Tournament Director picks a fair break that is not chance (for example, the single longest scored fish).

Disqualification. The Tournament Director may disqualify a fish or a person for a rules or FWC problem, a bad or unclear photo, a suspect measure, a fish you did not catch, multi-accounting, or abuse tied to the event.

All rulings are final. The Tournament Director makes every ruling for Presenter. The Tournament Director’s rulings on any entry, photo, measurement or length, tie, eligibility, disqualification, dispute, or prize are final and binding and are not subject to appeal. That does not waive any right Florida law says you cannot waive.

7. Slam prize

One Slam prize: the Official Prize Pack below, approximate retail value (MSRP) about $1,000 — $1,000.63 on the supplier’s sheet, which includes $10.00 flat-rate UPS shipping ($990.63 in gear at retail). Product, not cash. One Slam winner. The pot does not grow with entries. The Best Pics Bounty in §7A is separate, and the Slam winner cannot also win a Best Pic (§7A).

Official Prize Pack. An exclusive warehouse-direct gear pack from Vudu / Egret Baits (Many, Louisiana): 121 retail units across 26 line items, grouped below. Sizes and quantities are as listed on the supplier’s sheet. The sheet does not list colors. The full line-item list is in Appendix A.

The winner gives a T-shirt size in the winner packet.

Vudu / Egret Baits is the prize supplier and shipper only. They ship the pack warehouse-direct to the winner after the winner packet is complete (§8). They do not present or run this contest.

If an item in the Official Prize Pack is unavailable, the supplier may substitute an item of equal or greater value.

If Vudu / Egret Baits does not ship, Presenter supplies a gear pack of equal or greater retail value.

We may substitute gear of equal or greater retail value. Shipping in the United States is included. You may win nothing. We do not publish odds.

7A. Inshore Bite Best Pics Bounty

What it is. Three separate Best Pic awards: one for the best photo of a Common Snook, one for a Redfish, and one for a Spotted Seatrout. One winner per species.

Award. Each Best Pic award is $100, put up by Inshore Bite. Paid in cash by Venmo or another electronic payment method we choose. The awards do not grow with entries. You may win nothing.

Accept v1.7 first. You must accept this version (v1.7) of the Official Rules before you submit any catch or add or email an angler photo (§2). An accept of v1.6 or any earlier version does not cover entries.

What is judged. Only the optional angler photo (the "hero" shot of you, or someone in your party, with the fish). The measurement photo is never judged for Best Pic and can never stand in for an angler photo. No angler photo means no Best Pic eligibility for that fish.

Which fish qualify. The angler photo must be of a redfish, common snook, or spotted seatrout that you caught and entered in this event under §4 and §5. That fish's entry must stand on final review. If a fish is disqualified, its angler photo is out too. The fish does not have to be one of your scoring fish.

One angler photo per fish. Add it in the app on that fish's entry. You may add it after you enter the fish if the slot is empty. Once added, it is locked and cannot be swapped while the entry is live. It must be uploaded during the fishing window (§1). An angler photo uploaded after Saturday, October 31, 2026, 11:59 p.m. ET is not eligible.

If you cannot add it in the app. If the app will not let you add an angler photo (for example, you do not have the update yet, or a bug blocks it), email it to tournaments@inshorebite.app during the fishing window. Use the email on your Inshore Bite account and say which fish it goes with (species, date, and approximate length). We go by the time our mail server receives it. The Tournament Director reviews emailed photos by hand. One photo per fish. The first one we receive for that fish is the one we judge.

How it is judged. The Tournament Director judges each species separately on: (1) overall photo quality (light, focus, composition); (2) how well the fish is shown (clear, whole, good color); (3) fish care (wet hands, supported body, quick release or legal handling); and (4) the sense of place and the moment. This is judged on merit, not drawn by chance. Likes, votes, and follower counts do not count.

Your photo, your permission. By adding or emailing an angler photo, you confirm that: - you took it, or the person who took it has allowed you to submit it; - it is a real, unedited photo of the logged fish (normal crop, brightness, and color fixes are fine; adding, removing, or generating content is not); - every person who can be recognized in it agreed to be in it and to have it published, and a parent or legal guardian agreed for anyone under 18; and - it shows legal handling under FWC rules and nothing unlawful, unsafe, or offensive.

The Tournament Director may crop or blur a person, a boat registration number, or a landmark before publishing, or may disqualify a photo that breaks these terms. A Best Pic award goes to the angler who caught the fish, not to the photographer.

Use of photos. Angler photos are covered by the publicity and photo consent you already gave in the Participation Agreement. We strip location and camera data before any photo goes to social or a public page. Angler photos do not appear on the in-app board during the event.

Winners. The Tournament Director picks each Best Pic winner after the fishing window closes and review is done. We aim to announce them with the Slam results, on or about November 7, 2026, and may post the winning photos and finalists with location data removed. If no eligible angler photo is submitted for a species, there is no Best Pic award for that species. The Tournament Director's Best Pic picks are final under §6.

One prize per angler. No one can win more than one prize in this event. The Best Pics Bounty is secondary to the Slam prize: - the Slam prize winner (§7) cannot win a Best Pic; and - no angler can win more than one Best Pic.

The Tournament Director settles the Slam prize first, then picks the Best Pics in this order: Common Snook, Redfish, Spotted Seatrout. If the best photo for a species belongs to someone who has already won, or who is not eligible, the award goes to the next-best eligible photo for that species. If a prize is later forfeited or passed to an alternate, the Tournament Director may redo this order so no one holds two prizes. With a full field, that is four winners: one Slam winner and three Best Pic winners.

8. If you are named a potential winner

This section applies to the Slam prize and to each Best Pic award. For a Best Pic, we ask only for your legal name, your payment details, and a short confirmation of the photo promises in §7A, unless the law requires more. We aim to name potential winners on or about November 7, 2026. We may notify you in the app, by push, and by the email on the account. Will approves that send.

You must finish the winner packet (affidavit, W-9, tax acknowledgment, shipping, ID) before anything ships. Vudu / Egret Baits ships the pack warehouse-direct after that. If they do not, Presenter ships it. You have fourteen (14) days from first notice, unless the notice says another deadline. Miss it and you forfeit. We may then go to an alternate already named.

You are responsible for taxes. We may issue the information returns the law requires.

9. Notices

We may notify roster people and later prize-eligible people by push and email when fishing starts, when these rules change in a material way, and when a winner is named. Will approves every send. Legal does not send those messages.

A material change to in-force rules needs a new accept, or we restart the accept. Every registrant must accept this version (v1.7) before submitting any catch (§2). If you accepted v1.6, the app will prompt you to accept v1.7; your v1.6 accept does not cover entries.

10. Other terms

Florida law governs. Any claim goes only in state or federal court in Pinellas County, Florida.

If a court strikes one part, the rest still stands.

We may shorten, pause, or cancel the event if we have to. If we cancel after fishing starts and we still have a fair board, we may still award the prize from that board.

I HAVE READ THESE OFFICIAL RULES. I UNDERSTAND THE FIRST TAP IS A FOUNDING-ROSTER SEAT ONLY, THAT I MUST ACCEPT THIS VERSION BEFORE I SUBMIT ANY CATCH AND AM NOT PRIZE-ELIGIBLE UNTIL I DO, THAT MEASUREMENT FROM PHOTOS IS NOT PERFECT, THAT I CAN WIN ONLY ONE PRIZE, THAT BEST PICS ARE JUDGED ONLY ON MY OPTIONAL ANGLER PHOTO AND THAT I HAVE PERMISSION FROM ANYONE SHOWN IN IT, THAT THE TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR’S RULINGS (INCLUDING ON LENGTH AND BEST PICS) ARE FINAL AND BINDING, AND THAT I MAY WIN NOTHING.

Appendix A: Official Prize Pack

Source: Vudu / Egret Baits prize pack sheet dated August 27, 2026. “Retail each” is the supplier’s listed retail price. Every row on the sheet is listed here.