Thread: Tournament fishermen

Originally Posted by Rees Guide

There are times that "straw" is litterly the difference maker in what you have found for tourney day, eggs in one basket so to speak. Whether it got hammered to death or another team saw you take a good fish out of a spot and they beat you there, like it or not it happens.
Hope the day never comes that I feel I need to stoop to this level, we may both find the same fish and end up there on tourney morning and I'm good with that. Fact is you better be worrying whats happening in your rig and not in others, some days one bite will make all the difference.
Folks do all kinda of things and it will surprise you some times too, with that said, for the most part sportsmanship abounds. Saw Bird Down and his part at the Crappie Masters Championship, heck watched em for 4 or 5 hours solid on Saturday morning, knew they were sticking a few fesh but dont think we ever even got close enough to them to speak. Closest we got to them was when we were pulling cranks and we were in the middle of Whittington then and they were in the weeds.

By the way, I have tourney with fished several of the folks that have posted in this thread and it was always a pleasure and hope to get the chance to do it again. Tourney fishing is about learning for me, doing good is just icing on the cake but learning to catch fish on a set day no matter the conditions makes any of us better fisherman.

Well said John.

Great reading.

John is spot about the learning part. Everyone has a little twist they use to catch a few extra fish. You learn lots of those things while tourney fishing with all those guys and gals.

Most of the tourney guys respect each other's space, but the lakes we fish are Public Waters. Pre fishing and hanging out with the fishermen and women before and after the tourney is more like a social event. Going out to eat, have a few brews, and just hanging out with knowledgable fishermen is fun in itself. Most will share their techniques, and may tell you the Pattern the fish are on, but not their hot spots. AS EXPECTED.

The reason you see a lot of boats in a certain spot is usually because everyone learns the Better areas while pre fishing. Word gets leaked from the locals, guides, Bait shops, friends, etc.

Originally Posted by bird down

I wouldn't put it past any competitive angler to use the tactics u mentioned. I have seen folks try just about anything. For me, I don't generally get to prefish because of work. When I do Prefish I never stop, turn around, get the net, throw a buoy, or anything else to indicate I am catching fish. I swear some people pay more attention to what your doing than to what there doing. It makes no sense to me.

I'd take it the other direction once I've found fish. Go to a place that is dead and grab the net, hoot and holler, the whole bit. Then come game day somebody gonna be disappointed

KDAVID1 my thoughts exactly bait and switch

There's lots of tournament trickery out there. I know teams that will go to a crappy spot and make sure there is a few people watching and lift the same fish in and out of the boat a dozen or so times in a row.There are a lot of people that will seeing you catch fish and they will literally try to push you off of your spot. There are a lot of teams out there just following the crowd. Lot of monkey see monkey do type mentality out there. I had one guy last year at the classic tell me and my partner that he was watching us with binoculars. Can't wait until Mar. Just right around the corner!

use of binoculars is disqualification! in Crappie Master and CUSA tournaments

Originally Posted by crappie24

use of binoculars is disqualification! in Crappie Master and CUSA tournaments

I know we reported it to Vallentine. And he emphasized it at the meeting that it was grounds for Dq. I mean if your going to cheat you shouldn't be there.