tounaments, observers and cheating

[crawdaddy]

I just read the interview with Rick Clunn on Bassfan regarding the removal of the Co-Angler division in the BASS Elite series. It was nice to get the other perspective. Most of the other pros were beside themselves with joy to get the fishing public out of their boats. This will bite them in the backside before it is all said and done. As Clunn says in the interview it was a great marketing tool and the cheating issues are going to come up. There are too many big egos and big paychecks on the line.

http://bassfan.com/news_article.asp?id=3048

[Greg_Cornish]

Fisherman are far too honest a bunch of people.

[stonefly]

Honesty runs in about 99% of us, but it's what that 1% can do in the way of damage that Clunn is referring to. I have to agree, at some point BASS is going to get that "hickey" he mentioned.

[tunaman]

Yeah, I read that article this morning and liked his input. Only time will tell how it all plays out.

Roger

[Alex M.]

Not trying to be a thread-jacker or anything(but I probably already am), but this reminds me of this article I read quite some time ago about cheating...

Makes me sick to my stomach!

**********
Louisiana angler, Sam Huckabee, while fishing a crank-bait through the stumps in an oxbow on the Red River, set his hook on what he thought was a bass bite. But as he tried reeling in his catch he could only reel in about four feet before it stopped! Believing he had a good fish he then saw it jump, but without his crank bait being in its mouth. Huckabee then realized that he had snagged a fishing line that had a bass attached to it.

Thinking he had snagged a line that someone else had broke off, Huckabee managed to land the bass to untangle his lure from the line only to find that the bass actually had one end of a braided fishing line tied through its bottom lip, with the other end tied to a stump. Not liking what he saw he immediately called the BASS tournament officials.

Sam Huckabee, who was practice fishing for a BASSMaster event, told BASS what he found and where the fish was located because he didn't want BASS thinking he had anything to do with it! There had been several other bass fishing tournaments on the Red River recently and Huckabee figured someone in another event may have done this.

Huckabee would find out later that Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fishery wardens located the staked bass and marked it in four places. After LDWF agents secured a statement from Huckabee, they then arrested Lee's Summit, Mo., angler, Paul E. Tormanen after he arrived to weigh his bass on tournament day and charged him with contest fraud. Subsequently disqualified from the tournament and banned from all future BASSMaster events after admitting to catching several bass before the tournament and tying them to stumps for weigh-in, Tormanen was then booked into a Natchitoches Parish Detention Center where he faces imprisonment and fines………Standing kudos go to Sam Huckabee, HOOORA!

Most local and regional tournament winners are usually given a polygraph test before receiving their awards, but at most national events Polygraphs are not given as those tournament organizations feel that at the national level they are unnecessary, and rely on fellow tournament anglers to report tournament rule infractions. But if a Sam Huckabee had not been there on the Red River to accidentally snag Tormanen’s tethered bass would that attempt at thievery been found out by BASS? ………Probably not!

But maybe after the Red river event, and many others that have occurred over these past years, the national tournament groups should rethink their negative attitude towards the Polygraph system and allow them to be used as a tool to protect the entry fee investments of the anglers who fish them. The polygraph has evolved from its almost archaic system with unsightly and intimidating pulse and breathing wires, to a more high tech electronic system of computer microchips and mega-bites. Laptop computers now replace the old Polygraph machines, which are more accurate and a lot less intimidating to the polygraph subjects who are required to take them.

[leachman90]

Or at a minimum when there is a "grey"area are they going to call on themselfs.At least with the co's in the boat there is abit more of a watchful eye.

[Skeeterman]

I thought B.A.S.S. was going to have observers for the Elite series but if you wanted be one you had to pay $250 for it.

[tunaman]

They are, they do, but the fear is that there won't be enough, or they will bail when the conditions get tough. A co-angler isn't (usually) going to withdraw just because it gets nasty on the water. Also, the observers are not likely to be as savy as co-anglers when it comes to rules and such.

Roger

[hackettd]

when there is money, there is cheating

[some guy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs&NR=1

[Marty]

There are a few points that I see with replacing the Co-Angler with observers other then just cheating.

One important point that I believe B.A.S.S is missing by replacing the Co-Angler with observers. How many Co-anglers use the back seat to move into tournament fish from the back seat, get the confidence and lean what is happening (the in's and out's) of competing in the tournament environment. Granted, this is only happening at the Elite level but how long will it take to work down to other levels of tournament fishing. This will only harm the growth of tournament fishing which in turn will reduce the ability of our sport to expand. The Heavyweight Bass Classic is using the observer concept. How long will it take to work down to other levels of tournament fishing?

The other point as stated before Heavyweight Bass Classic is using the observer concept and just in HBC 1 & 2 I believe the list of Pro was not released early because the lack of observers that have did not signed up as fast as the Pro’s did. If fact the sign up list for HBC 3 has been out for about a month now has not been released. In talking with past observers a good portion will not sign up again as an observers.

Add this to the other point of views (cheating, bailing out, and Lack of understanding of rules) this is IMO not a good idea!