rich p

It's a sad week, I had to quit Rogue Bass. I left the club because since I
joined I have seen selective enforcement of the tournament rules more than a
few times. The final straw for me was when the current tournament director
allowed an undersized boat (15 footer) fish in our club when our rules
clearly state a 16' minimum. When I was new to the club I was told 16' and
I went out and bought a bigger boat, now this guy comes in and because he's
a buddy of the TD he gets a pass. Am I crazy to think that there are clubs
out there that actually follow rules? Are all clubs so political?

Rogue Bass operates under the assumption that the TD has ultimate say
regarding all rules. My belief is that the rules are the ultimate authority
and the TD's job is to make a call when the rules are not clear on an issue.
Am I alone in that thinking?

I wouldn't mind some opinions about the subject, either for or against my
thinking.

BTW Warren, I spoke to Harry this week, he's fine. I think the second baby
has put the big drain on his fishing time.

Rich P

dan, danl, redbeard uh greybeard now

Rich, you are correct. I did the same thing years back when the
Lunkers Unlimited Bass Club in the Milwaukee area had problems.

During our club outings that were split day/partners some wanted to
and were allowed to declare two full bag limits. This is against the
law and my partner and I were very unhappy.

Another problem was the TD was allowing certain people to conduct and
fish in small tournaments during the closed time before our big club
open tournaments. When my partner and I brought it up it at the pre
tournament meeting, we had just found out it happened, we were
threatened with physical violence from several club officials.

Needless to say we said our piece to the assembled tournament
participants before we left.

That club is still in operation and most of the crooked people are
still in charge but they had a large membership drop that year.

I find it hard to understand people that think the rules don't count
when it comes to thier special buddies.

You did the right thing Rich.


I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it! (The hell with my X-wife!)
danl4x@charter.net
Remove the x for e-mail reply
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
http://www.SecretWeaponLures.com
A proud charter member of "PETAF", People for Eating Tasty Animals and Fish!!!

ronnie

I have been club fishing since 1974 - still in the one I joined that
year and the one I joined in 1978.
Two of the worst things that can happen to a club and tear it apart are
not enforcing the rules and not enforcing them fairly. Maybe even
worse is having too many rules, when some members propose rules for the
club because they think the rule change will either help them or hurt
others.
Ronnie

dwayne e. cooper

On 27 May 2006 17:59:10 -0700, "Ronnie" <fishing.guide@about.com>

IMO, this is a huge prob and was one of the reasons I stopped
fishing club tournaments back when I was 16 or 17. The guys were
great...but had some serious problems with what the club was supposed
to be all about. (fun, fishing and fellowship). I seen the rules go
from a straight forward 10 rules to way many rules (ie. Section IX
Article 5 Paragraph A Section 1. Subsection a. Paragraph 1)
SubParagraph b)).

Many a club and tournament circuits have been run successfully
and clean by keeping things (rules) simple...

--
Dwayne E. Cooper, Atty at Law
Indianapolis, IN
Email: dwayne@cooperlegalservices.com
Web Page: http://www.cooperlegalservices.com
Personal Fishing Web Page: http://www.hoosierwebsites.com/OnTheWater
Dog Fishing: http://www.hoosierwebsites.com/onthewater/fishing040.htm
1st Annual ROFB Classic Winner

richz

A frequent fishing partner of mine recently left his club in a similar
scenario. They fished a club tourney at a flooded lake. The launch is in
a large cove that is cut off from the main body of the lake by a
causeway. The lake was so flooded that not only was the pipe under the
causeway not passable, but the small boats were able to float over the
causeway at a low spot. Three of the guys in the club have big boats,
and the rest are smaller aluminum bass boats. The guys with the little
boats all got out to the main lake. The tournament director did too, in
a bog boat. But not without getting out of the boat and pushing it
across the road. My buddy asked how he did over there, and the guy says
he got 3 fish -- enough to give him the win. My buddy says if the TD
weighs the fish in, he's going to protest. They take a vote at the ramp
and decide that since the small boats were able to get out to the lake,
it would be unfair to DQ the guy with the big boat who got there too,
despite the fact that he broke the rules to get there, by getting out of
his boat. So he quit the club.

ronnie

Not being allowed to get out of your boat is one of those rules that I
think goes too far, but if it is a rule it should be enforced. One of
my clubs has the rule you can't get out of the boat to land a fish,
the other says nothing about getting out of the boat. Seems to me you
should be able to get out of the boat for a variety of reasons,
especially nature's call, but enforce it as writen. Even if someone
forgot their rainsuit and had to go back to the truck for it when it
started raining later in the day.

The Spalding County Sportsman Club was formed back in the 1950s as a
sportsman club and evolved into a bass tournament club. The rules for


club in 1974 you could weigh in any bass - white and stripers
included. That has changed.

The Flint River Club was started in the early 1970s and rules were
based on BASS tournament rules and are a little more strict.

Both club rules are posted on my site if anyone is interested.

Ronnie
fishing.guide@about.com
http://fishing.about.com

bob la londe

Most of the clubs I fish have a rule that says you can not get out of your
boat to "better your position." You can come out the day before with a
shovel to dig a trench across a sandbar, but certainly not during the
tournament. You can use a push pole or a paddle, but you can't get out and
push. One trick (that may benefit you guys in the future) I have seen is to
use the hydraulic trim and the hydraulic jack to push a boat over a shallow
spot. Raise the jack, trim the motor all the way down, Lower the jack, and
then trim the motor up. There are a couple lakes down here that you can't
get into from the river when the water is low. I watched one guy do this
ahead of me to get into a lake with a 20' Ranger. I had to wait with the
jon boat I was using that day for him to get over. I just barely managed to
pull the jon over the bar with my trolling motor, and I was dragging all the
way with my partner helping in the back with a push pole.

Anyway, by the logic followed in the previous post, then they guys in bigger
faster boats should have to a max speed of the slowest boat in the
tournament as, "it wouldn't be fair," for those people with slower boats to
have to get to all the best spots last.

People pick their boats based on what they want. Want shallwo draft? Rig a
flat bottom jon boat as a bass boat. Want speed comfort? Buy a Skeeter I
class or a Ranger Z hull and pair it with a high output outboard. Want
ultimate speed? Buy a Bullet or an Allison and have a good pro set it up
for you.

I have never complained that it isn't fair when I picked my Basscat for a
tournament and found it would not float over a shallow spot to get where I
wanted to go, and I certainly never protested somebody who passed me running
up river only to have to watch as I floated over a bar they could not get
over even on pad.

(Dang I miss my tunnel hull. I could clear sandbars that other guys would
run up on and fall over, and my hydraulic jack sure made some of those other
places passable.)

--
Bob La Londe
Fishing Arizona & The Colorado River
Fishing Forums & Contests
http://www.YumaBassMan.com

*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

richz

Precisely.

joe z

It's a sad week, I had to quit Rogue Bass. I left the club because since I
joined I have seen selective enforcement of the tournament rules more than a
few times. The final straw for me was when the current tournament director
allowed an undersized boat (15 footer) fish in our club when our rules
clearly state a 16' minimum. When I was new to the club I was told 16' and
I went out and bought a bigger boat, now this guy comes in and because he's
a buddy of the TD he gets a pass. Am I crazy to think that there are clubs
out there that actually follow rules? Are all clubs so political?

Rogue Bass operates under the assumption that the TD has ultimate say
regarding all rules. My belief is that the rules are the ultimate authority
and the TD's job is to make a call when the rules are not clear on an issue.
Am I alone in that thinking?

I wouldn't mind some opinions about the subject, either for or against my
thinking.

BTW Warren, I spoke to Harry this week, he's fine. I think the second baby
has put the big drain on his fishing time.

Rich P

Rich,
Last year at a tournament on a REAL SMALL electric motor only lake I was
fishing a short riprap point using a small hook and a grub. I had caught 3
short bass when 2 other club boats trolled right over and started casting in
front of me. A jig and pig landed within 6 feet of me. I hadn't fished many
of this clubs events so far so I was speechless. I left and loaded up to
avoid a scene. I talked to to a couple of the veterans that missed that
event and they were surprised anbody would move in like that. Did I quit?
Nope, I am president this year and I made it clear with the support of the
old guard that rules and etiquette will be followed. Being president wasn't
my first choice bit it is the only bass club within 75 miles. If I had
another option I would have quit too. Joe Z.

bulldognation

Unfortunately, I also will be leaving my club at the end of this year.
I'm tired of all the politics and bickering over rules. One of the rules
my club was trying to pass this year was giving the 6th place(of the Top
6) to the highest finishing non-boater so they'll have something to
shoot for. I thought this rule was BS. What if you're sitting in 6th
place and you've fished hard all year and the club tells you that the
top non-boater is going to the Top 6 instead of you? I would raise more
hell than just a little bit. Also, they sent a guy to our Top 6 tourney
last year who was on the club inactive list. Instead of going down the
line to the next angler, because the "inactive" angler was a great
fisherman. In our club meeting back in November(05), our then president
suggested that we start scheduling tourneys closer to home due to rising
gas prices. I liked this idea simply because it could save us boaters
some money on gas and motel costs. I would much rather sleep in my own
bed. Well anyway, when it came time to vote for the lakes for our 2006
season. The same "big guns" in the club voted to go even further away
than suggested. Our club has went from 26 anglers in 2003 down to 12 in
2006. Our recruiting new club members was non-existant. Now we're
talking about merging with another club who was also on the downswing
and losing members due to the same problems we're having. Some of the
members from "merge" club are being allowed to fish in our events this
year. One of the guys who is fishing with us from the other club is an
absolute RINGER. He fishes in the BFLs and has waxed our regulars 2
tourneys in a row. Needless to say some eyebrows are being raised over
this and some squawking can already be heard. That this guy is a pro and
shouldn't be fishing with us. I know this sounds like sour g****s but
most of us are amateurs and don't like getting our asses handed to us
every tourney. Our tourney is next week on Lake Guntersville, and the
"pro" angler has a trailor on the lake and is stayng down there all week
to practice for our club tourney. When some of the guys(including
myself) heard this, we immediately opted out of the draw and chose not
to go. So in short our club has a mere 8 anglers going to Guntersville
vs. the so called ringer.
I'll stay home thank you.

DM