????????????

[vineyardblues]

Wow,
Not sure how to swallow this one

Good for Lev, But bad for the derby.
I understand they thought long and hard over this one but I still think they made a huge mistake and just opened the gates up !!
I hope now it does not turn into a "catch me if you can" event!
And everyone starts loading fish up with lead /sand/ice/ what ever it takes to add on a few extra pounds!
Can you see them gutting every fish entered in the derby??? And then subtracting "whatever" they found inside?
They should have said sorry, but your fish is a freak of nature loaded with lead and under the current rules you are DQ'ed
But what a hell of a fish !!!
02 cents
VB

[Mike P]

Nothing against Lev. But this is a horrible precedent IMO.

And here's the $64,000 question--would this decision have gone the same way if the fish was caught by a "no-name"--especially one from off-Island?

[Saltheart]

The $64,000 answere begins with N and ends with O.

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't they originally disqualify the bluefish and then let it back in because they changed the rule to let the big striper in?

[spence]

I think that any bass found to have manmade weights inside it should have those subtracted, unless it's proveable that the catcher did it intentiontally in which case it should obviously be DQ'ed.

This includes something growing in the tissue, which I can't believe is all that common. Pretty easy to post-mortem a big bass that's dead anyway.

As to the technique. Difficult to say something's not kosher if it's legal...I guess the question is should it be legal? How many bass really break free and accumulate gear in their belly?

-spence

[Slipknot]

Originally Posted by spence

How many bass really break free and accumulate gear in their belly?

-spence

That is the important point that is worth taking notice of. Ya see, it's the actual bait itself that may come off the line during the fight that will sink to the bottom where it becomes an easy meal for mama cow bass, then she swallows it and the manmade parts remain in her tummy. That is why yo-yoing is unethical IMO. Of course there are some that break off during the fight also and if those fish swallow the bait, the lead and stuff ends up stuck in them also.
same thing would happen to a rubbercore sinker shoved into an eel if the bass eats that and gets away, but we are not talking 6 ounces of lead and a skiwer either.

[BasicPatrick]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

same thing would happen to a rubbercore sinker shoved into an eel if the bass eats that and gets away, but we are not talking 6 ounces of lead and a skiwer either.

Rubber core sinkers are still made of "lead" a metal that is poisonous. Any lead that ends up in a fish has to do damage. there is also the question what happens to the flesh of a fish that ingests any amount of lead. Does the poison from the lead make its way through the fish's blood and into it's flesh for some human to eat.

Obviuosly there is no perfect answer to this controversy and each angler muxst make their own call as to what is and is not acceptable to themself.

As far as the Derby (of which I am involved with three Sponsors), I do not think anyone has all of the information and thus I can not comment on what they were presented in their meeting. I do know that the Committee is manned by many different personalities and since I beleive in Democracy, I am sure they did the best they could with what they had in front of them.