FLW Saltwater Striper Trail part 2

[slapshot]

thank you

[Basser]

Originally Posted by JohnR

Slapshot, the rumor mill presents several cases of cheating with several different tourneys, not just the ASA, but because it is in fact the "Rumor Mill" I think it would be unwise to further propogate the rumors because they cannot be confirmed. And keep in mind it is the "Rumor Mill". It is sad because >90% of the participants were probably honest.

I chased a "absolute unequivocal classic case of cheating" (according to people "that were there and can confirm it") for a long time. Spoke to all the individuals and found out it was primarily bred out of sour grapes and unconfirmable "evidence"...I suspect 99.9% of the claimed cheating is in that category.

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by Basser

I chased a "absolute unequivocal classic case of cheating" (according to people "that were there and can confirm it") for a long time. Spoke to all the individuals and found out it was primarily bred out of sour grapes and unconfirmable "evidence"...I suspect 99.9% of the claimed cheating is in that category.

I agree, though I suspect only 80% or rumored cheating is in fact in that category and 20% of rumors would pan out as cheating. I have had particular instances brought to my attention by multiple unrelated sources, some who "heard" and some who say they "saw". It does exist, not as ramptant as the rumor mill would put forth. And as far as actual instances go, it would be wrong to propagate them. However, it does not mean that the cheating does not exist.

[Team Rock On]

Here's a rumor from the ASA website....
"One bad incident happened in this event that had the docks buzzing. An ASA team from New Jersey was removed from competition for life after weighing a fish suspected to have a foreign substance in its belly. The team Captain brought what would have been the winning fish to the DNR weighmaster. Once on the scales the weighmaster called out the weight which was announced on the PA system, “We have a new tournament leader.” He then proceeded to feel the fish’s stomach, which had a peculiar lump. Suspecting the worst the weighmaster then ran a metal detector across the fish and as he expected the machine went off. Informing the contestant that he needed to open the fish up, the Captain grabbed the fish and proclaimed that this was the wrong fish, he had another one in the boat he wanted to weigh. Rushing out of the tent, ASA director Deona Holmes was in hot pursuit, demanding the Captain return the fish. As the Captain reached his boat he hollered at Tournament Director Bob Flocken, “You are always picking on me,” immediately cranked up the boat and sped out of the marina.

While the fish was never gutted, the actions of the team not allowing the fish to be inspected led tournament officials to immediately disqualify the team from competition. Further investigation is underway to see what the individuals have done in the past and whether criminal prosecution is warranted."

[TheSpecialist]

Just doing a quick search I found that the most exspensive entry fee was for the Kingfish and Redfish tournaments with total purse per tournament of like 200,000. The entry fee was 750 thats it, where are you people getting 2500??

[Bill L]

It is just a fishing contest and GOD FORBID someone actually make any profits from it!!! It is not a sin to make money and have fun at the same time.

Why not just get a commercial license and sell some fish on the side if you want to profit off the fishery?

[Pete_G]

Not to stir up a controversial thread again, but here's some video on Striper Tubes. At this point, it kind of comes down to this. If people want these tournaments to be catch and release (or the FLW requires it) they can be.

http://www.fishnsba.com/images/front.../NSBA_espn.mov

http://www.fishnsba.com/images/front...tripertube.wvx

I've also seen more then a few full time guides in Southern New England announce they'll be competing in the tournaments.

[GBOUTDOORS]

Pete those may work but it is not legal in Mass. to keep stripers in a live well or tank alive so I don't see how they will do this???

[Pete_G]

Originally Posted by GBOUTDOORS

Pete those may work but it is not legal in Mass. to keep stripers in a live well or tank alive so I don't see how they will do this???

I dunno, it sure seems like they should change the law in the name of conservation though.

I think the bonus would be a potential decrease in cheating, you can't keep a live striped bass in a tube for days on end. I wouldn't think you could anyway...

[Rockport24]

I don't mean to beat a dead horse or anything, but have you guys seen the official rules for this yet? Sorry if this has been posted before, but they just came out last week.
http://www.flwoutdoors.com/article.cfm?id=144281&nid=45
It seems so damn stupid, first of all, it is illegal in Mass to keep fish in a live well and they are only weighing in fish 28-34''!!!
So if you catch a 50 pounder you don't win! How crazy is that!
this thing sucks, why didn't they just stay down south and let us have our little fishery...

[Swimmer]

All this talk about a tour coming soon to an ocean near you begs the question. Are we expected to give way when fishing our favorite spots? I refer to the yahoos that put thier boats in the various lakes that the bass pros are fishing in that week and follow them around. Now a lake although large is an enclosed area, so following and watching is easy. These guys that watch in these lakes are never fishing though. What if your drifting over your favorite mound of sand in middle ground or casting to the rocks at Quick's and all of a sudden a few boats come screaming to a stop nearby that contain tournament anglers plus a rules boat and boats that also carry the guys with the cameras and the fishermens agents and on and on and on. Are these "pro salt fishermen/women" going to demand that everyone get out of thier way? I know many of the people here and know fishermen/women in general in this neck of the woods would not put up with this. I am curious what you all think about this possibilty.

[Sluggoslinger]

Originally Posted by Rockport24

I don't mean to beat a dead horse or anything, but have you guys seen the official rules for this yet? Sorry if this has been posted before, but they just came out last week.
http://www.flwoutdoors.com/article.cfm?id=144281&nid=45
It seems so damn stupid, first of all, it is illegal in Mass to keep fish in a live well and they are only weighing in fish 28-34''!!!
So if you catch a 50 pounder you don't win! How crazy is that!
this thing sucks, why didn't they just stay down south and let us have our little fishery...

It sounds like the stupidest thing I have ever heard of... Whoever catches that fattest 34in fish wins!!! I bet 90% of the fish that are "released after weighin" die. I kind of like fishing for the fun, keeping only what will get eaten and being on the water. I guess I just don't want to see 1000 yahoo's out at monomoy rips for this turney. Its already too crowded out there. Plus there aren't even any fish out there anymore the cape is dried up

[big jay]

Originally Posted by Swimmer

All this talk about a tour coming soon to an ocean near you begs the question. Are we expected to give way when fishing our favorite spots? I refer to the yahoos that put thier boats in the various lakes that the bass pros are fishing in that week and follow them around. Now a lake although large is an enclosed area, so following and watching is easy. These guys that watch in these lakes are never fishing though. What if your drifting over your favorite mound of sand in middle ground or casting to the rocks at Quick's and all of a sudden a few boats come screaming to a stop nearby that contain tournament anglers plus a rules boat and boats that also carry the guys with the cameras and the fishermens agents and on and on and on. Are these "pro salt fishermen/women" going to demand that everyone get out of thier way? I know many of the people here and know fishermen/women in general in this neck of the woods would not put up with this. I am curious what you all think about this possibilty.

I'd like to see the first boat that pulls up into the charter fleet with their tv cameras and says "excuse me, I'm fishing a tournament, please make way".

It's going to go over like a fart in church.

[NIB]

I have a friend who is all hopped up on this.The FLW guy did talks at the Mass Bass an RISA shows.He was saying they will provide tubes to keep fish alive.Fish are to be no bigger than 34 inches an its a lure only tourney.With incentive kickbacks to a particular boat owners not sure which brand.I'm surprised with all the genius's here it only took 3 pages before that came out.

[kippy]

This will definitely not go over big with the charter boats. I see these so called "pros" getting a 3 oz tin off the side of their boat.

[kippy]

They will be down my way September 16th. I can hardly wait.

[Rip Runner]

In all fairness, there are only 2 tournaments in MA and they are both one day tournaments. I also highly doubt that 200 teams are going to enter each tournament.

They received permission to use the Striper-tubes in MA. (I don't know how they did, but I guess they did?). They are supposed to have a high 90 something % healthy fish release rate according the research they have done on them on the freshwater striper tour. Catch and release is a good thing...right.

I also saw that it was 28"minumum and 34" to the fork, this means fish would would actually be more like 37" overall. I would rather see them have the overall heaviest fish instead, but they wanted this tournament to reach the average fisherman and not just the commercial guys who have a much better change at landing 40+ pound fish.

I don't think these tournaments are really going to affect everyone all that much except one day on the cape and another out of Boston and the actual number of boats won't be as high as people think at least this year.

[Rockport24]

Yeah Nib, the rules say that owners of certain boats can register before everyone else, so I'm sure like everything else, this thing is just a big advertisement for those companies.

Hey guys, just be glad they are not having an FLW surfcasting tour, that would be spot-burn city, we would need to start an angry mob!

[TheSpecialist]

All this talk about a tour coming soon to an ocean near you begs the question. Are we expected to give way when fishing our favorite spots?

Screw them, they won't let everyone play. They have minimum size limit of 20' for boats, I'd like to see them try and get someone off their spot.

BTW they will provide the tubes for a fee, in other words you have to buy them from them. The whole thing is an aggregate weight weight thing any way, so the slott limit isn't bad. If you have ever watched the Redfish tourney's it makes the competition that much tougher. That ones too big throw it back, this ones too small.....

[Rockport24]

ya gots a point there, I saw the redfish thing last weekend and some guys won by an ounce! that is crazy....