MTT post response

Wow! Where to start….or should I even start? I usually never reply to discussions like this because you never win, or should I say, you never change people’s minds, but I have to sound off on this one because it’s personal now!

I had no idea these rumors were flying around out there, and I didn’t read Joe Fellegy’s article in my last outdoor news; so you could say I was totally taken aback when my friend (one of the others in question here) told me of this rumor today! First off, I’ll be the first off to apologize to Joe Fellegy if I am wrong and he is referring to a different tournament than the one I fished in. However it sure appears to me that with the things I read here on IDA and his article, that he is referring to the same incident. I know he didn’t mention names, dates, location, or a tournament circuit name, but if you’re a follower of tournaments like the MTT, you knew what he was referring too…..not too often that best friends win each of their respective days and the other zero’s the same day, it’s on a river system and it’s a two day event with separate events each day. (Too many details to give when you’re spreading the rumor of another fisherman). As Joe quoted in his June 14th Outdoor News article, “All fisherman are liars, except you and me. And sometimes I don’t know about you.” So with that being said, I lost a lot of respect for Joe, an outdoor writer that reaches thousands weekly, for inadvertently, yet recklessly dragging my (and my father-in-law and two good friends’) names through the mud! I know it was just an article, and the situation described sounds very fishy and it fits the topic of the article, but it hurts to be wrongly accused, even if inadvertently. And as I started this paragraph, I’ll end it. If Joe was referring to another incident, I apologize to Joe and you can all call me a horses patoot!

Sooooo with all that being said, Joe’s article was Joe’s article. My name (and my friends) names WERE mentioned on IDA. So I can speak a little more boldly and defensive here! I don’t know what to say for sure, cuz like I said before, people are going to believe what they want to. But just for those of you that care to read and to make myself feel better, I’m going to ramble on here. Let me put it this way. Short and sweet! I’m a Christian, and if I accepted a fish from another boat, gave a fish to another boat, or saw a fish exchanged from one boat to another, or cheated in any way shape or form, may GOD strike me and my family dead!!! PERIOD!

It really sucks to be accused of cheating! My father-in-law and I tried our darndest to catch fish number 5 for a limit! We weren’t jigging at the dam trying to catch a 15 inch sauger for fun at the end of the day! We wanted to get a limit at least. We didn’t want to lose by a pound and only have 4 fish. We didn’t keep going back pitching jigs to our spot that had 20-30 mph wind only to lose another 30-40 jigs for fun! We had four walleye on all day…two 4+ lbers, a 6+ lber and a 10.66 lber! Hunter, we caught a ton of white bass, but we did sneak those walleye’s inbetween them. I hate to divuldge that info, but it’s only a fish, I’m talking about my reputation here! A spot is only a spot!

As for spots…Why did my buddies in question here zero one day and win the next day…..that’s fishing. The guys they fished next to on day one, when they zeroed, got second that day. My buddies had three barely legal fish, that they didn’t weigh. Had they weighed 3 fish for 4-5 lbs we wouldn’t be having this discussion, but it is what it is. Day two, my buddies got the spot on the spot right next to where they were day one and they got the three pigs they needed to win….what did my father in law and I get?……….5 boats sitting on our spot when we arrived the second day. Our number two spot was where my buddies went (and won it) which was 6-7 miles from where I was! I wasn’t gonna go there when I know what I had caught on day one where I caught them! I waited for that spot to open up, and it was too late. By the time it was open, it was too late. We had the four fish that we weighed in the first day in the livewell by (I think) 10:30 that day. We didn’t get that spot until after noon! We were unable to get anything anywhere else.

What’s my point with all this…..just venting. For those of you that read all this, thanks. For those of you that say…OK, this guy is a stand up guy that got a bad rap, THANKS. For those of you that still think I cheated, sorry, don’t know what else I can say, or don’t know what else I need to do (if anything) to convince you that we didn’t! Time to move on.

Not that it took much to convince me, but…after reading everything else, I was glad to see you respond. I don’t know why, because like I said, I was pretty much already convinced.

I’ve read many or your post and your friends post before and found the rumors hard to believe to begin with.

So, from a guy who doesn’t fish very many tournaments but was just reading and watching from the outside so to speak, I definitely believe that you, your father-in-law and you two friends are all innocent and certainly didn’t need to have your names dragged through the mud.

Someone out there sure as H— owes you all and apology!

Joel “Boog” Ballweg

I think many have misinterpreted the intention of my original post, so I would like to clarify my feelings on the issue. I would like to reiterate that I do not in any way believe these guys cheated. Dean always goes way out of his way to treat his customers with uncommon courtesy, and I truly like and respect the guy. I would not normally have brought this up, but I am convinced that the article in the Outdoor News is truly targeted at them. How could it be any otherwise? I was actually pretty ticked off when I read it, and possibly did not act with the best of judgement. It’s possible I should have delivered the message in private. Hindsight is always 20/20. I would like to be the first to apologize to Dean and Steve if they feel like I was accusing them. That was truly not my intention. I was just trying to shed light on this nasty article, and call out those who are spreading the rumors. As I tried to state before, I fished next to Dean for over half the day on Saturday, and they were simply snake-bitten that day. I can personally attest to that. Everyone was catching fish around them, including us and Bud (I think was his name from the resort). Unfortunatley Bud would not share the 10 lber’s with the rest of us. Dean was sure putting on a clinic on catching white bass though Again, I truly apologize if my original post offended you guys, but I felt this had to come out, since the accusation was made in public. The article was written in very poor taste in my opinion. For the rest of you knuckleheads who I somehow offended, I could honestly care less. These rumors had to be exposed. Ignoring them doesn’t help anything.

Steve and Ron you two are stand up guys.
I am sorry to here about this BS.

It takes a very small person to write crap like that.
I guess that is why I am so misinformed because I do not read that rag (OUTDOOR NEWS) because of all the misinformation that has been printed for years.

I know you guys did not cheat.

Ron that was an awesome fish. One of my goals was to catch a true ten during a tourney but that just has not happened for me. You rock.. Way to go.

Steve, Ron your welcome in my boat anytime.

To all the mud slingers out there go get a life.

Its too bad that some people get their kicks out of accusing other people of things just because they can’t acomplish what that accused person acomplished. In this case win the tournament. And if you win a tournament, the same tournament the next year, you must of cheated too some will say. Just look at the Poah Bear tournament that has been won by the same team for several years. They were accused also. Everybody has their own ”wanna win bad” tournament and they will take a week off work to prefish for that tournament. You pay your dues and you do good. Yet the guy who didn’t prefish or maybe spent a day or two prefishing expects to beat someone who invested over a weeks time prefishing thinks that person had to have cheated to beat him. ”BS PERIOD.” Dean [manager of Everts Resort and gets to talk to everyone as they come off the river 12 months a year so he knows where the fish are and how to catch them], Steve [former DNR guy on pool 4 and former Everts Resort manager] and Randy [who has spent every weekend and all his vacation days for many many years fishing pool 4] know that river like the back of their hands. Plain jealousy, plain and simple PERIOD. These guys [Dean, Steve, Ron, and Randy] are smart fishing the MTT Tournies on pool 4 because they [river rats] are fishing against teams that fish that circuit and are ”lake fishermen” and everyone knows ”lake only fishermen” can’t normerly beat river rats on the river. They don’t fish current and don’t like current. Plain and simple. So someone pouts and accuses others=STUPID & SICK.
Thanks, Bill

I have know Dean, Steve, and Randy for several years, I ran the LPO for 5 years and was involved with the tournament several year before that, each of these guys have all fished the LPO at one time or another and not once did I ever get one complaint on any one of them. When you spend as much time on the water as these guys do you simply do not need to cheat, all of them are honest stand up guys and I will go to bat for each of them any day any time any where. I will be calling the editor of the Outdoor new in the morning and asking him to have Mr. Fellegy print a retraction.

All I can say is Wow. I have not read the article in Outdoor News and I will probably never pick up that rag again now. I could go into a long list why any accusation of cheating again these guys is a crock but that would give validity to an article that is total bull. I will say that we were pre-fishing for the LPO both days the MTT fished Pool 4 and we happened to fish by Steve Sunday morning. There were at least 5 boats sitting on the spot he wanted when he pulled up Sunday morning and even if there weren’t that spot is a hero or zero spot. It is a big gal spot but they aren’t in there every day. Anyone who fishes the river know that late April timeframe is one of the hardest of the year to fish because the walleye are early post spawn and dropping back towards the lake. One day a spot is loaded with hogs and the next day it is empty—except for a ton of white bass. Here I have started to do what I said I wouldn’t in that the article doesn’t deserve the respect a reply gives it. I will just say that I will stake my life on the fact that Steve did nothing wrong that day and this is just wrong. To take a special memory and corrupt it just to sell a few papers is total bull. Steve, if you read this I feel your pain man. I am sorry this all happened, you are way too much a class act for this. Please know that everyone that knows you knows what total crap this whole thing is.
Rich Simmons

Thanks for clearing the air, Steve. Anyone who knows any member of either team knows those accusations are baseless and slanderous. All of you deserve an apology from both Joe Fellegy and the Editors of Outdoor News.

Chad,

Myself and the IDA team didn’t take your original post any other way. I also agree it needed to be brought out as many of us were totally unaware of the article. That was the main reason we locked it up. We all needed to read it.

To Joe Fellegy and Outdoor News,

You have a unique but short opportunity to come on here now and either apologize, name the accuser or explain to us how we all miss interpreted the article. You have damaged the reputation of four super people. I know they are a personally hurt buy the article.

Steve,Sorry this happend,please turn the other cheek and come down next year and repeat your win.

I don’t know Steve or Ron. I do know Dean and Randy, maybe not as well as some, but good enough to write the following this morning.

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 6:46 AM

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Tournament Cheating – Joe Fellegy

Size: 1 KB

Joe Fellegy’s article of June 15 issue, page 14 seems to pointing a directly at

4 individuals that many people in the fishing community know and look up to for

their fishing knowledge. After reading this column, I read several other

articles of Mr. Fellegy and have come the conclusion that he simply has a bone

to pick with several people and he’ll go to no end to make his point known.

As a long time subscriber to your newspaper, accusations and spreading of rumors

is not something I pay my subscription fee to your organization for each year.

Learning about techniques, local issues effecting the outdoors, keep up to date

on political issues and then last fishing and hunting reports or results (ie

photo’s) are just some of the good things you produce each week.

As editor of this weekly newspaper, I encourage you to read the column’s your

columnists write before they are printed and make sure that facts are reported,

not rumors.

Thanks, Mike

Mike Utley

Farmington, MN

I encourage anyone who has an opinion on the subject to write the outdoor news at:

Rob Drieslein, Managing Editor

[email protected]

Glenn Meyer, Publisher

[email protected]

Tim Spielman, Associate Editor

[email protected]

Unfortunately, Joe Felley’s contact information was not available on their website.

-J.

Nice letter Mike Well put.

John

If its any consolation, I read the article from June 14th and I did not make the connection that Fellegy was referring to Dean, Steve, Randy, and Ron. So hopefully most people didn’t make the connection either. That being said, its no excuse for slinging mud and seeing what happens.

Accusing people of wrongdoing with nothing more to go on than it sounds unusual, and not knowing anything about the people in question and their reputations, is plain slanderous. But Joe Fellegy is no stranger to controversy. And to not risk being put in the same category as the rumour spreaders I will say no more other than Dean, Steve, Randy, and Ron deserve better.

Joel

I would just add that ODN goes to press on Tuesdays, I believe. So I wouldn’t be expecting any letters in the paper this week.

Joel

He never did mention names or anything specific but if you follow tournaments or were at weigh ins or at the tournament you sure would be able to see loud and clear what was being said and I plan to write a letter as well and possibly let my subscription run on in mid August if an apology is not given by than because the fact it is wrong plain and simple you do not publish in the national media without the facts! Whether you know a person or not fact are facts and without them it is nothing but rumors and complete disrespect! Knowing the people accused I knwo these are nothing but jelous rumors and plan to investigate and try to find the writters email or info as well and plan to post it for everyone to contact him first hand if I find anything. Again this is just plain and simply just wrong and complete disrespect for anyone to be accused of.

Here is the response from the MTT:

In response to cheating/culling during MTT events:
First and foremost, if you have an issue with another team, you need to bring this to the Tournament
Directors attention, this being Mike Holt.
You need to do this within a timely manner, to be specific “within 15 minutes of the scales being closed”.
You can find our policy on how protests are handled at “www.mntournamenttrail.com”, go to Rules & Regs”
page, it will be under “protests”.

With that being said, the best way to handle a situation such as this, is at the time you see it happen.
As Anglers and Competitors we need to police ourselves. If you see this happening, float over to the
offenders and make them aware of what you saw. Let them know that you know, then make us aware.
More times than not, this is enough to stop it from happening.
You do not have to get in an argument over it, just sometimes handling it on the water takes care of it.
You never know who may be watching at any given time.

Also, if someone has some concrete info on this, you need to give Mike a call at the Office 320-679-2825.
He will be more than willing to listen and talk with you about this.
However, he WILL NOT now, or ever respond to a situation such as this on an open forum such as this.
The internet is a great thing, but you are damned if you respond to these rumors, and damned if you don’t.
So, we choose not to “hash” things out in this manner.

We at the MTT are trying our hardest to have a circuit that is run well, with good competition and great people.
We, the entire Staff, run the circuit in a “Professional” manner, we expect those fishing with us to also act in a
“Professional” manner in matters dealing with the MTT.
So, in the future, instead of “hashing” these things out and starting a heated discussion, be the
“Professionals” you are and come to us first.

We would like to “Thank” all of our Anglers that support us now, and have in the past. We truly appreciate you!

Also, “Thanks” to all the staff at IDA for allowing us to have a forum such as this, where we can communicate
anything fishing related!

See you on “The Trail”-
Diane @ MTT

Diane @ MTT,
Why so many words like, hash , professional, and thanks all in quotes?

Why not “hash” things out on the internet where everyone can read it in real time? There is never going to be a time or place where all these “professionals” are in a room together to “hash” it out and clear the air.

“Thanks” for your response though.

Machine:
That is a great question.

The reason is because words are misconstrued and people are throwing out derogatory slander that is desecrating people’s reputation. Those people spreading these rumors could be held liable in a court of civil law.

Of course, those spreading those rumors would never step up to the plate and identify themselves. “WHY?” Because it is a slanderous lie that would end up getting them sued in a court of law for everything they own and would own in the future.

I find it so gravely disappointing at how one person’s success is cheating because of another’s lack of ability.

The MTT does an excellent job at running a tournament. Mike and company run as good as circuit as there is in my opinion. This has nothing to do with the MTT. It has to do with a ridiculous article that was based on a rumor started by a jelous competitor(s).

Steve, you don’t owe and explenation to anyone but it was well put and should be crystal clear to everyone

If there was any truth to this the people accusing would of confronted them at the spot they say they saw this being done and also would of reported it to Mike and Diane at the weighin. Neither was done which PROVES that these are lies on the accusers part. Doesn’t get any clearer than that. Plain and simple. Period.

Thanks, Bill

It truly is dissapointing to know that nowadays the exhileration of winning an event will be accompanied by the “cheating” bullseye by jealous people who cant beat you,or claim to see something to try to answer the only valid question out there,why are these guys so good?
let me explain it for the hard-headed.

95% of all river tournaments(non-professional)are won by a handfull of people.
dean marshall
randy stevens
jim beauliea
eric rehberg
greg vandemark
mike and jason schommer
nesbit and mathees
paul kennebeck
why?
its not a secret and they arent cheating
p.s. they’re good on the river!!!but dont tell anybody
I personally have witnessed on numerous ocassions when they dont have a “check-cashing”weight,they dont weigh, hence the dreaded 0 the day before or the day after a win.there are other people that do well on pool 4 but consistantly winning events is what gets these names recognized year after year,fortunately for me several of the above mentioned have befriended me and bought me a couple of drinks from time to time and I only hope before I die,I can know as much as this collection of people.

Dean,Steve,Randy and Ron dont let the bs from someone elses stupidity diminish what you guys did that weekend,I was there and witnessed all of it and you have NOTHING to feel less about.

MR Fellegy,may all your writing utensils burn up,and your computer contract a virus as to not subject honest people with that line of cheap gossip journalism any longer,I would think mr Zumbos experience would teach you to try not fit both feet in your mouth at the same time!

Well said Corey. I agree 100%!

Well I’ve known Steve since he was a pain-in-the-butt creel boy and for Randy he has always been a pain in the butt. You only have 2 meet Dean once and know what kind of guy he is. Somebody is just searching for an argument and his wife isnt home so he decided to dishonor some riverrats. In one ear and out the other. If Felegy wants a story I can give him one about a certain someone that rearended a certain Tuffy boat in 4th cut a few years back!

When u live in a glass house leave the damn rocks in your POCKET!

Brent Rothgarn

Better clear the last part of the statement up. It wasnt Joe that ran into the tuffy but i’m sure he knows who it was!
I dont want to start any false rumors.

Brent

If you’ve been an avid reader of O.N. for as long as I have, and have followed Joe’s articles in the recent months and years, you can surely see a trend in his work. He is getting very cynical towards fishing and fisher-people in general. Especially new technology, big fancy boats, all the hype and fan-fair, newbies “moving-in” on his spots, too many secrets being let out, manufacturer’s promotions, etc., etc. Just read and you’ll see it.
I read the article in question the week it came out. I quized my MTT partner about his comments and he just laughed. The list of guy’s Corey mentioned could be doubled as far as I’m concerned. There are some VERY good and respectable people that fish most of the river tournaments – and the MTT in general. I think Joe needs to back off and check his sources – and their sources – before he makes statements like he did. I could not believe his comments myself – and I also fished that tourney!
I hope those he is supposedly referring to just do as Brent says,… let it go in one ear, out the other. You’ve “earned” your reputations through the way you fish and we all know it.
Splitshot

Sorry to put you through all this Steve!

It’s all my fault, if I’d have gotten Randy Binders message that he wanted to go prefishing that day, you wouldn’t have run across him at the landing, he wouldn’t have caught that fish in your spot, you might not have won and had to go through all this crap! It’s not easy to win around here, you guys did a great job…it was your day! Don’t concern yourself with what those that don’t have a clue say about you or anyone of your friends. I’ve fished right next to Randy several times that he’s won, you know what, he caught the fish! End of story!

Steve Gnotke

Quote:

---

I only hope before I die,I can know as much as this collection of people.

---

I think that pretty much sums it up. Congrats on the win guys.

Does anyone know of a link to this “article”? I would really like to read it for myself. If anything bad is being spread about the MTT, we should get a rope!!
Best circuit in the state!

I just want to say that I have fished tournaments against these guys for about ten years, and I have nothing but the greatest respect for all of them. Particularly Randy. He is the best fisherman on the river in my opinion. He has always offered a helping hand and a friendly smile or joke to JJ and I, and is the first to step up and shake your hand if you get lucky enough to beat him.
I’m not even gonna dig through the trsh for my copy of that paper to read the article because it would just cut into the time I need to learn the river better.
Wayne Webster

Aforementioned rear-ender still owes said Tuffy owner for repairs. I guess he’d rather owe it to me forever than cheat me out of it.