Disgusted Angler!

I am going to vent a little about some other Boater’s tailpiping at Bemidji this past weekend. I dont know about you guys but I am sick of seeing angler’s who call them self pro’s using dirty pool to get ahead. I am talking about guy’s going around and gps’ing people when they are prefishing. I will not name these guy’s out right. I have heard of alot of complaints from other boaters as well about these guy’s. I guese I am a little old fashion this way and like too find my own area’s to fish. It’s just too tough too take when someone comes up and waypoint’s your position. I will be having a short chat with this person in the near future to show my digust. This person also went out of his way to bother a local fishermen enough that he left his fishing spot because he was mad enough to get into a fight when the so called pro started questioning him on what kind of fish he had been catching and what he is doing to catch them. I know that their is alot of money online in these events but the line needs to be drawn on what is expected from the actions of a FLW angler. The public does not view a tournament well at times. Along with adding people angering the local fisherman is sure to have bad repprocusion on us angler’s who are trying to hold up the image we are suppose to portray. Normally I dont say much to guys who do this on the water. I think from now on I will start voiceing my concern to them on the water when it happens. I would like to think that other fishermen would do the same. Maybe this will help police up some of the tactics people use to prefish. The person I am talking about does not post on this site but does view it. I dont think I am out of line here on this subject. I bet their is a few other’s that feel the same way. What is your opinion on this matter?

John G.

This happened at a bass tournament this weekend on Lake Waconia. An angler that was not in the tournament followed the team that won the last two tournaments (back to back).The team in the event stuck a 5 pound bass, then the angler in the black and orange Ranger Boat started doing circles around the team and marking the spot on G.P.S. Once the team was fed up with this angler, they left and and the angler started fishing the spot.
This angler did this to other teams.
I’m all for rec. anglers watching tournament anglers to try and learn some of the techniches of tournament anglers, but a little courtesy must be upheld.
I was told by another team the angler is a tournament angler and has an up comeing tournament on the same lake.

Maybe they should have one on a 50 ac lake sometime. I heard the same thing from a few boaters as well, but not sure what you can really do about it.

Hope it wasnt a guy in Tuffy with full windshield

That is cheap, we fished 2 1/2 days with some hard work and study I felt good about what I did

Sonny made it a point to bring things such as this to his attention at the tournament. Doing so allows Sonny or any FLW (Or MTT, WWA, MWC, etc.) official to confront the angler in question.
I understand that maybe you did not have this information until after the tournament…

I also noticed boaters using the “Seagull” approach to prefishing. Some people would just rather have other people do their work for them.

Dirty pool, no doubt. But with a 6000 acre lake and a 70+ boat field, there were few secrets out there. I had tournament boats in all but one of “my” spots on event day and during pre-fishing…but as we all know, simply knowing spots is only a part of the equation.

I’m not coming to anyone’s defense here, just pointing out that with the constraints of this particular body of water, things like this are going to be really hard to avoid.

I think that I know one person that riggin guy is talking about. This has been going on for at least 3 years. I have confronted him and he doesn’t seem to care what you say to him. May be we need to go to the bouy system where no other boat can fish with in 50 yds of the bouy if you are in that area. I have talked to Sonny about this person 2 times in the last 3 years, I don’t know if Sonny talked to the person or not. We all take pride in our fishing, to bad a few have to spoil it for us. Just my 2 cents worth.

Paint Ball gun

First let me say I’m not, nor ever will I be a tounament angler.

In my opinion the same reson for this is the same reason we have so many problems in pro sports.

M-O-N-E-Y

To much money involved. Take away the big purses along with the big entry fee’s and see what happens. The sport would clean it’s self up. Why? Because if you are to lazy to find your own spots or don’t have the skill to catch fish you will be reduced to fishing for fun.

This may come as a shock to most guy’s reading this, but you aren’t good enough to be pro’s anyway.Sure you can find and catch fish but seriously, have you ever made a nickle at this over the course of a year? Why not just compete for a trophy, maybe a gas card worth $200.00 and the satisfaction of knowing you played by the rules and won? This would certainly eliminate the “tailpipers” and the “network” and the plain “cheaters” because the reward to win would not in their minds justify the work required.

I read alot about this sort of problem here and at WC and other boards as well. I just kinda chuckle at what the “wanna be’s” will do just to compete. Amazing.

Please don’t anybody take this as a personal attack, it’s just my tounge in cheek opinion of tournament fishing.

Good luck to all those who can compete on a level field. To those who need the short cuts………hope you forget your plug.

This is unethical, but there are no rules against it. Anybody can punch in coordinates anywhere that they would like. This situation happened to me numerous times during practice at Bemidji. Where I was fishing was not amongst any other tourney spots. Being up in the shallows, if a boat stays up in tight to the shoreline it creates curiosity to others. Then numerous boats would come in and zig zag wondering what a person was fishing. Then punch in the spot. This problem cannot be regulated, and there were numerous boats guilty of this. It’s not worth gettting upset over, and it’s also not worth damaging another anglers reputations unless there are rules against it.

I think there is a bouy sysyem for the FLW. I remember asking one of my pro’s what he meant by having the bouy nearby and he told me it was exactly for that reason. I’ve never seen it used though.

Their might not be any rules against it but their is ethics envolved here. These guy’s who do this have none. So I will just have to say my .02 cents worth to him next time. Their is no rules to that either. I guese maybe I need to follow that person around and see how the shoe fits on the other foot. I bet it is not so comfortable either. I just wish some would earn their keep professionally and morally. Peer pressure does help keep things between the lines. I for one am done being the nice guy and letting this happen. I should just pay a jet skier to buzz him all day because their is no rules against that either . Commonsense goes along ways. The more this happens and is allowed to happen by anglers the more people will start thinking it is ok. In my book they get no respect.

Remember,

Typically the people who run from one anglers spot to anothers don’t end up with a whole lot at the end of the day. They will typically cover the entire 6000 acres on tournament day because they saw so-and-so catch one here and old what’s-his-name caught one down here. These people typically spend more time running from spot to spot then they ever do fishing.

I had one boat follow me to 4 different spots this year at a FLW League event. I knew what was going on because I’d had this happen with this boat before. I allready had my game plan set at this point and decided to give them some interesting waypoints. We were on a body of water about 4 times the size of the one you’re talking about.

I “showed” them how to troll the middle of the lake back and forth. I’ve also developed a pretty sneaky way of bringing fish into the boat. It also usually works to act all upset whenever you catch a fish. This is one of my favorite lines “How many of these stinkin dogfish can I catch?”

Unless they’re consistantly doing well, I’d say let them be poor sports without much of a chance. Kicking their tail and walking by proudly displaying your check or trophy should be reward enough.

I was in 45 ft of water in the middle of no where just messing around on friday , and a boat that was on plane over a 1/4 mile away from me stop and turn twords me. He came over circled me 2 times watching his graph and wacking way points. I did not reconize the boat from past tournaments, but I will not forget what it looks like.

The tailing is tough too take. Here is something funny. This guy that was tailing was looking so hard that he did not see that his graph read 5 ft of water. Next thing you know all of his cranks were snagged up in the weeds. This did not happen to me but it happened to Chad. I think that is funny. More tactics to throw them will work and also get a good laugh out of it. Maybe the humiliation will deter them from tailing.

Did you or have you called this guy to confront him about this? This isn’t the place to discuss this matter. Step up to the plate and confront him about this.

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Did you or have you called this guy to confront him about this? This isn’t the place to discuss this matter. Step up to the plate and confront him about this.

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Jim…..Sounds like he has been talked to several times.

You are right Chappy he has been talked too several times. I am not one who talks too them on the phone I will chat with them in person on the lake. I am just trying too see how many other’s this has happened too and try to get other’s to step up too the plate and say enough is enough. Maybe when more people step up and voice their concern then these people that fish this way will get the hint that nobody respects them for doing what they are doing. These type of tactics only make them look bad and tick other’s off.

Your right John,
It’s no secret in this circuit on who is a boat watcher and who isn’t. There’s also plenty of guys on the other end of the spectrum that you could tell exactly what your doing And on tournament day they would stick to their program. It takes a lot to gain the respect of other tournament anglers. Driving around waypointing other peoples spots isn’t exactly the right way!!!!
Brady