teenyweeR

You canot be sure that you are not being cheated in ANY tournament. There are so many ways it can be done that it is impossible to eliminate. I fished a tournament one lousy day in March. The wind was 25 MPH, the tempearture falling to near 20 degrees with sleet. This was on the same lake that was mentioned in the KFVS article above. An area club was hosting the draw type tournament and guaranteeing 1st place prize of $1,500 and 2nd place $1,000. Because of the lousy weather there were only 30 entrees at $50 each and at least 1/3 were members of the sponsering club. To make a long story shorter, at the end of the day I weighed in my 6 bare keepers. Two guys I knew talked to me at noon and one told me he had 3 keepers and the other one had 2. At the weigh in one has 6 keepers and the other decided not to weigh his catch. Then one of the sponsers club members stepped to the scales and has 6 fish also but the weighmaster failed to measure them. Then someone (not me) said "Aren't you going to measure hose fish?" By this time the VP had walked away and one of the fish is obviously just plain short. The President of the club walks over and says "Ah! They are OK." and picked up the fish in question and tossed it into the holding tank. Bottom line, they got $1,500 and $1,000 respectively while I finished 3rd and my "prize" was $35 and a spool of Stren line. I have seen late entries allowed as well as other examples of misdeeds. Personally I think 5 years hard time is appropriate for anyone caught in the act. >

Good question... A lot depends on the quality of the competition. In the higher levels there are usually few secrets. On the local level there are even fewer. If you fish essentially the same lake all the time, the better holes are well known and usually even have names... The Swirl Hole, the Lunch Box, the Snack Bar and etc. Does this mean if your friend fishes one or several of these spots in his prefishing, that you are then prohibited from going there... for how long? I fished a tournament years ago on Rend Lake Il. I had several holes all lined out and the plan was to hit as many as I could. The second spot I stopped happened to be a spot that the coangler had pre fished with his buddy. He became so upset when his friend saw us there, I thought he was going to cry. Truth is I had found that hole YEARS before and even had won a tournament there. The best idea is to beg, borrow, or buy your own rig (even if it is a 10 horse on a Jon boat) and do your own pre fishing. The first few years of tournament fishing, I would take a buddy with me and I would find enough fish to do well in the tournament. The problem was we would wind up sharing my fish and neither of us would make any money. I quit taking him along and I finished in the top 5 in two divisions of a well known circuit that year. After that I actually bought a Jon boat and woud often prefish in it. Nobody paid any attention to the perch jerker! Hope this helps.

The best advice I ever received was "If you ain't catching 'em you are either in the wrong place or using the wrong technique or both." ;D

Been there TWICE! One was a open tournament and the other was a Redman Tournment on Carlyle Lake IL(IIRC). On the first time the guy's middle name was Van and he later had some sccess as a pro. He tied us up to a stump and and we sat there for the last 2.5 hours throwing to the same spot. On Carlyle all the guy (a local) wanted to do was sit anchored under a bridge. That time, in no uncertain terms, I demanded my turn. In that last 2 hours I caught enough to finish in the top 10. Turns out he was afraid I would scratch up his new Ranger and I probably did!

Personally, I do not think it is a good idea to throw any trash into the lake. In this case the fish looks to me like it just may be way old. I have caught similar fish in water that also produced healthy bass. I also agree that there could be something she swallowed causing the problem. I once found a huge bass (10+ lbs) floating in a lake in Ark. She had hit a crappie that was too big for her to swallow and it was lodged head first in her stomach. The real sad part was that fish was weighed in a tournament that same day.

Thanks guys... My pond has some cattails in it that are in about 2-2.5 feet of water the bass kept her tangled up is the reason she broke so many off. It is hard for anybody to control a 5-6 lb largemouth that wants to go to the weeds.

OK guys my first post. I fished over 150 bass tournaments between 1976 and 1990 (and yes, I even won some). Then I broke my back in an accident and am no longer able to fish from a boat. My grand kids are now old enough to fish and this weekend they came up to fish in my pond. I have stocked this 1/2 acre pond with bass, bluegill and channel cat. Essentially the pond is 7 years old and has NEVER BEEN FISHED. On the first my grandson caught a 25" channel cat. Then I opened up my old tackle box and gave my grand daughter a Teeny Shallow Wee R and she (10 years old) hooked and lost a large bass when the line broke. Bottom line is Teeny Shallow Wee R's are selling some place north of $15 each on ebay and she lost 4 of them. Remember I am old school and Stren (blue) 10 lb. was my line of choice for Teeny Wee R's 15 years ago. Question, is there a new line today that will allow a small crankbait to work well and is strong enough to land a 6 to 8lb pond bass and not break? :'(