Being from here, I have heard both sides to everything and have drawn my own conclusions. I've heard of a local "guide" and I put guides in quotations for a reason. One of them was a camera boat driver and from what I heard, said he *ahem* fell asleep while waiting and that's the one that e2 ripped on ESPN playback that they showed for getting to close.
As a local fisherman with this lake literally 5 minutes in my backyard, I am disappointed in the way some people acted. Yes, it's my water as much as it is theirs, but that's not the point. A short story, there's a creek that is a popular one to fish called Roseberry. It branches out to the main river and goes back into an area called ski cove (where Randall Tharp hooked that big one that got off because it got caught up in the water around something) toward city & county park. Anyway, dad and I were fishing late one evening.. it was summertime and blistering hot. T-rigging a black worm, hooked into the largest fish that either of us have ever had on our line. How do I know this, because we both seen it, as well as my wife who was in the boat. He fought it for the longest time, getting it within about 2 feet from the net I had slipped in the water to watch the line snap... actually it broke off at his knot, but anyway.
We go back the next morning to find a guy sitting about 10 yards from where he hooked it, so what do you do you know? Nothing is what you do.. we start fishing on a bank that's close to the creek edge and drop off and he started talking to us about fishing and all that, dad ended up telling him what happened the afternoon before... guy moves off the spot and lets him fish it. We weren't over bearing on his water, we both were fishing the area with a mutual respect for each boat. There's plenty of water to fish on this Lake in all of the good spots.
I think this is directly tied to a problem we are having as a society as a whole, a lack of respect for other people. It's all about the individual and not about anything community or being respectful anymore.
So how does that coincide with the Classic and the stories I've heard? If you give respect, 9 out of 10 times, respect will be given back to you, more so than what you gave. If I know that KVD was fishing down river and I was following him, when he stopped give him his space and let him come back and re-fish that space. I'm not even talking about the next day.. there were so many boats trailing him down his spots, he couldn't even TURN THE BOAT AROUND TO FISH IT AGAIN.. after ONE pass. There were so many stories of these guys getting to make single passes down their spots because literally 50 boats would be tailing him and running over their spots. Not only running them over, but fishing them.
And here's the thing about "locking" or "shutting" the lake down... and this is coming from me who lives here and I know I am one voice on the matter and I think it comes down to just plain respect. I get to fish arguably one of the greatest lakes in the country anytime I want. The same spots these pros fish, aren't any secrets around here. You think nobody knows that Spring Creek, where the tournament was won holds fish? Snake Island on the road bed and humps? That Seibold Creek isn't one of the most populated places in that area that holds fish? A local spot right by Goosepond that us locals call "The Egg Pond" where one of the huge sacks was caught doesn't hold fish? North Sauty... all the rip-rap that we always fish.... yes, yes we do. The pros don't fish anywhere different than anyone who lives here fishes, they're just better at it than we are. That's the bottom line. So I think it boils down to some of these guides and other weekend warriors ego's and lack of respect.
So what's my point, my point is.... put your dang rods away during a tournament like that. If you want to come down and fish while they are here and you're out of town, then you should either come and watch and stay after the tournament and whack 'em with the rest of us, or come early and whack 'em, but give them their respect when they are pre-fishing. There's so many places on this lake to catch fish.
Just like this Saturday while I was fishing the rip-rap and I snagged that 4 pounder on my third cast... a boat starts heading right down the rip-rap with us, it's his water too, but when he got close enough to where it was almost at that "line", he swished out behind us and let us keep fishing it... and didn't come back to the rip-rap until he was on down a piece, allowing us to turn around and fish it again... it's just respect but knowing it's his water as well as it is mine.
Sorry for the long post.
