Jim- Indiana

That was epic! I'm listening to him here on Friday, and it's interesting to listen to him strategize on his plans for the following days. He is burning the fish in the community hole and getting most of his weight, but super selective on how much pressure he is putting on his other spots. As I watch ...he is setting on 24lbs, so only 5's will do him any good ... you can burn a bunch of 4 and 4-1/2 pounders hunting for a 5 only to gain a few ounces total. Most of which he is appearing to save and be careful with, are on the big lake, but I doubt if he will let the wind keep him from going ...it can get awful bad out there ..... I came back into the river in 10 footers in 05', and can get fairly scary . should be interesting!

BASS has already cancelled a College Series Event at Lake Hartwell, but seems it more has to do with the Colleges not allowing their students to participate in any sporting events, and not a decision brought on by BASS. Hopefully, the Elite Series and Opens will continue as scheduled, but "liability" seems to be a driving factor on decisions..... I agree ...it would be a great opportunity, but likely lots of moving parts to make it happen.

I do not think they even questioned it at the time, and if they did, the proper way would be to call the director and get an immediate ruling ...... putting that it indeed was a violation aside, the director had options as to what the penalty should be. Having them eliminate the largest fish from their bag, would have rid them of any advantage of keeping the fish .... that is what I say should have been assessed as a penalty.

The rules all read the same throughout all of the FLW run circuits, as far as "Fishing is defined as having a lure attached to a line and a rod and reel with the rod in hand" , and I have fished several over the years. I have heard of it frequently happening, and had I hand lined a fish to the boat because of a broken line or reel, I would have unknowingly kept the fish, and others have as well.With that aside....having them not count the largest fish, would have rid them of any advantage.

The only details that I have came from news site, mainly the FLW site. It was the championship round, and someone in the story said there was a camera man onboard. ... so they either mention it themselves to someone, or the camera guy did. Whether it was an infraction or not is likely arguable, I am just saying they got the penalty wrong. Eliminating the largest fish from their creel would have eliminated the weight of the deemed illegal fish, and that was one of the options the tournament director could have made. Granted .... it's over now, and the rules state that the decisions of the tournament director are final.

A little more info ...first place was listed as a 27,000 boat rig, plus an entry into the 2020 Toyota Series Championship, and a chance to win $200,000 for 1st place. The disqualified team ended up in 8th place, which paid $ 0 After a little research .... I will go out on a limb saying that FLW Tournament director "blew" this one. As far as the violation, of the line not being connected to a rod and reel as the rule states, I think many a bass have been counted over the years, that were "hand lined" in as a result of the line breaking at or in the reel. Even if determined a violation, the penalty assessed is at the discretion of the director, in which he has several options. Being it not was a flagrant or known violation, the more appropriate penalty should have been to eliminate the largest fish in the bag. Assuming they had 20lbs, and the largest fish was less than 6lb 7oz, they still would have won! The total amount they originally weighed is unknown at this time.

Wow! .... what a tough call to make! The leaders by nearly 6 lbs in the 3 day tourney, had their final day weight disqualified, because of how one of their fish was caught . They had broken off a fish, and a bit later hooked the line ... pulled it in, and the fish was still on it! Being it was their line and lure, they kept the fish which was determined illegal. The rules state ...."Fishing is defined as having a lure attached to a line and a rod and reel with the rod in hand" Although they did not say how much their total disqualified weight was, they had averaged 21lbs per day, on the previous days, and only needed 13 -6 to win, and likely did not need the "illegal" fish anyway! Per the rule definition ...seems likely the officials made the correct call. I know the rules change from tournament circuit to circuit, but a couple of "like" events came to mind. When watching the BPT this past week, the same thing happened to Fletcher Shryock .... his line broke about halfway to the fish, and motor the boat over to grab the line .... by the time he had winded it up, the fish was gone. Both Marty and JT Kenney made the remarks, that had the fish still been on, that it would have counted. I also just watched the 2019 Redcrest, and Zack Birge did the same thing, and was able to score the fish, and not penalized. Both the BPT and the FLW College Circuit are both owned by Major League fishing, it is reasonable to determine that the disqualified anglers had watched the events, and kept the fish accordingly ....what a tough call! Having lost 11 grand for being DQ ed in a Super BFL, I know this event will haunt these kids for a long time! I cannot verify, but I heard they were even crowned the Champs, only to come back a bit later, and take it away!..... I guess rules are rules!

a bit off topic, but those MLF scales would bother me a bit. Sprague weighed one at 4-5 and called for a redo because he knew it was off.... changed scales, and it weighed 5-10 . He made the remark .....I wonder how many others were off! With so much on the line .... it would seem like they would have a "calibration" weight on board. Things aren't as fast and furious with the 2 lb min weight, if I were fishing....I would have them check the "calibration" weight, just before weighing the fish..... just sayin'

Here is a link to the BASS site for info regarding the Opens .... I think that you can just sign up to fish as a co angler and they will pair you up if they have pros without co anglers. It's probably best to sign up with a pro, in order to get a guaranteed entry. .... it should tell you here https://www.bassmaster.com/bass-pro-shops-bassmaster-opens

Being that I considered the Detroit River, St. Clair, and the Western Erie Basin my higher end "home" tournament waters, I have to somewhat agree. i don't recall a cancellation day in the 20 years that I fished .... it was "use your best judgement" As of late .... all leagues seem be be more cautious, but knowing the conditions that I braved (8-10 footers) it's likely a better idea. Regarding the Chick tournament ..... I had heard there was lots of floating debris, that was taken into consideration.

Bass do not need to see to feed as they can detect sound and movement taken in by their lateral lines. Trying to get them to eat one specific thing (your bait), it helps if they can see a little, for them to move any distance to get your bait.

Maybe 9nine and Franco will step up and tell us about Wheeler and his fish, if they think Jonny was so wrong!

I cannot fault him for much, unless using a current well known situation, to drive business to his channel is considered "wrong". Having fished offshore for most of my 25 yr tournament history, as a whole, he is pretty much dead on. Although I don't think anyone measured the water clarity to be 3" visibility, the visibility one sees on the surface, is not always consistent throughout the water column ..... depends on inflow, current, wind, etc. Whatever it was ....it was good enough to be able to catch fish! He was specifically targeting good spawning creeks with minimal inflow, and staging areas that were used as they were moving in. As the "tuber" stated .... he had previously located several of the key spots, and rotated until he found one that was active showing fish, using side imaging, live scope etc, as he had all of the major brands on his boat. The large blades were used for maximum vibration for the fish to sense with their lateral lines. A 1 ounce was used in order to handle the largest blades, and the trailer was likely the most important part. The swim tail swimbait allowed him to slow the retrieve, and it helped hold it up in the water column.... a 1 ounce with a curl tail would have drug on bottom in 7' of water, especially to slow roll it. The difference between what Wheeler and Aveena were doing... Aveena was targeting individual brushpiles that were holding some fish.... not necessarily feeding, but would catch a few if the mood and presentation were correct. ... some maybe not replenishing, or just not biting. Overall .... I think the "tuber" did a pretty good job ..... likely better than JT or Marty, as "offshore" is not their deal ....talking is!

There is not much doubt, at least for Eufaula, that the 2lb minimum was well received by most viewers. Eufaula seemed to have plenty of fish in the 2 to 3 lb class. Although Florida is known for it's giants, Okeechobee really doesn't have a good population of 2 to 3 pounders ..... lots of fish from 1 to 2lbs, then it goes up to the larger fish. I surely hope we don't have to listen to JT and Marty hashing it out, while waiting for them to go to a "scoreable" fish catch! I would rather watch and listen to the anglers, even if they are not catching them!

You might consider revising your title a bit. I took it as you were looking for the website link that showed the northeast bfl info. I would put boater looking for non boater or something to that effect....good luck!