MLF Bass Pro Tour Angler Disqualified for Rules Violation.

[Ski]

Pro Jeff Sprague of Wills Point, Texas, will forfeit his fifth-place finish from the 2022 Stage One Bass Pro Tour event in West Monroe, Louisiana, for violating Bass Pro Tour rule No. 23-A. The disqualification was announced today by Don Rucks, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Major League Fishing.

The rule states that Bass Pro Tour anglers are prohibited from intentionally soliciting or intentionally receiving any information pertaining to tournament waters from a non-competitor for the purpose of locating or catching bass. If any such information is unintentionally being received from a non-competitor, the MLF Bass Pro Tour angler must politely ask the non-competitor to cease from divulging the information.

 

[Deleted account]

Cheating is like robbing banks, if you are going to do it, do it right....

[Team9nine]

Sooner or later most all pros are either penalized, have their weight zeroed for a day, or are outright disqualified from an event over a rules violation. Happens a lot more frequently than you might think when you actually go looking for it. 

[Deleted account]

22 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Sooner or later most all pros are either penalized, have their weight zeroed for a day, or are outright disqualified from an event over a rules violation. Happens a lot more frequently than you might think when you actually go looking for it. 

I think Palaniuk does it on purpose for click bait, his theme song should be oops I did it again...

[BassNJake]

Surprised by Jeff's response offering no explanation.

 

At least when Luke Clausen was disqualified, he had a story about someone in line just offering up advice. MLF also stated Luke failed the polygraph but no mention of that with Jeff Sprague I think that is why they adjusted the rule to include :  If any such information is unintentionally being received from a non-competitor, the MLF Bass Pro Tour angler must politely ask the non-competitor to cease from divulging the information.

 

I hate only having a small part of the information.

[GrumpyOlPhartte]

Heck.  If I was giving advice to a pro, the worst penalty they could give him would be to force him to take it!

[PressuredFishing]

I'll hear the other side of the story as well, this topic has been brought up often in the tournament scene and there is often more to the situation than they let on to keep it short.

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, GrumpyOlPhartte said:

Heck.  If I was giving advice to a pro, the worst penalty they could give him would be to force him to take it!

Now that’s hilarious 

[Mike L]

1 hour ago, PressuredFishing said:

I'll hear the other side of the story as well, this topic has been brought up often in the tournament scene and there is often more to the situation than they let on to keep it short.

Exactly right. 

There isn’t an inordinate amount of rules but the ones who violate them almost exclusively know what they did and expect to be penalized. 
 

There is an honor system in professional fishing and most will admit what they did without waiting to be caught or turned in by the public, marshal’s or other competitors. 
 

There always more to it than what is published 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[PressuredFishing]

4 hours ago, Mike L said:

There always more to it than what is published 

Yes, I remember hearing from a pro somewhere that he unvolintarily had a guy come up to him at a gas station and told him spots, then the organization did a random polygraph test and it came up as him getting outside info. 

[TnRiver46]

I heard there were multiple texts back and forth complete with dropped pins and that sprague thought it was fine because of some cut off date 

[BradleyC]

On 8/2/2022 at 8:57 PM, TnRiver46 said:

I heard there were multiple texts back and forth complete with dropped pins and that sprague thought it was fine because of some cut off date 

Yeah I peeped a Facebook post about these, and according to the texts jeff wanted to know the spots. 

[Captain Phil]

When I was actively guiding, I had numerous tournament competitors hire me before tournaments.   They didn't do this to learn specific spots.  They did this to learn how to run the lakes or to find areas they couldn't on their own.  They sure didn't need me to show them how to fish!  It would be impossible to do this without discussing where or how to locate bass.  Back then, there was an off limit period on professional help before each tournament.  I wasn't allowed to talk to any tournament competitor during the off limits period.  It seems to me the way this rule reads would make a liar out of most people.  Information gathered at the boat ramp or in a tackle shop is fairly worthless. 

[Mike L]

There is a 28 day tournament water off-limits period for the Elite Series. 
They are not allowed to pre-fish tournament waters outside the 28 dsy period with anyone who has knowledge of the tournament waters. 

Not allowed to gather way points or specific fishing locations from any source that is not publicly available, unless that knowledge was gained on his own. 
 

They are allowed to have general discussions with fans as long as those discussions do not intentionally give a competitive advantage for the current upcoming tournament or any future one. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[Captain Phil]

I do remember one time when this was an advantage. I was standing in line at a phone booth (Google it) in Taylor Creek when Jack Adams was talking to his wife on the phone.  Jack was as tough an angler as they come.  This was during a practice day in a big Okeechobee tournament.  He asked her to bring him some lures I had never used before.  I bought a few of these lures and finished 8th overall using the lures I learned about from his conversation.   I guess I should have disqualified myself?  ?

[Mike L]

I don’t know of any rule listed under the Elite Series…

“Official Rules of Competition” that would preclude it during an official practice day. 
However, that certainly doesn’t mean there isn’t one. I just don’t remember. 

 

I’d have to find my 2022 rule book to confirm. 
 

 

 

 

Mike 

[Junger]

There was a MLF event on the Potomac last year where I ran into a pro in the little creek I like to fish. I asked him how he was doing, told him I was fishing pads and just got a 5lber and told him I'd move if he saw me at a spot he wanted to fish, without realizing what I had done. He immediately told me he was not allowed to get tips from anglers, but thanked me for offering to move off any spot he wanted. That was the last I saw of him at that creek, so he definitely played by the rules.

[gim]

I am going smallmouth fishing next Tuesday and there is an MLF event there starting on Wed. I expect to see some tournament rigs out there and I’ll be sure NOT to tell him what they’re biting on.