Planting brush piles before a tournament...

[Tin]

I know a lot has been discussed here about planting brush piles. But what do you guys think about planting brush piles before the off limit period on your home lake and then using them to finish second in a pr tour event? According to a couple of other sites, Scott Suggs did it to finish second on the latest FLW tour event.

I just think that is bs at that level of fishing.

[Grey Wolf]

CHEAT.

[preach4bass]

CHEAT.

To cheat, don't you have to break a rule? :-?

Just because you don't like it and wouldn't do it yourself dosn't make others who do cheaters.  BTW, I don't like it either, but he wasn't cheating.

[florida strain]

i thought about it before, and did a thread a while back on it,.. most said it was a cheat...alot of people do it.. guides, weekend guys, tourney guys.. ect.. personally i wouldn't want to get called out for baiting an area. like this guy your talk in bout.

[evrgladesbasser]

Sounds like an unfair advantage to me........  :-/

[5bass]

Tin, it happens on all lakes. It just so happens that Suggs was probably the only one that fishes Ouachita on a regular that was in that FLW. If there had been 15 Ouachita regulars in the tournament, some of those had probably sunk brush before and would have had plans to fish it.

I know that in my home waters during open t's, at blast off you can look around and point at 10 or more guys that sink brush.

I suspect people will keep doing it until someone makes a rule against it. I know I will. (I dont do it a week before a tournament though)  ;D

[bmadd]

I saw that too. If it's on your home water and you've sunk brush in the past and fish it I don't think that's as bad. Now if you do it a month before or so then I think that says something about your ability to find fish.

There's a guy on Kentucky Lake who has a pontoon boat that he attached a dump cart too. He uses that do build rock piles on ledges.

[firefightn15]

I don't tournament fish so maybe I am not qualified to respond, but here is my take.  For leisure fishing I think pretty much anything can go short of breaking rules and regs, but for tourney fishing wouldn't this be considered unfair advantage?  Even if there aren't rules against it, doesn't giving oneself this type of prospective edge take away from the idea of being the better fishermen?  In the end does that matter or is it strictly about the weigh-ins?  IDK :-/

[5bass]

Planting brush is just like fishing for bass on beds...if you dont do it, you're at a disadvantage right from the start.

Doing it that close to the tournament may mean that Suggs was anticipating where the fish were wanting to go and put the brush in their path, but who really knows? It does sound a little shady but in the grand scheme, it's no different than the average Joe, like me doing it. BUT....I got a 5 or 6 month gap before fish get on my stuff. ;D

I sink brush for summertime fishing when the fish go deep but I sink it in the winter months.

[firefightn15]

Yeah, I get what your saying Scott.  I have no problem with long standing cribs or brush piles, I was making reference to the short term ones. 8-)

[fishfordollars]

Down here, if you aren't fishing your planted brush you are not winning. Most have a milk run of brush that they have put out over the years. I have a few myself. No one here considers it cheating. Just because you dump a tree top in the lake doesn't mean you are going to catch fish from it. Some produce, some don't, the ones that do get discovered pretty quickly.

[Taylor Fishin 4 life]

Its just another way to prepare for a tournament. I personally dont mind because its not a unfair advantage to others because everyone can do it.

[Grey Wolf]

CHEAT.

To cheat, don't you have to break a rule? :-?

Just because you don't like it and wouldn't do it yourself dosn't make others who do cheaters. BTW, I don't like it either, but he wasn't cheating.

It's unethical Preach4bass , I don't care how you swing it.

[burleytog]

CHEAT.

To cheat, don't you have to break a rule? :-?

Just because you don't like it and wouldn't do it yourself dosn't make others who do cheaters. BTW, I don't like it either, but he wasn't cheating.

It's unethical Preach4bass , I don't care how you swing it.

What's unethical about it?

[etommy28]

I see it as smart, its not in the rules, he thought it would work and it did I dont think people should get mad at him but rather praise him or at least give him the props he deserves for finding/ creating a working pattern.

[Taylor Fishin 4 life]

Like I said ealier everyone can do it most will not, thats their problem  not the smart anglers so how is it cheating or unethical is my question?

[etommy28]

in some states its illegal but if this is not the case I have not issue with it at all.

[Dockhead]

give him the props he deserves for finding/ creating a working pattern.

"Finding" a pattern is vastly different from "creating" one.

Planting your own fish attractor is not done with a feeling of "good sportsmanship." It may not be against the rules, but it is shady at best.

I have a feeling that the reason it is not outlawed is because it would be so hard to enforce.

However, I don't think that is a good reason myself. Should certainly be against the rules in the top levels of competition IMHO.

[etommy28]

I dont disagree that it should be out lawed but its not. and every one else in the field could have found the brush piles, however he did have an advantage.

[5bass]

I dont disagree that it should be out lawed but its not. and every one else in the field could have found the brush piles, however he did have an advantage.

With all the new electronics (side scan, structure scan) nothing is safe anymore. Any cover or structure is easily found these days. I doubt the guys who found brushpiles/rockpiles etc on their graphs just ignored them.

[dak]

all i know is reguardless of the spot and structure, you still have to catch them

[kikstand454]

all i know is reguardless of the spot and structure, you still have to catch them

yeah....

but catching them is the easy part. knowing where a sustainable population of fish big enough to win the tourney is the real challenge.

personally i think its shady.... but i agree that at the LEAST it should be discouraged/ illeagal in the top levels of competition.  esp. that close to the day.

[Bass_Fanatic]

Heres the deal, its not like he was putting 5lbers in traps and going and gettin em come tourny time.  He sunk a tree in the water!!  How many trees are there in lakes, hundreds, thousands, millions??  He was smart enough to strategically place them to hold fish during the time of the tounament.  I think that it was genius and to be honest, I would do myself.  If fishing a sunken tree is cheating then what are we supposed to do.  Its not like you can just drop a top newhere in the lake and fish come running, you still have to pattern fish and put the top in the right places.

[Scorcher214]

"It's not illegal, it's frowned upon. Like masterbaiting on an airplane." Alan Garner, The Hangover

I am sorry, that is inappropriate.

[Shad_Master]

Just throwing some brush out in the water doesn't mean that fish are going to swarm to it like a magnet - there has to be some other structure there to attract the fish in the first place - "all brush piles are not created equal" - and like five-bass-limit says, it takes a while for the bass to migrate to the brush pile once it is there.

Around here the problem is not having the brush piles planted (everybody does that) - it's guys carrying grappling hooks and moving 'em.  It was there yesterday - today it's gone???