Tournament Psychosis

[captbogan]

I don't know what it is about these tournaments that bring out the worst in fishermen. You see things that these captains would not usually do. Things that are not only rude but outright dangerous.

Like captains holding a boat on a spot that you've been drift-fishing not just that day but perhaps all week, and as you drift past, they are cursing you, with a boat full of customers for getting too close to "their" spot.

And often cursing one another out.

Or going out and returning into a dangerous inlet that they would not have usually ventured, but because they are in a tournament, they chance it.

Yesterday I witnessed two center consoles coming into a bad inlet behind us, with 10ft waves standing straight up, racing each other in, almost collide, in order to hit the weigh-in dead-line (I assume).

Then watched another boat, in a rush, fly past a sailboat, flipping the bird because the sailboat was in their way.

On our way back out for our daily afternoon trip, a 20ft boat was fishing in the narrowest part of the channel. I waited patiently for them to move. One of the fisherman pointed at his line, as if to say, "I'm fishing here!" When he grudgingly moved just enough for our 90ft boat to get by, he hollered up, "Hey, I live here!"

I get that you want to catch the Big One and win the prize. But not at the expense of bad seamanship --or poor sportsmanship.

Below is a picture of what NOT to do, approaching a bad inlet

[Ol Pedro]

Some people get a little strange when it comes to money/ prestige. No amount of money is worth willingly putting your life at risk. Is it worth it to die for a trophy? Theres a lot of Captains out there that practice good boating edicate but there's that 10% of Captains that screw it up for the rest of us. Some of these guys could be the same ones that run through the Bass blitzes in November putting the fish down or setting up in your chum slick tuna fishing. They gotta get theirs and f everyone else !!! It takes a lot to upset a Captain enough to post as they are out there every day.

[Wilson]

Cash prizes for fishing always brings out the worst in some people.

[JSBlue26]

You CANT fix STUPID !!!!

[Broad Bill]

I know these tournaments are hard if not impossible to reschedule but what ever happened to weather days? That inlet shot is insane. Most experienced captains would've had a difficult time, inexperienced ones is a whole different story. One minor miscalculation and someone's wife or parents are getting a call no one ever wants to get. Where's the common sense and responsibility with people running these tournaments? No amount of money is worth costing or contributing to someone losing their life. When top captains who run that inlet almost every day took a pass, the tournament should have been cancelled and rescheduled or at minimum boats from that port should have been given the opportunity to back out and be reimbursed their entry fee. You can't gamble with other people's lives to make a few bucks in your annual fundraiser. And I know anglers fish at their own risk but when conditions warrant the people running these tournaments should step in and make the right call, especially with all the problems and attention that inlet has gotten over the last one to two years.

[Dclark2]

YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID .........................................

[bulletbob]

ease click one of the Quick Reply icons in the posts above to activate Quick Reply.
a very few folks here might remember one of the great outdoor writers that specialized in salt water fishing. Frank Woolner.
He wrote this once many decades ago,and it made a deep and lasting impression that I never forgot..

"Fishing is supposed to be a contemplative sport,not a competitive sport"..

I have always hated fishing tournaments no matter where they take place.. Up here, the lakes are inundated by hundreds of boats all catching bass that are thrown in a livewell, driven all over a 40 mile long lake at 60 MPH, and then then dumped back into the lake miles from where they were caught, and the day after, there are big dead bass everywhere, and there are tourneys every weekend all spring summer and fall... Tourneys kill thousands of fish that would not have ever been caught...I have never and will never enter one of any kind.... bob

[FISHGERE]

Very well said Capt. there are a lot of *******s on the water and their beer muscles make them tougher than they are.

[NJ219bands]

Great pic and posts. I may fish 🎣 in Manasquan Inlet after Labor Day.

[Finnegan]

BulletBob,

Wow, that is a really great point that I have never thought about. I do not fish tournaments and have never paid much attention to them but I am sure they can really stress the ish population.