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