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– that ’ s easy . What I ’ m talking about is a guy that breaks down on the water and can ’ t get back in , or a guy that makes a cast too close to the off-limits , makes one cast and calls me [ to self-report ].
It seems like information and off-limits rules get a lot of attention now . Are there any current rule changes you ’ d like to see ?
I ’ ve had a lot of success bass fishing , and I ’ ve never gotten information from anyone that truly helped me win an event . There are some people that can make use of information , and there are some like myself that can ’ t . There are fishermen that will fish their way regardless ; they ’ ll go to places that they know suits them .
With that being said , I think the information rule is the most highly talked about rule out there , and it ’ s the hardest rule to enforce . I think it ’ s so easy for people to voluntarily give anglers information , and they don ’ t understand it could be a violation of the rule .
I was never one for offlimits [ periods ], to be honest with you . I think if a guy wants to fish the week before the event , they should be able to . But nowadays , the anglers prefer those rules . Due to the
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fact that we try to listen to what our anglers want to make the sport more fair , you have to have certain rules like that , because you do want to listen to the anglers .
I think letting the anglers have a lot of input is great . When you think about the money they have on the line , it makes a lot of sense to let the players decide as much as possible .
I agree with that 100 percent . It ’ s good for all tournament organizations to have their own agenda , but if they refuse to listen to the anglers , that ’ s on them .
Our company has always had an open-door policy . If a guy on the release boat has a suggestion , or an angler does , they should listen . Just because Bill Taylor doesn ’ t like off-limits , it works good for the Bass Pro Tour . If you don ’ t listen to your anglers , you ’ re missing the boat .
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Are there any rules or aspects like that you were skeptical about initially and then came around to ?
I ’ m sure there are some rules that I didn ’ t like to begin with that turned out to be a blessing in disguise . I don ’ t like any tournament rule that takes a penalty to the ungodly max , but there ’ s not one that comes to mind .
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Like the A-rig – I was adamantly for the A-rig . We came up with a good working plan between Kathy Fennel , Dave Washburn and all the tournament directors , and that helped everybody , except the ones that didn ’ t want it , which was the pros . So we said no A-rig at that level . We made adjustments and it worked beautifully .
I love an umbrella rig . What do you think about bringing it back at the top level ?
One of the best shows I watch on TV is [ Mark ] Zona ’ s show . He uses the A- rig . I ’ ve watched Ott DeFoe use it to catch monster bass . It ’ s one of my favorite lures , but it isn ’ t a surefire way to catch them all the time . You ’ ve got to know the pattern , how to rig it , how deep to fish it , how to get unhung with it , everything .
I ’ ll tell you one that I am against is these guys that have the 6-inch flutter spoons with a big 5 / 0 stinger hook and they ’ re out looking at them on [ forward-facing sonar ]. They jerk and they jerk and they snag those fish . I ’ m not a big proponent of that lure – that ’ s one lure adjustment I ’ m adamantly against . To me , that ’ s snagging fish intentionally .
Is there a recent rule you really like ?
There ’ s one rule I got in that I was very proud of . The creel limit is five , but how many times have you heard of someone catching their sixth fish and continuing fishing ? They do it not thinking ; they ’ re just so caught up ( in the moment ).
It used to be a disqualification . Well , we found a way around that , and now it ’ s a 2-pound penalty and you go back to fishing . A 2-pound penalty is a pretty good penalty , and I ’ m proud to have been able to get that rule changed .
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I would almost make that a lighter penalty . It seems like some really good and upright anglers are really bad at counting .
I don ’ t disagree with that . The objective with any rule is to make the rule fair . So , the objection to that is that if it carried such a low penalty , you could keep an extra fish and gain an advantage if one dies , so it has to be higher than a dead fish penalty .
Is there anything else that really sticks with you from your time in the tournament directing game ?
One thing is , I really appreciate the opportunity I ’ ve had , first given to me by Charlie Evans and Kathy Fennel , and then from MLF by Boyd Duckett and Jim Wilburn and all the staff . They ’ ve been a big help to me in my retirement . I ’ ll continue to support tournament fishing . The sport has been good to me , and I really appreciate the opportunity I ’ ve had .
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