Heads Up on the FLW tour event on Lake Erie

[fishon1219]

I was just looking at the rules for the upcoming FLW tour event on lake Erie and had the wind taken out of my sails. I was planning on fishing the TBF of michigan state fishoff and noticed in the rules that you can not be on the tournament waters with a non-competitor of the event after June 21st.

This also will mess up my plans to fish the NBAA tournament on the 23rd. It not only messes up my plans, But I am sure lots of guys will be fishing the weeknight events as well.

I called FLW and talked with the tournament director just to clarify and he was very clear to not be on the tournament waters with anybody not fishing the tournament after the 21st.

So, any of you that are fishing the FLW event please beaware of the rule.

4. Pretournament practice

There will be no official practice period or off-limits period (except for the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup, Lake Ouachita will be off limits starting July 2, 2007 - July 20, 2007) prior to the Wednesday of registration and pretournament meeting. However, no contestant may be on tournament waters for the purpose of locating fish or potential fishing waters after 12:00 p.m. (noon) on the Wednesday of registration and pretournament meeting except during tournament hours. After the balance deadline date for each tournament (after July 2, 2007 for the Forrest Wood Cup) and during competition days, contestants, including those on the waiting lists and late entries, may not solicit and/or receive fishing information from any non-competitor other than publicly available information. The purchasing of information or the hiring of services will not be permitted after the balance deadline for each tournament.

[joshimoto son]

Wow!!! Good lookin out.

I'm sure there might have been a couple of people that might have gotten pinched by that one.

joshimoto son

[Langer]

What do they consider tournament waters? If the event is Lk Erie is only Lk Erie off limits or is the River and LSC and SCR and Lk Huron, and Lk Mich (exagerating a bit but see where Im going?) off limits too because they are connected?

[JCOOPER]

Are NY waters open for this event??  LOL

[Durand Dan]

I'd be careful on how you determine what are and what are not tournament waters. There are FLW guys that would love to turn you in. And have done so before.

[motocross269]

It sounds like fishon did his homework by calling.  They need to take a hard look at that rule.  I know for a fact I have seen FLW tour guys pre-fishing with non-competitors.  Charity functions, fishing with Nascar guys, fishing with Juniors, etc. the week before the tourney.  If I was fishing it, I am not doubting you fishon, I would want good solid clarification of the ruling.

[dartag]

kev.

so you won't feel guilty and can fish, i will take your spot in the FLW.. 

ss

[LUMBERLEO]

So what about the st clair BFL??  That rule dosen't apply to co-anglers does it???

Scott

[motocross269]

I am sure we can find out alot of this info at the Burt and Mullet BFL.  If it is true we can't fish local waters I will never have an interest in fishing an FLW tour event.   Too many good local LSC tourneys to fish. 

[fishon1219]

All of these question's everybody has is exactly why I called the TD for the event. I explained to him that I wanted to fish the TBF state fish off and it was being held after the June 21st balance deadline date and his exact answer was" Sorry, but you can not be on the water with anybody that is not entered into the tournament after june 21st" By tournament he meant the FLW tour event.

If any of you have questions call him up. I got his number from FLW direct so I dont see a problem with posting it here. Bill Taylor 270-703-2564.

I explained to him that I was going to be a boater for the fish off and wouldnt need any info from my co-angler and the what if's were discussed a little bit. "What if you are not catching anything and your Co-angler is catching them good on a certain bait. You just got information"

Thems the rules. I know its a pain and I am sure that several guys fishing as Co-Anglers in the Tour event will be on the water with somebody they are not supposed to. If they are than lucky enough to win the event and take the polygraph they will fail.

I am not going to take any chances and I will only be on the water with somebody in the event.

We should start up another thread with guys from this board that are entered in the event so we could at least get sometime on the water with each other to help differ the costs involved with practising.

If any of you have questions you should direct them right to the TD and ask him as he has the final say, and with the amount of tournaments we have in the of limits time that are FLW sanctioned events he might let us sign a waiver or something to allow us to fish the other events.

Kevin Barrows

[motocross269]

That is good to know information, thanks fishon.  I was seriously thinking about fishing both the Stren and FlW tour event next year.  You Anglers that our fishing it please let us know how it turns out.  If that is the case I will definetly not give up the BFL, TBF and my club tourneys, plus fishing with my friends for a month to fish one FLW event.
I Just reread the rules this does not apply to Stren. 
I am going to email FLW and voice my concerns. What a drag.  I may lose my guaranteed boater for the BFL.  This rule is hurting FLW more than helping that is for sure.

[SODY]

Proceed with caution, I know for a fact more than one of our famous heros has bowed out from FLW events due to similar rulings and just not taking the chances. It used to be guides , information etc. A friend of mine stopped by a friends house to stay for the tournament , save money etc. and went pre-fishing as he normally would, forgetting his friend was a guide in the state, just glad to see a friend down south etc. Mind you he did not fish with his friend just stayed one night. The next day he was approached by several anglers in the FLW and told in no uncertain terms to bow out or be turned in.....he bowed out...the bad part..it was his tournament to loose. Agree or disagree these are serious rules to be taken serious. Ive always been told it was to eliminate unfair advantages and eliminate even the slightest hint of inpropriety.

[motocross269]

This rule is nothing but one huge Grey area.  One person's interpretation of "public information" may not be another's.

[SODY]

No doubt, I lost a partner for several tournaments because he made it into the FLW as a co-angler and I did not....

[BryanP]

I guess one way to look at it is this is the FLW Tour, the big leagues, a major professional trail intened for those who travel the country and fish all of the events, not cherry picking 1 or 2 events.  Those that cherry pick have to weigh the consequences as it relates to fishing that event. 

[j690]

IF this is true is there any way to get my money back froom the bfl, and the tbf? this is the only sight reporting this Im fishing as co-angler in all events,i

[djkimmel]

Off the top of my head, I don't recall the exact BFL policy - you may have to move your entry to another event since it is past the priority date. For TBF, I'll have to ask Dennis. We discussed it and were looking at saying you could move the money to another angler who signs up... but I also can't recall exactly where we left off on how flexible we were going to be.

j - we do not intend on ripping people off and this caught us off guard too. It is true that after June 21, you can not fish on the FLW tournament waters with anyone not also in the FLW tournament. FLW tournament director Bill Taylor has confirmed this and is calling some of the anglers - probably various staff doing this - to make sure everyone knows before June 21 so there aren't unfortunate and unnecessary occurences.

Normally, FLW tries to avoid scheduling conflicts as least among their own parts, but because we have a short season and the BFL is on St. Clair while the FLW is out of Detroit, it slipped through. We missed this rule too when we set up the TBF event.

TBF will discuss this issue - probably at our board meeting on June 22 - to figure out how to be fair and helpful to all the anglers.

Thanks to Kevin for getting this in front of us while we all stll have time to make the best of it.

[j690]

Dan I know you had no intentions of ripping anybody off,the main reason for me joining the tbf is to show support of the hard work you have done in the past and the future , Im just really disappointed not being able to fish the tbf state fish off and missing one of the bfls see you at burt and mullet jay.   

[djkimmel]

You and me both... You'd think we would have caught this even earlier. I know you didn't think we'd rip you off, and I do greatly appreciate your efforts. Thanks.

[Durand Dan]

The BFL will refund your money after the tournament has taken place. I had to pull out of one a couple of years ago. I just called ahead of time and it wasn't a problem