We are going to have to be honest to ourselves about this one.
I read all the rules and have fished tournaments for years. I have to lay certain things out in order not to forget. Like I lay my life vest on my drives seat and not on the back deck in to remember to put it on. I know it should be used while operating the vessel at all times and should be second nature but sometimes I do not wear it while prefishing. There have been times when things got out of order and the vest got moved. I have set in the seat fired the boat and engaged motor idled a piece then noticed my vest was not on. I told my partner we are done but let's continue to fish. We did not have a sack worth any money and did not weigh in or report it but we both agreed that if we weighed in we would report it. Basically we wanted to fish it out and see where we would of finished. On another trip my partner forgot to fasten his vest. We called it in and were told not to worry about it. The question is if you or your partner violate a minor rule (and it happens )what do you do about it and what were the results?

We prefished for a tournament at Ivie one year. Had a decent day, drove over to Concho and entered the next days tournament. That night while going through the goody bag in the hotel room I laid down and was reading over the rules. Couldn't believe it, but there was an off-limits. So my partner and I just called it a wash and went fishing and had a good day on the water. Would we have won the tournament? No, but we both would have been in the money.

Its not worth the risk, or for my to loose my self-respect. Character isn't what our who you are when your around people. Character is what and who you are when your alone and by yourself!

So, you are saying that you fished an "out of bounds area" during a prefish? And because of that, you decided to DQ yourselves? And you are saying that you did it unintentionally? WTF?

I think as long as you didn't fish it during the actual tournament that it would have been a non issue.


On a similar note. A co angler and I were in a tourney once and the motor wouldn't start. So we used the trolling motor all around the launch/weigh in site that day. It was an "off limits" place, but the TD said it was ok. Since we couldn't follow "the game plan", we were forced to work the same areas over and over... Repeatedly. HAha. We won first at the tourney. While all the other boats said they had no luck "over there", and "around that". We just fished what we could. And tried everything. Instead of giving up on an area and wasting time searching.

Kinda made a few dudes mad, some felt sorry for us, some just scratched their heads and laughed. Lol. But the truth was it forced us to slow down and fish. And we had to start last and weigh in first.

Yes I am. We violated the offlimits so we withdrew from the tournament. So there wouldn't be any DQ's

Off limits in terms of the whole lake was off limits that day.

Cliff and I did this once at Brownwood. Fishing an open tourney. While we were registering we told the TD that we had done well on Thursday. He looked at us with a sympathetic look and said
"Guys the lake was off limits until Saturday".
We did the same a sKiller and just went fishing. The T d actually gave us a credit for the next event.

Haha. Oh. I see. That could be an issue then, I guess. Morally you did the right thing. Hats off to you.

FLW Co Angler rules do everything they can to screw you, so you really have to be on your toes. I have had pros that don't look over to make sure I'm buckled before they turn on engine. Once they say lets go or the trolling motor comes up I am moving fast as I can first thing I do is life jacket before I even secure the rods. I had a non-English speaking non-communicating pro who not only wouldn't give me a heads up, but was super fast moving spots! By the 3rd move in 30 minutes I just wore the life jacket all day! The other one that gets you is if pro doesn't have both feet on front deck you can't cast, the step doesn'[t even count. I've got some of my worse backlashes stopping midcast to get a lure back.

I witnessed a sponsor in a high school tournament idling with a kid on the front seat and a kid on the rear seat. Both did not have a life vest on.
Not only breaking the rules, but really unsafe behavior. I hollered at them to put there life vests on to no avail.

A couple years ago in the Legend of Lake Fork tournament, my partner and I fished the same area all day. Literally 8 hours and never started the engine. 15 minutes before last weigh in I caught a 9.32 over. We went into scramble mode after verifying the length, turning on the livewell, putting on the jackets etc..etc....Went to crank and nada...Dead battery. 2 guys near us saw us catch the fish and trying like he!! to jump off the trolling battery to no avail. Long story short, he told me to grab the fish and he would take me in. I made it with 30 seconds to spare last hour 1st day. Left my partner tied up in Wolf Creek (Sorry Steve).

Took the poly and couldn't get past 1 question, "did you knowingly break and tournament rules". Told him to turn it off and I explained the story that I had assistance from another angler due to my boat not starting. Called in Don and I had to withdraw my fish (not DQ just withdrawal). It sucked then as it was in first place for a new Legend. Thank goodness there were 3 more 2nd day that were bigger and I only lost the $500 for the hour....That I can deal with. I'd still be slapping myself if it was the new Legend.

This whole ordeal lasted 3-4 hours and finally got a ride back to my partner, still tied up and a little PO'd when I shook my head no beuno....Lesson learned, I start the engine every couple hours now, that will never happen again!

Then of course on Monday got on the forum and there's a thread on someone cheating that got DQd from the tournament. It was amazing the stretch some people made without having ANY knowledge of the situation. I guess not so amazing if you read the TFF as much as I do lol..

The life jacket thing has to be the most violated rule. I'm sure most of us have engaged the big motor before both were buckled up.I have gave myself a dq this year for fishing an off limits area during ttt. Another boat say us and made us aware of it, we simply shook our heads and threw the fish back.respect to me is worth more than the pay check.

I just use a very lightweight fishing vest with charged inflation system that is coast guard approved. It's so light I don't even notice it. So I never have the life jacket part to worry about. It has become habit as my wife and mom both insisted years ago that if I am going out alone I had to. No questions. Now it's habit.

Some rules state or used to that you had to only be buckled up only when the boat gets on plane. I think it was anglers quest, can't remember. Anyway, one rule that gets violated a lot is the prefish off limits. I've heard guys in weigh in line talk about where they caught fish or found fish the day before. I've never said anything because I really don't think it effected the outcome but I did let them know I heard and they knew it wasn't cool. Probably should have told the td but oh well. I have done the vest thing once or twice but never had enough fish to make a difference so we didn't even weigh in. I couldn't pass a poly even with a little infraction though so I would come clean.

With all due respect, why wouldn't you tell the TD? Maybe it didn't cost you money but it quite possibly did cost someone else money. If you don't think a day on the water the day before the tournament doesn't make a difference then I've got so property real close to some water over in Arizona.

Integrity is a great thing