Does it bother anyone else when people use guides to practice for a tournament or is it just me? Nothing against guides or anything like that, just bothers me when people use guides to practice for a tournament.

I totally agree with you. Only thing good about it is the fact that we do live in TX and from now til May 9 times out of 10 the conditions before the tournament do not match the weather conditions for tournament days. Leaving those guys that needed a guide to put them on fish out because they most likely cannot adjust lol

I don't see anything any different from this to some one in the tournament calling a best friend who may live on, or fish a lake a lot for information on what the bass are doing. They both are just looking for free information they didn't fine for them self. I should go ahead and say when I say free doesn't mean they didn't pay the guide but that they didn't go learn what the fish are doing on his or her own.

don't hate the player, hate the game. if it is legal to hire guides, get info from internet, get info from friends, and plant brush piles... then that is maximizing your odds within the rules.

as already mentioned in this thread, if fishing with a guide or getting other info hurts your fishing, then that isn't maximizing your odds. each tournament angler has to decide their own approach.

IMO if you're fisherman especially bass, you should already know how to fish and locate fish....reading information on the internet is different from hiring a guide, guides take you actual spots to find fish...I think it should be a rule in tournaments that you're ineligible to compete if you have hired a guide in past 2-4 weeks.

And for sure don't be getting on the TFF and asking for help!
Just kidding - I always try to help anyone who asks!

I have no problem with it.

I would disagree with this because if you get information from a buddy he will give you the same spots as the guides. I say this for this reason, every lake has local fisherman that are as good or better then most guides, and can give you the same spots the guides can. They also fish almost has much as the guides. I will use Fork for example, their are locals on this lake that can out tournament fish half the guides on the lake. This is because most of the guides are looking for big fish for their clients and they tent to be big slots. The tournament guys are looking for fish under the length limit for the most part. The rule of thumb you will have a better shot at winning by talking to the locals. The only problem you will have they may be fishing same tournament. I would suggest you think about this how many people start out as really good tournament fisherman and winning tournament. They then start guiding, before they would have been just good local tournament fisherman and a lot more dangerous in tournaments then the guides you would have hired.

Anything to increase your odds in your mind to maybe help you win a lot of money and its within the rules is totally ok with me. Hiring a guide doesn't guarantee you a damn thing other maybe give you confidence if you catch em. You still gotta catch em on tourney day. At the end of the day there will still be the same ole "man we caught the hell out of em in practice but just couldn't get bit today" comments...Some of those comments may come from folks who hired a guide. Nobody cares what your practice was like.... Results on game day are the only thing that counts. IMHO of course....

This is really good ^^^^

Would you honestly feel the same way if you were the one hiring the guide to prefish before a big tourney?

I am not sure I understand this Li'Louie

It creates jobs!

makes for a really expensive tournament