I understand the ruling once you lose sight of the line then yes you can not prove it was your line, lure and fish. The TD did the right thing , tuff for both sides I am sure the TD did want to DQ these young men and they did not want to be DQ'ed. What was he supposed to do these are smart young men who are in college they have to know the rules or at least understand the importance of knowing the rules. if they did not they do now tuff lesson to learn. I want to ask what if you had your name on the lure or some way to prove that is was your lure would it be a legal catch then?

man, after reading what some of y'all have posted I am second thinking fishing tournaments now.

rules are rules and everyone agrees to them when they sign up, which other rules should we ignore?

They failed to answer the "best bass boat" and "best electronics" question correctly during the post tournament quiz.

let's look at the big picture...the purpose of a bass tournament is to fairly establish which individual or team can catch the heaviest bag of fish on a given day or days....we have rules for safety but the most important rules are those which insure we have an equal playing field..we don't allow fishermen to catch fish on previous days and tie them off or put them in baskets and we make sure everybody gets to fish an equal amount of time...we've got size limits,zip up life jacket rules,off limits areas plus rules regarding meetings,entry fees etc.
THE BIG PICTURE IS THIS INSTANCE IS THE TEAM THAT CAUGHT THE HEAVIEST BAG OF FISH DID NOT WIN.....There is absolutely nothing in the rules that prohibit you from hand ling a fish in, immediately or an hour later.They were deprived of the win by a tournament director that used poor judgement in disqualifying their catch that day....
.

No

Ok if I can not prove the lure is not mine even though it has my name on it.That brings up my next question.
Once I snag the line and grab it , does the line now become mine and hence the lure is mine and the fish is mine which equals a legal fish?
that is the grey area we might be dealing with cause I have not read there rules they might have a specific clause in there just for this I dont know.
Just for clarity I understand the ruling I am not saying the TD was right or wrong seems like a tuff situation to be in on both sides. I would like to give some understand to him maybe more understanding than he gave these young men.But like I said tuff situation to be in if he let them weight there fish then there would be uproar from people who would say he was wrong for that he is in a no win situation and for that we should give him more understanding. I would like to hear from the team that got DQed That might show us some real maturity and understanding.

You can prove it's your lure, you cant prove that the fish on the lure is the one your broke off. For all you know that fish spit it and another grabbed it. You can only use one rod at a time. A lure with a line floating around being allowed opens pandoras box.