Even the teams coach thinks its an illegal fish.

The argument from him isn't so much that single fish, it's the bigger picture. Worst case those kids should have been 3rd, not 8th.. That's a big deal I think nearly everybody can agree on.

I don’t understand the logic. If it’s your line, your lure in the same fish’s mouth and you can get it in the boat then I consider that to be in a sporting manner. If you come across someone else’s lost fish attached to a lure with line then that is not a fish caught in a sporting manner.

There is no way we are all going to agree on this. I feel badly for the team that lost.

As to Pros leaving the boat to land a fish & the fish still being legal, I think this is the instance you are referring to:



There is absolutely NO DOUBT the fish he landed was the fish he had on his line 2 seconds prior.

Once again, the TD had to make a judgement call and I think he made the right one. There is No Way to know with 100% complete certainty that the line they snagged was their line from one hour previously. It most likely was but there is no way to know for sure. The boat captain should have made a phone call to the TD and asked about that specific fish.

Yep. It was bungled by almost everyone involved (anglers. cameraman, TD) but it also seems like everyone thinks it should’ve been an illegal fish. The problem is that they were allowed to weigh it, asked to tell the story on stage, declared winners, then their whole bag was DQed. Now they aren’t going to make some other tournaments.

It was handled terribly. The rule should be clarified, too.

Do you think his timing of the ruling was correct?

Yep and Ike jumping in years back after his line broke and grabbing it comes to mind. He was legal due to his hand never leaving the boat. That qualified him to be "in the boat at all times while landing a fish". There are tons of grey areas.


And I see I responded without reading the whole post.

Iirc, they spoke about or did change the rule after that incident. They now must keep one foot planted (not superficially). One trail even covers it as "weight bearing".

the reason you don't understand the logic is because there is nothing logical about disqualifying someone who did not break any tournament rule and hung and landed the fish in a sporting manner.
those who disqualified these boys did them a terrible disservice because they were unable to discern the difference between something unusual and something unsportsmanlike.

No one mentioned only ONE rod allowed at a time. Once it broke and he made another cast, he technically had 2 lines in the water - I know it says rod...The wording on that needs to change to 1 line in the water vs 1 rod.

might want to rethink that suggested rule change because as soon as you got hung up and broke off, there might be an inch or two of line attached to the bait and you'd have to quit fishing for the day....far-fetched,not any more than those thinking the line and the fish might not have belonged to the disqualified team...

The purpose of the 1 rod rule is for the obvious reason. People are taking clear rules and trying to broaden them to cover situations that the rule wasn’t intended.

The young man never fished with 2 rods at once, and the lure was casted with a rod. No matter how it is twisted, the rules as written don’t disqualify that fish. The rules weren’t written for this particular situation.

The young men got hosed.

It’s easy to say call the TD, which is obviously the correct call when in doubt, however the young men didn’t believe nor would I have believed the legality of the fish was in doubt.

No matter what anyone says. It's not gonna change your mind. It's like talking to big o

Maybe its just me but if this exact same scenario happened to me in a tournament I wouldn't even have to call a TD. Its plain and simple not a catch. Was it handled horribly by the people in charge- absolutely. But to even consider putting that fish in the live well explains just how much we need to educate our young anglers and teach.

I agree completely Barrett!