Happy birthday.
I have nothing to prove as well just because I’m comfortable to an extent in big water does not mean I suggest people to go run it. I’ve called myself stupid plenty of times for going out in too much wind.

I grew up on Texoma myself. Fished a tournament years ago with a similar forecast. There were three boats sank that day that I know of. I had to leave my boat tied up to a dock and had someone come pick me up and carried my fish in a five gallon bucket to weigh in by car. Since that day I have learned not to question when a tournament director has to make the hard decision to cancel.

I read the forecast wrong last year and put myself in a similar situation. As soon as I got back on the trailer I told myself I’d never go out again with a chance of 30+ That requires running. I’m not disagreeing with any tournaments decision to cancel any event.

Global warming

Weather is part of the puzzle but there's no need to force events, especially professional level, to proceed when severe weather (25-30+ mph winds on big water certainly qualify as severe) is certain. They can more easily push the event back a day or two, reduce the total number of days without compromising the event or really hurting the participants' work schedule.

Tougher call at the amateur level; not all can easily fish Sunday rather than Saturday with last-minute notice and rescheduling to another weekend is a massive pita for all involved.

Not sure what's guiding the increase in postponing/cancelling frequency though; whether it's pressure from participants, insurance providers, tournament organizations trying to be more careful or afraid of something happening under their watch. The later weighs on me heavily every time I host an event.

I agree with the amateur side I normally work mon-Sat so I have to use vacation days to plan even one day weekend events. It’s rough when events get canceled.

I was attending a Advanced wildland firefighting class and the largest part of the class was weather, specifically fire weather. The class was given by the Head Meteorologist from the national weather service in Shreveport, we had a lengthy discussion about why the wind is actually much higher on large inland reservoirs than it is away from the lake. The Meteorologist said that several of his peers were avid anglers and had discovered the same issue and done research and issued a scientific paper discussing the phenomenon.

Their findings were that the trees lining the bank actually funnel the wind that is increased as a result of temperature inversions caused by big differences in air temperature and water temperature. This is also influenced by the direction of the wind (whether it is blowing across the tunnel or down the tunnel) the forecast you are reading does not take this phenomenon into account and is inaccurate for the lake. Some of the more knowledgeable tournament directors know this and take it into account and make decisions to try and keep you and the person who has to come save you safe.

Tournament fishing at lower to moderate levels certainly cannot be as much of an extreme sport as some would like because of several factors, Skill of the driver, cost of damaged equipment, liability of death caused by holding a sporting event in clearly dangerous conditions. Where the anglers sign a release volunteer and citizen rescuers do not.

I was speaking in general not directly to you. There are a lot of people out there that think it shows balls to run and fish in crazy winds. I have personally never understood that myself.

Way to many cancellations these days, all it takes is the mention of ice in the Oklahoma panhandle.

Seriously though, 20-30 with gust pushing 40 is a no doubter on big Tex.

It may be insurance and it may be the boat companies. People tend to think they can do what the pros do in there boats and in doing so might be creating more warranty issues or lawsuits based on boat failure. I am glad to see a more common sense approach by the pros. Additionally, because they have to make decisions in advance, TD's are subject to forecasts that may be accurate or wrong.

For the most part I believe what we are seeing is chickens coming home to roost. The tournament organizations were lucky for a long time making choices that allowed people to endanger themselves. Yes, one can fish the lake, but too many won't adjust their styles to the conditions.

Think about everyone else that is involved in this deal, not just one boat driver. Today was a no brainer to cancel. But again, it comes down to reaction to recent deaths that they really started looking at the overall safety picture for cancelations or postponements.

+1

People aren't smart enough to govern themselves so they have to rely on somebody else to do it for them. You say you don't want big government, yet many of your votes say differently.

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