Did I not call that?

Why is it a PR nightmare? The rules are listed and were followed by BASS. Some of you mistakenly believed the Opens and the Elites rules/punishments are the same, they are not. And having different punishments for different rules violations on the Elites seems normal too. Those are not black eyes on BASS.

Herren's son made a mistake. Herren likely hoped he wouldn't have to take a polygraph and would get away with it. Instead, he got popped. I'm failing to see the issue here with BASS? Where is the lack of consistency? And please don't reference the Opens and Elites together again. They are completely different tours.

Herren is leaving because he can't use FFS and his finishes have been bad. 68th in AOY last year / 66th in 2023 / 67th in 2022. Thats a tough way to make a living and now he is hoping to resurrect his career on a tour no one watches. He can say what he wants but I promise those sponsors can't bail out fast enough next season.

It's pretty easy to see they are taking a beating on social media. I'd call that a PR nightmare. You just had a longtime Elite angler quit the tour, you had a guy getting DQ'd in an Open last week and not a peep about it addressing it. You have same Elite angler doing the same stuff that got him in trouble last year and cost him ROY. Doesn't sound like there is much consistency right now.

I've known Matt Herren since the early 90's when we used to fish against each other in Redman/BFL tournaments. I've never known anybody to have anything negative to say about Matt Herren......and...there are already 463 people on his facebook page,complimenting him and wishing him good luck on the National Professional trail.....

And that alone shows you people are not capable of rationale thought.

BASS may or may not be doing anything wrong as far as punishment goes or how they are handling the separate situations. Doesn't change the overall optics, hence creating a PR nightmare.

They read the exact rules he broke on BTL today. BASS enforced the rule exactly as it states. Not sure where y'all are getting that BASS isn't enforcing the rules correctly. Shame his son got him disqualified but he clearly broke a rule.

[/quote]BASS may or may not be doing anything wrong as far as punishment goes or how they are handling the separate situations. Doesn't change the overall optics, hence creating a PR nightmare. [/quote]

Fair point. But Herren is not a fan favorite, and this will blow over by the end of the week. And ultimately Herren will regret his tantrum. The only way to stop guys from breaking the rules is to not have rules. I don't consider it a black eye organizationally as long as they follow their rules to the letter and do not change the in season.

@Mark Perry - I just don't see where the inconsistency is.

BASS needs to be the ones making the decisions transparent and not a podcast. They need to be more open and detailed about it.

The rules he broke were listed in the announcement.

Fair point. But Herren is not a fan favorite, and this will blow over by the end of the week. And ultimately Herren will regret his tantrum. The only way to stop guys from breaking the rules is to not have rules. I don't consider it a black eye organizationally as long as they follow their rules to the letter and do not change the in season.

@Mark Perry - I just don't see where the inconsistency is. [/quote]


You don't call BASS not DQing repeat rules violators, not mentioning the DQ in the same Olen a guy got penalized(which was announced), 4 guys running the no wake zone and only 3 of them getting a timeout inconsistent?

Matt's son said a video was forwarded to BASS of an Elite angler soliciting info for Okeechobee but no action was taken.

The way yiu stop guysfrom breaking the rules is to have a strict policy on enforcement and make the penalties hurt the angler. You don't do away with all the rules because no one is following them. That leads to chaos.

Be consistent, swift and fairly heavy handed and the grey are BS will stop or begreatly reduced. If a guy gets 6- 7 infractions in 12 months perhaps you need to sit him out and event ir two.

Did you honestly understand exactly why he was DQ'd and tge rule itself until BTL read it off?


What did the Opens guys do and why has the DQ not been announced publicly? It's not just about Herren. They seem to lack consistency.

We seem to live in a time where laws and rules are all considered to have gray areas. They do not. Grown ups know this. Lets move on.

I agree on the grey areas stuff. If guys are fishing tve Opens to make the Elites then why have 2 sets of rules especially for something as important as they say the no info rule is? That is more inconsistency. Does is matter less that you broke a rule some might consider a competitive advantage in the Opens than if you break it in the Elites It's the same organization so it would make sense to align rules a little more similar.


That guy that got the fine in the Opens would probably get a lot of push back from other anglers if it had happened in a local trail. Guys would be calling for blood.

I'd like to know if this creek that he got info on is the same creek his friend Bill Lowen won the tournament in?