The other thread was closed so I opened this one. The DQ was me and it was literally caught with 15 minutes left. We fished the entrie day ion the same general area and my dumb arse never started the big motor. I pulled out my jumper cables but in another dumb arse move, they had been in the bottom of the boat for months without being checked. They were rusted and couldn't get a jump off the trolling batteries.

I failed the poly basically as I didn't know whether I broke a rule or not...Pulled Don in after 3 attempts and told him that I got a ride from a boat due to distress....Heck, my partner and my boat were still tied up this whole time!!

Was just an unfortunate event. If it would have happened an hour earlier, no issue but since we had a 10 minute ride with 15 minutes left.....We high tailed it taking a chance...The fish was well over (1/8th or so) and nothing other than be breaking the rule about your boat and partner has to be at weigh in at the time is all that happend(didn't know that was a rule or a distress clause was part of this). Hope that clears it up..

Lessons learned:
-START the big motor every couple hours just in case
-Carry 3 sets of jumper cables a battery pack - solar charger - big pull rope!
-Get on line and find out how polypraghs are administered (first one).

thats bs. that shouldnt have even been a rule. thanks for the clarification on the incident. next time, heck with the jumper cables, just take your motor cables loose from the cranking battery and hook them to one of the trolling batteries.

Not to be an azz but fourth...

Read and Understand the Rules BEFORE you fish the tournament.

Sorry for your loss, man. That bites!

sorry that happened to you.......
I really don't think in that case you should have been DQ....
Especially if you passed all other parts of poly

Thanks you. This should clear things up.

Sorry the fish wasn't able to be weighted.

OUCH, that had to hurt. Better luck next time.

Tried but the wind was brutal Saturday as you know and the trolling batteries were all pretty drained. My 225 Opti takes a lot of crank to turn over and there just wasn't enough juice in the boat. Only lost $500..not a big deal but if it would have been the 2nd place fish - 2nd place boat - like I thought it was....this would have been a much worse sob story

Tom, I think it's cool that you came on here to lay to rest all the speculation about who, what, when, where, how, etc.

My comment about understanding the rules wasn't really directed at you, but anyone who enters a tournament. There are even a couple Elite Series guys who have been DQ'd in years past for rules violations. Rules they said they hadn't read, or didn't understand.

Hey, I'm sorry to hear that.

But on another note. My battery drained a while ago over in Mexico at Falcon. I tried to jump it off of the trollers but didn't have enough juice for my Opti. I called James at FLT for some help and he advised me to hook the motor cables directly to my troller battery -- it worked!

Seems simple now but thought it might be a good public service announcement.

I learned something from the locked post too, I had no idea a bent ruler stick would not read accurately. I figured the fish would bend with the stick.

good deal man! at least you werent hurt physically and you learned from it. There'll be another day! good luck man!

When I first read your post I thought dang dude....but refrained. I get it and I always read the rules...If you fish several tournaments like I do, 90% of the rules are the same with only minor variations. I honestly couldn't remember if this one had a distress rule. If I had known for sure, we would have jumped the boat instead of transporting....and remember, heart rate was 150 beats per second with the4 thrill of the fish being over, last cast, "oh no" boat no star etc....it was a snap decision and had an option. I didn't ask the guy in the new Ranger if we could do this, he insisted let's go as he saw everything from the hookset to the no start...

Speaking of which, I never got your name and am deeply thankful for your help. What yopu did was pure class and I'll never forget. I only hope I can help someone on the water in a "situation" as you did for me...For that I say thanks bud. ...And what a heck of a ride in the bit@h seat on Saturday...man oh man.

This rule.... is broken alot more than you know. I don't even think this should be a rule. I mean under the circumstances like this they should have given you your money.

I know elite guys that if they shear a motor off or tear their boat up... they get a ride in with their fish seperate.

This rule sucks and I don't like it..... If this rule is so circumstantial what is the difference in leaving your boat to walk on a dock to fish the other side or jump out of your boat to [censored], or even jump off your boat at the weigh in site before the tourney is over....... Just saying

I would have done the same thing Tom

I agree that the rule is BS, Tom.

So, if the general consensus is the rule is BS, ( I agree that it is also), then why is it still a rule in some tournaments? Maybe a TD could clear it up with a logical explanation??? Seems a lot of times that TDs just copy rules from another tournament and never give much thought to whether the rules are really needed or no.......