OPEN LETTER TO OBF MEMBERS

            The regional tournaments with the exception of Region 1 are complete. Now is the time for those that advanced to be thinking about the SQT’s in August and the Championship in October. With the new opportunities provided by TBF for advancement to a higher level in fishing for someone I believe that I must address a problem that some members have spoken about to me. That problem is the simple fact that with the boater/non-boater format in the OBF some non-boaters on the second day of a tournament are sharing information with their second day partners. The non-boaters are taking their second day boaters to areas where their first day partners caught fish. 

            This practice is not against tournament rules in OBF. However in both B.A.S.S. and FLW sanctioned tournaments it is. I do not want to see a tournament rule that deals with this problem due to an enforcement issue. In the FLW sanctioned tournaments that I have fished on any day after the first day I tell my boater if he takes me to an area that I fished with my first day partner. I do not tell him where we fished or any detail of the boater’s fishing technique in the area. This is only to avoid a possible protest at the weigh-in that I shared information. When your partner for that day takes you to an area where you practiced and caught fish tell him that you practiced there and caught fish before you start fishing the area. This will only ease hard feeling on the second day if you return to that area and fish while your first day partner is there. Years ago when I first became serious about tournament fishing I fished in the OBF. When I fished the Championship that year on White Oak on the Ohio River I was in college and I had the summer off. I camped for a week there and practiced. I located fish in a small isolated weed bed on the river and no one was fishing. It was only big enough for one boat to fish. My first day partner and I did well the day. On the second day when I pulled up to my weed bed my first day partner was sitting on it. He made the state team and later even thanked me for showing him where the fish where. I put in the time and located fish. He came down on Friday and did not even attempt to practice. In that case I was upset but as there was no rule against that practice I could do nothing. However it was not ethical. 

Ethics are important is both work and your life. To me fishing an area where someone else has taken the time to locate fish is a violation of ethics. I as a tournament director do not want to have to enforce a tournament rule in regard to this problem. So please let us police ourselves and stop this problem.            

                                                                        Stephen A. Coulter

                                                                        OBF State Tournament Director