Although I did not fish any Pro-am's last year prior to that I had fished the Niagara pro am for the prior three years and placed in the money aboard the Reel Excitrment. I am in favor of the open communication rules for the very reason that the comittee stated, it is just too difficult to enforce with modern technology. In past tournaments there has been enough difficulty with acusations for rules that could not be enforced that just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Also I have heard some arguments regarding reasons not to have open communication, one being the observe communicating with his team. This very same problem happened to us the first year of the open communication rule when thrillseekers observered called them after we boated a salmon. I don't believe Vinny even cared what we were doing but wanted to get in our heads. We handled this the second day by asking the observer for his cell phone in the morning and telling him he was not to communicate with any one during the course of the day. His phone was returned at the end of fishing. One other point I would like to make is it has been noted by several people that Bob and Bob worked together during that tournament when we finished 1 & 2. Nothing could be furthure from the truth. We did not share info on or off the water with them during the tournament. Why would we, they beat us and cost alot of money. We did fish next to each other during the tournament, but that was only because they had been on those fish for a week prior to the tournament. another note is peple keep talking about comunicating with non-tourament boats, from prior years this was not allowed with open communication, has this changed? Lastly, a tactic we did use was we teamed up with an ameuter boat. This seems to be the logical thing for everyone to do. Why would you team up with another boat in your class when if they catch fish it is liable to be at your expense. If the ams and the pros team up it helps both of them out.
Pro-Am update
in Open Lake Discussion
Posted
Although I did not fish any Pro-am's last year prior to that I had fished the Niagara pro am for the prior three years and placed in the money aboard the Reel Excitrment. I am in favor of the open communication rules for the very reason that the comittee stated, it is just too difficult to enforce with modern technology. In past tournaments there has been enough difficulty with acusations for rules that could not be enforced that just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Also I have heard some arguments regarding reasons not to have open communication, one being the observe communicating with his team. This very same problem happened to us the first year of the open communication rule when thrillseekers observered called them after we boated a salmon. I don't believe Vinny even cared what we were doing but wanted to get in our heads. We handled this the second day by asking the observer for his cell phone in the morning and telling him he was not to communicate with any one during the course of the day. His phone was returned at the end of fishing. One other point I would like to make is it has been noted by several people that Bob and Bob worked together during that tournament when we finished 1 & 2. Nothing could be furthure from the truth. We did not share info on or off the water with them during the tournament. Why would we, they beat us and cost alot of money. We did fish next to each other during the tournament, but that was only because they had been on those fish for a week prior to the tournament. another note is peple keep talking about comunicating with non-tourament boats, from prior years this was not allowed with open communication, has this changed? Lastly, a tactic we did use was we teamed up with an ameuter boat. This seems to be the logical thing for everyone to do. Why would you team up with another boat in your class when if they catch fish it is liable to be at your expense. If the ams and the pros team up it helps both of them out.