Tennessee Boy

I listened to Luke Dunkin's podcast with Keith Poche to hear Keith's side of the store. He said he was told that the water on the other side was legal to fish and that he was DQed because of how he got there. He said that he had called the tournament director in a tournament last year and said he wanted to jump a road and wanted to know if the water on the other side was legal. He said they got back to him and said the water on the other side was a private lake so he could not fish it. He concluded from this that there was no problem with jumping a road or they would have said so initially. I get what he's saying but I think that logic is seriously flawed. Just because he wasn't told specifically that he couldn't jump the road doesn't make it legal. He was told he could not do what he was wanting to do. There are grey areas and I don't think you can assume that those grey areas will always be interpreted the same in different tournaments. I expect we will see a new Keith Poche rule added in the near future.

Yes you can. The only way you can mess it up is to use wire that is to small. Small wire run over a longer distance will result in lower voltage at the plug. A small fish finder does not pull a lot of current. A kayak will not require long wires. Hard to mess it up.

He’s certainly fished more tournaments than I have and knows more about fishing than I’ll ever know but I do know how to read and he is clearly quoting a rule that does not exist. If Poche had jumped the road as a short cut to get to another part of Toledo Bend he would not have violated rule 15. In my opinion he would still be in violation of rule 6 that states the competitors are expected to follow high standards of sportsmanship, courtesy, safety, and conservation.

I completely agree. I’m just saying if you’re gonna preach from the Bible make sure you read the Bible first.

In rule 15 - Towing boats on trailers during tournament hours is prohibited, except by the direction of tournament officials.

I watched the whole thing and I saw that. I’m referring to the part where he holds up the rule book with one hand and taps it with his other hand and says “it’s against the rules.. can’t go across dry ground”. That’s not in the Opens Rule book! He says it after a couple of minutes of preaching about the importance of knowing the rules. Opps! Maybe the Elite Series rules are different and he got confused. Again I’m not say Poche had a right to do what he did. I’m saying Swindle doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Yeah, it’s seems obvious to me that if you have to jump a road to get to some place it’s probably worth a call to see if it’s allowed. The tournament director made a decision. I’ve never been one to blame the referee. I posted the link to the rules in response to the sermon that Swindle posted. Before you wave the rule book around and start quoting the rules you should check the book to make sure you’ve got the rules right. I’ve always thought his mouth was bigger than his brain but I still like him. ?

I don’t have an opinion about the disqualification but here’s the 2023 Open rules. https://www.bassmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2023-Opens-Rules-FINAL-2.pdf I’m not seeing anything about crossing dry land.

Like @A-Jay I also use a 5 inch wide neoprene wrap that closes with velcro. I bought mine on Amazon and it cost much less than the ones specifically marketed to fishermen. It has lasted several years and I still have enough on the role to replace it. That said, after looking at A-Jay's picture, his must be better because I haven't caught a smallmouth that big since I installed mine.

I’m going to drive myself crazy trying to figure out where this is on Guntersville.

Yeah, 30 pounds in 17 minutes. That’s incredible and he had a 6–06 spotted bass according to the Scoretracker. I’m wondering if that was entered by mistake.

A lot of fish being caught in a lot of different ways but not many big fish.

Poche is fishing in today’s group. Anyone know if he’s jumped any causeways? ?

It keeps guys from boat flipping them onto the carpet. That rule is easy to enforce. I don’t know how you would enforce the bleeder rule. How much blood must be visible? Maybe they just need a fleet of ambulance boats to treat any injured fish. ?

Dropping a fish is not a weight penalty. They send you to time out.

So he jumped a dam to get out of one of the top bass fishing lakes in the country…..interesting.

In this video they drill into a LiFePO4 and Li-ion battery with very different results. The LiFePO4 batteries people are using in their boats are much safer.

https://majorleaguefishing.com/circuits/bass-pro-tour/ The live video will start at 7:30AM CT You can watch the replay of today’s action here. It’s the second video. Watch the last 45 minutes of period 3. https://majorleaguefishing.com/bass-pro-tour/highlights-stage-four-qualifying-day-1-group-a-3/

There's a lot of fish being caught today on Guntersville. Wall has started catching them on a glide bait late in the day. You're not suppose to do that on Guntersville. This is going to be a good tournament.

Supposedly LiFePO4 batteries are much safer. I’ve never experienced a lithium fire so I can’t comment on how hard they are to extinguish. I have encountered a gasoline fire, they’re pretty intense.

Mine will show a small hook or split shot because those things reflect sonar very well. The closer something is to the density of water the harder it is to see.

I vote no it will not pick up salamanders. It’s more about how much it reflects the sonar than about it’s size. I don’t think salamanders have an air bladder.

The vast conspiracy among meteorologists to keep me off the water. ☹️

I remember about 30 years ago Roland Martin switched from his normal boat to a jet powered aluminum boat so he could run way up in a river. He was not disqualified and BASS covered it heavy in the TV coverage of the event. He was a high profile angler sponsored by Ranger. If I remember correctly, he called Rangers and they delivered the special boat to him at the tournament site.

Does anyone know the waypoints?