An Intro and a Refresher to Bass Tournament Ethics

Recently I took part in the high school bass event at The Outdoorsman Pro Shop. One of the speakers was Kyle Borst and he’s one of the guys that does things the right way and one of the topics he touched on was tournament ethics. A topic that is incredibly important to him and also a message that needs to make it out there to all the up and comers of our sport. One of the things we talked about behind the scenes is how often the kids that are participating in these events aren’t from a fishing background. They don’t really know, their boat captains don’t really know, and that can easily lead to poor on the water decisions that aren’t necessarily spelled out in the tournament rules. There is a lot to learn for new tournament anglers and there are some experienced tournament anglers that also might need a refresher. I’ve been fishing tournaments since I was 14 and I’m 39 now so you can do the math on that. I’ve seen a lot of different things over the years. I’m going to pull from my experiences and take a deep dive into tournament ethics and my thoughts on them.

One of the more obvious ones here is play by the rules. Things like if you accidentally snag a bed fish, YOU HAVE TO THROW IT BACK. That does not mean that you can’t catch it again! Another example happened to a very well respected friend of mine a long time ago. A really nice bass was all messed up swimming around at the surface that wouldn’t bite but could have been easily scooped up with the net and added to a live well. You can’t scoop that fish up and take it to weigh in. He could have scooped that fish up and no one would have ever known, but of course he didn’t. Or when some dude drives by asking if you want to buy the 5 pounder he just caught, you tell him to move along. I have literally had that happen multiple times in south east Michigan tournaments, never on the west side. There was also recently an incident in West Michigan where a kayak angler was measuring fish for a tournament that someone was catching off the bank. You absolutely cannot take someone else’s bass under any circumstances. All that is pretty obvious and easy to navigate unless you are actually trying to cheat and that is a whole separate topic.

The rest of this stuff is a little different. In bass fishing, you can be an absolute dirtbag without breaking any rules. But don’t be that guy, no one likes that guy. If you can’t feel good about winning what is the point? I’m out here fishing against my friends and people I respect. I’d prefer if they respected me and wanted to call me a friend too. Questionable actions for more tournament wins is not something I’m interested in. It takes a long time to build bridges in the fishing world and just a second to burn them. Don’t think for a minute that poor choices towards one boat won’t have any ripple effect because I can assure you it will.

There’s a long list of things that can happen on the water and sometimes there isn’t a right or a wrong answer. But there are a few scenarios that are pretty clear. If you find your own fish than this isn’t going to apply much to you. But unfortunately there are always some people looking for shortcuts to temporary success. Things like racing last weeks winner back to his winning spot that you only found because they won there. Or spending most of your time and energy finding where people are having success and then weaseling your way into those areas. No one should aspire to be a “hole spudder” and that reputation comes on fast.

But what happens when you do everything right. You put the time in, find your own fish, have all the right baits. Then tournament day rolls around, you draw boat 65, and someone is sitting right on your waypoint. That is a tough pill to swallow but that is tournament fishing. It isn’t about who has the best spot, perfect pattern, or even gets the biggest bites for the day. All the variables like lost fish, someone else getting your spot, or the weather completely changing make tournament fishing what it is. The decisions you make to overcome those things are what count at the end of the day. In this scenario, unless you want to be that guy, you’ve got no choice but to keep rolling and leave your “winning spot” in the rear view mirror. For me that isn’t hard to do, I’ve done it tons of times, and it doesn’t even bother me. I move to plan B and work down the list without skipping a beat. So many times it ends up being a blessing because you blast them in an area you weren’t even expecting too. Other times plan A could be a big area with room for multiple boats provided you give the guy who was there first plenty of space. But always be prepared to go with the flow vs getting in an unnecessary conflict. I can promise you that you’ll fish better and be more relaxed if you go with the flow vs getting into a confrontation.

I also want to point out that while the tournament might be the most important thing to you on the lake that day, it isn’t to everyone else using it. Shore fisherman, recreational fisherman in boats, property owners, duck hunters, and anyone else out having a good time on the lake need to be respected. When one bass boat behaves poorly, we all get lumped into that category. We’ve all had those times when someone is just watching bobbers right where you want to be. You can get in their business and scowl at each other, move on to the next spot, or communicate with them and ask if it would be ok if you fished around them. Communication goes a long way with both your non competitors and your competitors. You might not always get the answer you want but you have to be willing to accept whatever it may be.

I also want to point out that mistakes happen. No one is perfect on the water but if you have a pattern of bad behavior you won’t get to play the innocent card for very long. I’ve had friends roll up on me where I was hidden by docks only to realize we were there a couple minutes later and they apologized and left. It was a team that wouldn’t do that to someone if they knew they would win by encroaching on another competitor. I never even for a second believed they would come in there knowing I was there. It’s good to have a reputation like that, be like those guys!

One hard truth to bass fishing is that you are going to lose far more than you will ever win. One thing that Kyle said that really resonated with me was be the same person whether you win or lose. There isn’t a tournament fisherman out there who hasn’t had a day so bad, that they put the boat on the trailer and sent it home as fast as they could. But don’t make that the norm after a brutal day on the water. Stay until the end and congratulate the winners and guys that did well, next time it will be your turn. Those handshakes mean a lot to me and I don’t take them for granted.

Lastly I want to remind everyone that tournament fishing is hard, everything is challenging about it and nothing comes easy. Couple that with the fact that you lose way more often than you win and I’m not sure why we all still do it. Hard work, time on the water, and no shortcuts. It’s a great feeling when you earn success and I’d encourage everyone who reads this to do things the right way. If you have questions, hit that contact button and reach out. I would be happy to answer them and look for some common scenario graphics and how to approach them sometime in the near future.