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Use your cull pins no matter what
I was at the BFL All American on the Potomac River last week and had a great time. The FLW Tour event was happening at the same time and it's always cool to watch those events first hand.
There was a little behind the scenes info I heard about that was a real bummer. After making the top 20 cut and fishing day 3, Jim Moynagh and his partner were culling fish around 11:30 when Jims co-angler made a huge mistake by accidentally putting one of his fish in Jims livewell. Neither one of them had markers on their fish so they called the tournament director to ask what they should do. They were told to run back to the launch site (about 1/2 hour one way) so the tournament director could witness them releasing their fish so they could restart the day. Jim still scrambled and caught 14.5 pounds to salvage his day. He went on and caught close to 16 the final day but ended up 4th place, less than two pounds from winning.
The difference between 4th place and 1st was about $100,000 (including Ranger Cup). I know that none of us fish at that level but it's still a lesson to learn from. How bad would it be to be fishing a Federation Qualifier, Divisional, or National Championship and be faced with the same situation? I normally put cull pins in my fish no matter what but I never thought about this type of deal. I don't think I will ever fish a draw tournament without cull pins again.
Sorry for the long winded story but I thought it was worth sharing....Chris Lambert
Views: 483
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chad Simon on
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So Jim's Co-Angler messed up, and Jim was forced to release all his fish? That is poor management on behalf of the FLW directors! Is it a rule they must both use markers? Who was to say he didn't do it intentionally? Most likely not, but why was Jim penalized? Unbelievable! I can't even imagine the feeling.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Hastings on
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Chris great lesson for all of us. I've never thought about an accident like that happening either. It's usually pretty clear driver side livewell is drivers, but we're all capable of a DOH! moment. Thats a pretty stiff penalty especially considering it was his co-angler that made the mistake. What I have seen where too many fish are retained is the biggest one goes, this would have been a more reasonable penalty in my book. ( this is the rule in our rules with Mt. St. Helens.)
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Permalink Reply by Chris Lambert on
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They both had to release their fish because there was no way to determine who's were who's since Jim all of a sudden had 6 in his livewell. It's a bad siutuation but I don't see any other way it could have been dealt with. Jim did mention on stage that his co-angler is a good/honest man and there were no bad feelings towards him. It was an honest mistake.
Chad Simon said:So Jim's Co-Angler messed up, and Jim was forced to release all his fish? That is poor management on behalf of the FLW directors! Is it a rule they must both use markers? Who was to say he didn't do it intentionally? Most likely not, but why was Jim penalized? Unbelievable! I can't even imagine the feeling.
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Why couldn't they have just made him release his biggest fish, to cull down to 5?
Chris Lambert said:They both had to release their fish because there was no way to determine who's were who's since Jim all of a sudden had 6 in his livewell. It's a bad siutuation but I don't see any other way it could have been dealt with. Jim did mention on stage that his co-angler is a good/honest man and there were no bad feelings towards him. It was an honest mistake.
Chad Simon said:So Jim's Co-Angler messed up, and Jim was forced to release all his fish? That is poor management on behalf of the FLW directors! Is it a rule they must both use markers? Who was to say he didn't do it intentionally? Most likely not, but why was Jim penalized? Unbelievable! I can't even imagine the feeling.
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Permalink Reply by Aaron Christel on
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Side tip in case you don't want to spend $25 on a culling system. I got a $1.89 Berkeley stringer, took the clips off, and put plastic shower curtain rings on them. Super cheap and gives you something solid to grab when grabbing your fish. The metal clips will poke through the bottom of the jaw pretty easily.
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