Paul Czarnecki

Hi Steve, The enforcement policies for the rules were adopted last year as a result of the "incidents" you mentioned. If you read a copy of last year's rules for Niagara and Orleans you will see that things have been pretty much buttoned up as far as enforcement is concerned. Where actual cheating is involved actual LAW ENFORCEMENT is employed. The rules state that if the Tournament Director feels that laws have been broken and the issue cannot be resolved (ie. competitor disqualifies himself) the case will be turned over to the appropriate law enforcement agency for prosecution (DEC, Sheriff's Office, State Police, etc). This system worked well in both the Niagara and Orleans tournaments last year and will work even better now that all 4 tournaments have adopted the same policy. Hope that answers your question. We are working on the rules right now and they will be out publicly very soon. C ya at the captain's meeting. Paul

HI Pete, It is my understanding that the deadline to be in line for the weigh in is being looked at for the Oswego tournament. While the distance to drive between Olcott and Wilson is not a problem the distance between Oswego and Mexico might be, so it might be changed slightly to allow for that. Like I said earlier.....give it a try this year. If you still don't like it, get involved and change it for next year. As long as everyone abides by the rules and they are simple and easy to follow I don't see how anyone can say its "unfair".

Didn't mean to start a war here guys---I was just trying to clear some things up. The no communication rule was adopted by all 4 tournaments due mainly to the comments and survey results from the past two years in all 4 tournaments. All 4 tournament committees had input. I personally saw the survey results and they were overwhelmingly FOR open communication. Del--simply put, while the majority on this particular site might not want communication that was not the result of the surveys. Andy--I think Vito might be patting himself on the back a little there. You and I both know that telling someone where and how to fish does not "put fish in the boat". Yvan still had to catch those fish and I seriously doubt that Vito had that much to do with it. As far as Songin and Stevens working together--they ALWAYS do. They weren't "working together to cover twice as much water"--they were fishing side by side and comparing notes--most of which was done AFTER fishing on day 1. And they each caught their fish with different programs--Stevens ran mostly Revelators while Songin ran spoons and Spin Doctors. Finally, I never said I was "for" open communication. I've never really cared either way and I have ALWAYS said that I will abide by the rules of the particular tournament I'm fishing. I've fished ALL of them for a number of years (more than I care to count) and always abided by the rules. However, I really honestly believe that closed communication in today's world is an impossibilty. That said, I also feel that there will always be someone who will try to bend the rules to suit their own desires. As a tournament committee we have to do what is best for the GOOD of the tournament. Niagara adopted the open communication thing several years ago in an effort to recruit and retain more new teams into the event and it worked. In the first year, participation went from approximately 60 teams to 80 (I'm not postive of the actual number so please don't crucify me). At the very least, open communication has not hurt the event. If you guys feel that strongly about this particular rule you need to make your feelings known to the tournament committees. You said you wanted unified rules and the committees agreed on unified rules and now you're not happy about that either. Perhaps if you got involved in the committees yourselves and volunteered to help instead of "armchair quarterbacking", things could be worked out to everyone's satisfaction. For now, let's just agree to disagree and see how things work out this year. You've all fished Niagara and a lot of you fished Orleans last year where communication was allowed--and DID WELL. Let's try it for this year and if you still don't like it then let's work TOGETHER and change it for next year. See ya at the Captain's meeting! Paul -------I'm still trying to get that picture of Tommy, Andy and Tom standing naked in the back of the boat out of my head. Thanks Andy!

"Last word I received from some of the Team Cold Steel/A-TOM-MIK is we may not even fish the Pro/Am's this year. " I sincerely hope you will reconsider that Tom. You guys have fished the Niagara tournament for the past several years and done very well so I don't see what the point would be in not fishing them any more. This rule was adopted by all 4 tournaments in an effort to UNIFY the rules and update them. As was already stated, communication is unenforcible so why clutter things with a rule you can't do anything about. I, personally, don't mind either way the communication thing. In fact, in the past several years open communication has actually hurt my final standings in Niagara and Orleans because I allowed myself to be influenced by what everyone else was doing. Consequently, I won't be using the "open communication" rule this year. That's the beauty of things like this--you can use it IF you want to. If you don't like open communication--don't use it. I hope you, Tommy and Hank will reconsider your above statement Tom. Personally, I can't imagine NOT fishing the tournaments and I think you guys feel the same way. I live for the tournaments and will fish them REGARDLESS of whether I agree with a particular rule or not. At least we don't have a rule where we have to fish NAKED! Think about THAT tonight and try to get to sleep....HA! :shock:

I agree Jeff--that kind of conduct is total BS but I hope you can see my point. While calling the observer is total BS I'm sure you can agree that it would be just as frustrating to have an observer on your boat that goes downstairs to the head and text messages his team all your specifics while you THOUGHT the tournament was no communication. That exact scenario happened several times last year in Sodus involving several well known captains--and Sodus was a closed communication tournament. Its a sad fact but there will ALWAYS be sneaky underhanded tactics used by people when there is money and ego involved. All this goes back to my original suggestion: Talk to the other captain at the meeting BEFORE the tournament and establish your parameters. If he wants to call your boat he talks to only YOU and you do the same for him. If you don't like communicating tell him so and ask that he respect your wishes. If everyone will do this there will not be any problems. As far as communication giving a "home boy" an advantage I don't see it. Like I said in my earlier post, if I get a call that a friend is killing the fish several miles away and I'm not, I have to make the decision to take away from my fishing time, pull my lines and run to his spot and then try to catch fish that he has been on for some time. AT BEST, I'm going to get a few--no way will I beat someone that has been there all morning. So, before I run I have to ask myself the question charter captains ask themselves every day, "Is it worth the run?" The open communication rule has been adopted by all 4 Lake Ontario ProAms because it makes sense. If you can't effectively enforce a rule why have it? By opening communication we are hoping to tear down some walls and eliminate some of the fear and apprehension of going into a strange port to fish a tournament. Niagara has had the rule in place for several years and we have watched it closely. NEVER has communication played a part of a winning team's strategy and, to my knowledge, none of the top teams have ever benefited from the open communication at the expense of other teams. What it HAS done, is increase participation by the "little guy" and allowed him to come in with a few fish. He may not win, but if he can call a buddy and get some help he might get a few and, at least "feel competitive" and have some fun. THAT is what these tournaments should be all about. See ya at the Captain's Meeting! Paul

HI Jeff, So....give us the rest of the story----did the observer on your boat give away your coho location to "his" team and did they come over and win the tournament in your spot? In all likelihood, what that observer DID do was fill the other captain's head full of "What if" and "Maybe we should"....etc, etc. In short, the observer did more to HURT the other team than help them. Do you really think that another boat could get second hand info about your spot, pull lines and run there and then beat you? Especially when you already had a big head start on the spot and the program in the first place. AT BEST, what might happen is the observer on your boat calls his team who might be sitting on a zero and they come over and catch MAYBE a couple of fish. You will still beat them and they won't have to come in with a zero. He won't be embarrassed and will, most likely, fish the event again next year. Everybody's happy! End of story. What you SHOULD have done Jeff, like Bob Cinelli and I suggested at the Captain's meeting (and in the rules), is talk to the Captain of the boat you exchanged observers with at the Captain's meeting and establish parameters for the communication. If you don't want him calling his observer then tell him so. If you don't want his observer calling him tell the observer not to call. That's what I've done since the inception of the rule and haven't had a problem yet. Remember guys---the open communication rule is designed for captain to captain communication ONLY. Respect it and there won't be any problems.