Fishtails

Disregard, I found the rules !!

Just a heads up for those of you who are, or may be considering fishing the AM division of The Kevin Davis Memorial Oswego Pro Am that there will most likely be some very positive and much needed rule changes for this year. This is very unofficial, as the powers to be have final word but a group of us regulars have been talking with the committee about unifying the Oswego rules with the Sodus rules for this year and it sounds like it should happen. The main changes would be AM teams would weigh in a 7 fish box, consisting of 6 silver fish ( salmon, steelhead or brown trout) and one bonus lake trout that would be worth 10 points. The advantage to this format is it opens up the tournament to two person teams ! In the past, the 9 fish limit required a 3 man team. This is huge !! I fished Sodus with just myself and my son for years, taking both a second and first place finish as a father/son team and It's one of my fondest life memories. I'm sure they'll make it official soon, so with the outlook favorable for reseeding water in July and the incredible fishing this season consider signing up and honoring Kevin Davis by making this a great turnout !!! It's sure to be an amazing time !!!

Nice Abe !!! See you in Sodus.

No Culling according to the Pro Am rules means you cannot release any fish that has been caught / boated, unless it is under the tournaments legal size limit. Rules also state no shaking fish off, releasing out of net, cutting line or any act to aid in the loosing or release of the fish. Its a good pro rule, but a terrible AM rule when no observer is on board.

These are very standard tournament rules : Weigh-in: - Upon returning to port the cooler containing the day's catch must be immediately transported to the weigh-in site, Oswego Marina. Weigh-in starts at 12:00 P.M.. A team representative must be in line for weigh-in no later than 3:00 P.M. with catch. I personally wouldn't want it any other way. From boat to weigh in....no exceptions. I would take it a step further myself and also add to the rules that two team members should remain with the cooler at all times (am standard Pro Am rule) The rule is there to deter cheating. We all know foul play occurs with a small percentage of participants. I think all that can really be done when the honor system is in play is to police ourselves and not have rules in place that encourage or aid cheating. If a team is allowed to drive their catch to another weigh station for an LOC entry first (per your suggestion), then who's to say they cant also stop and pick up a drink and some lunch, some gas for the truck, then get to the LOC scales the same time as their buddy whom just so happened to also catch a nice fish whom lets just say didn't want to keep his fish and voila, "someone" ends up with a nice addition to the cooler. Then off to weigh in they go.... Just one scenario in 100's of similar scenarios that could take place. So....by policing ourselves we can keep an eye on each other. No stopping at a friends house, or stopping by a friends boat, or going for gas, lunch, LOC scales, the bar, etc. From the boat to weigh in.....keep it simple and make it more uncomfortable for that very small minority to do their dirty work. I have nothing to do with this tournament, nor am I even fishing it so it's just my opinion but I do fish a lot of tournaments and totally support any rule that keeps the foul play to a minimum. I just fished the Oswego Pro Am on the Amateur side and the rules stated no culling, yet there were no observers to enforce it. A few boats came in with huge 9 fish boxes both days, so we are to believe they caught zero small fish out of the 18 in two days? A truly difficult task !! Is it possible, sure. But that margin of doubt shouldn't exist because its an unenforceable leftover rule from the days am's had an observer. Overall I loved fishing the Oswego Pro Am and thought it was a GREAT event. It's just that my team was basically done and pulled lines with 8 of our 9 (mostly smaller) at 9:45 am Saturday so we went to scout waters for the next day. We finished off our 9th around noon and went in early feeling we probably got beat by teams who culled a few and upgraded their box throughout the day. Culling should ALWAYS be allowed if there are no observers on the boat or it just becomes a tournament that favors the cheaters, and also puts the honest guys in a position to either have to break a rule that shouldn't exist or get beat by those who do. Hopefully it gets eliminated from the 2019 Am rules because I really did love the Oswego Pro Am this year !!!