A-TOM-MIK INVITATIONAL

[33Scout]

Went out this morning to fish the invitational and the lake didn't cooperate one bit. After the one hour delay I was for sure that the tournament would be canceled due to the fact that all of the smaller boats that had paid the 800.00 entry fee. IMO since there was a 6 rod limit and no communication that the playing field would be even and the bigger boats wouldn't have an upper hand. That wasn't the case this morning. Went out to 100 FOW and it just wasn't safe for a 22ft boat. I am not calling anyone out or trying to make a huge stink about the situation but I still don't really understand the thought process behind the decisions that was made to go ahead fish. I would think that you would want the tournament to be as competitive as possible and with the vast majority of the boats that stayed in that definitely wasn't the case today. I know that a lot of CPT's were upset and didn't understand why it wasn't postponed until tomorrow.. Oh well I guess you win some and you loose some. Thanks

[Day Break]

I was not in the tournament but I would agree. The tournament should have been postponed and rescheduled. Now you have a situation where people won't want to sign up next year in case you have the same type of conditions. In addition, safety should come first for everyone involved. I know if I paid the $800 I would felt obligated to fish even if the conditions were somewhat dangerous and people should not be put in that position.

[bigCOHOnes]

We participate in these tournaments to show our fishing abilities and not our driving abilities. It is chance to compete with some of the biggest names on the water in a tournament based on a six rod spread across the board whether you have a 20 ft boat or 36ft boat. Nobody should have been put in that situation to fish those waters in a tournament setting. What's if someone got hurt? can you really blame the person when he paid the same amount as everyone else end has the same money to win?

Sent from my SCH-S738C using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Frogger]

I have no sided interests with this tournament but being I've always wanted to try and get in these but choose not to due to the amount of money with only have a GLS 19fter and a 80 percent chance of having rough seas I wanted to give an opinion. I may be wrong but I don't remember hearing a small craft advisory yesterday. If there was, then based on the rules they should of post phoned it till Sunday. That's what I think it says, went to confirm but it won't let me open the web page. With that said, if there wasn't then I think the boats that paid that couldn't get out lost out on their own with the risk you should of known about or realized when you signed up. In case you realized more than half of this fleet are made up of the big boys that fish 6fters with their eyes closed. The officials are not going to change things when if fact the these guys would still go out. My suggestion would be is to have the invites go right up to the week/day it starts. Pay the extra 50 bucks knowing what the lake conditions are going to be instead of risking 800. Or have a hidden ballot vote from all captains in the tourny the morning of,75% agreement for post phone and its done. something like that. Last note on safety, no one from a derby official puts you in a dangerous situation, you do. Sorry for the opinions but that's all they are. I'm sure there will be more on this to come.

[HAMMER]

I would like to put my opinion in on this one there was NO craft advisory in effect was the lake rough hell ya did I ever feel unsafe no. We all like to fish a little flatter conditions but hey welcome to Oswego! And the fact that a 24' boat crushed the field with a 26lb average should put a cap on this thread. Had a blast can't wait for next year good job Tom and Steph and WTG!Team THRILLSEEKER impressive catch

[33Scout]

BTW Congrats THRILLSEEKER!!! HELL OF A JOB!!! Hammer I don't think it quite capped the thread. The smallest boat aloud to fish the tournament would be an 18ft boat. An 18ft boat doesn't stand a snow balls chance in hell on yesterdays water.. There in lies the problem the smaller boats paid the 800.00 bucks only to sit up on the hill and watch the big boys play... I got it and totally understand that this is a totally open sided post and I don't really wanna get into arguing with people I would like to strongly state my case in the matter though.

[GAMBLER]

If you want to compete in big tournaments, you need a big boat.  Plain and simple.  If you enter a big tournament, you are rolling the dice entering with a small boat.  I fish a couple tournaments with my 22 but stay away from big money tournaments because most big events will be fished in rough seas. 

[33Scout]

Gambler you are right... I still don't quite understand the though process behind the decision knowing the standards set by the tournament knowing that anywhere from an 18 to 30ft boat was aloud. But nonetheless you are right.

[crumcake1223]

we held our own quite well with our little 18' penn. water conditions at the nigra pro/am was a day to rember. we fished that water until tourney control call it on that sunday. and did well there.  I would say that the sodus pro/am had the same water conditions and we in our little 18ft penn took 1st place in the am division, im not here trying to toot my own horn by any means,   would a bigger boat helped yesterday, YOU BET YOUR BOAT ON IT. did we feel that we could not only fish that water but bring in fish... we put 2 very nice kings in her with smiles on our face and  we stood very proud in line with our box. if the water conditions  we feel we  would have done better. was that the hand we where dealt, no. but we cant wait to do it all over again next year. thanks tom and everyone else for such a wonderful time. great people, great food, and now some great friend.

Edited August 11, 2013 by crumcake1223

[A-TOM-MIK]

 

Went out this morning to fish the invitational and the lake didn't cooperate one bit. After the one hour delay I was for sure that the tournament would be canceled due to the fact that all of the smaller boats that had paid the 800.00 entry fee. IMO since there was a 6 rod limit and no communication that the playing field would be even and the bigger boats wouldn't have an upper hand. That wasn't the case this morning. Went out to 100 FOW and it just wasn't safe for a 22ft boat. I am not calling anyone out or trying to make a huge stink about the situation but I still don't really understand the thought process behind the decisions that was made to go ahead fish. I would think that you would want the tournament to be as competitive as possible and with the vast majority of the boats that stayed in that definitely wasn't the case today. I know that a lot of CPT's were upset and didn't understand why it wasn't postponed until tomorrow.. Oh well I guess you win some and you loose some. Thanks

33 Scout:

I have received a total of 2 complaints surrounding my decision to fish yesterday (since weigh-in till now), I believe them to be from the same team, I have responded to that team captain with no response back except from his team members.

 

Your frustration is understood but a few of your facts are wrong:

 

-As far as reasons to level the playing field the weather has no dictation, 6 rods and no communication keep the potential bigger spreads smaller and keep the mass amounts of available info amongst the team members on tourney day. Weather or winds do not dictate the reasons why we promote a level playing field.

 

-As far as your claim of a "vast majority" of boats "staying in" we had 40 boats weigh fish out of 47 that fished (lost 4 boats d/t mechanical failure and boats that never even made it to Oswego d/t issues at home) A "vast majority" of 47 is not 7

 

My explanation as to why I chose to fish is in the tourney section, if "you are not trying to make a huge stink" as you claim, you would take the time to read it. 

 

Tom

[Paul Czarnecki]

Great response Tom.

If you do not have the skill to operate your 22 ft or 24 ft boat on the lake in the conditions it can generate then you should stick to smaller bodies of water.

There was NO small craft advisory so neither the NWS or the Coast Guard thought conditions were dangerous.

Team Dipsey Ranger had the smallest boat in the Tournament and managed to weigh in fish.

Team ThrillSeeker WON it out of a "little" 24 ft boat!

Nuff said!

Great tournament Tom. See ya next year!

[Second Nature]

First of all congrats to Vince and team thrill seeker on their win and for being able to once again being able to demonstrate his legendary fishing abilities but also his ability to do it in a smaller boat than most involved! Great job!

Secondly and most importantly to me I would like to publicly apologize to Tom for any criticism I gave him via text for conducting the tourney when he did and also for the "stink" that a team member also made about the issue on Lou without me being involved. I am responsible for anything and everything said or done on my boat and I will take it on the chin and own up to it. I have a 21' trophy with a single outboard and very low cut transom. Due to that if the boat takes the wrong wave I'm in alot of trouble in a hurry and felt that due to the experience of not only myself in such conditions but also my very inexperienced and new crew I felt I was operating that boat at it maximum safe capacity and decided regardless of what I had on the line investment and time wise was not worth a chance of losing life or property and decided to bring the boat back to the dock. Staying out in those conditions under a call that I make may have had consequences that effected other members of the team or my observer and if something were to happen I would have never been able to live with myself. The tourney was conducted and run in a safe and fair manor and myself as well as such team member let our emotions get the better of us before we thought it through . So for that I am sorry to Tom and Steph whom I consider to be my friends for any and all additional stress in an already stressful situation. Sorry Tom and Steph and at this point all I can do is to be better prepared for next year which I am truly looking forward to. Thanks and sorry to all involved

[A-TOM-MIK]

I certainly understand the passion, I'd be the pot calling the kettle black if I said I didn't. I am also sorry to you and all who had to deal with the wrath of Mother Nature, I feel it is pretty much the only obstacle that cant be overcame trying to put these events on. I guess no harm no foul at this point and we move on, it takes a lot of guts to apologize for something someone can feel so strongly about/against, It stinks for all the teams as well that never had the chance to portray their skills after much prep fishing, time off work and $$$ were invested, I certainly hope some sort of karma will come into play at another time for each. I haven't even had a chance yet to feel sick to my own stomach about my performance on Saturday, I was off my game, just so upset inside that the weather all week looked favorable and then went south in a fast action, I had to stick with a 4 rod spread as 3 eager team members just wanted me to make them darn rods move and I just couldn't make them as my head was not in the game  

 

Tom

[Patriot]

I don’t do tournaments. However, the fact that the weather was not the best, the officials that determine stay or go might have looked at Sunday’s forecast and made their decision on that information.

And as Gamblers said, If you can’t play with the big dogs, “STAY ON THE PORCHâ€. Everybody knows that tournaments and nasty weather are a given.

$800, that’s a lot of groceries!