The Defective Dink Board 2024
JPascavage52 reply :
Well, Sunday we had our first FLW bass federation district tournament of the year, and being that it's my goal to qualify for the State Championship this year, I was stoked. Since there were 26 boats, and we were the third tournament of the weekend on this lake where the term "the ol' five pound limit" is often used, we all knew fishing was going to be tough.
Fishing ended up being slow but better than I expected. Started out on my favorite rip-rap bank and caught two dinks on a crankbait, then started slow dragging a senko. Had two fish on that I got close enough to see but managed to shake the hook off. Finally landed what was a keeper, just over the minimum. Or so I thought. Moved to a spot I like to save specifically for tournaments, and begin flipping some post stuctures and wood, and caught two keeepers, one that was decent, and another that was just over the limit. Had another one on that was good but got tangled in some tree limbs, I spooked him out when I went to get my lure out of the tree.
Later on, started throwing a drop shot and Ned Rig around looking to fill the limit. I managed to land one more nice fish, but then only caught one more dink for the day. From talking to some other competitors, I thought my four fish would be enough, probably wasn't going to win, but may at least place.
When I pulled up to the weigh in, I brought my fish over to the scales, and they proceeded to measure my two "barely measuring" fish that I had, as they had with all the others. Sure enough, while they had easily been over the 12 inch minimum on the Field and Stream dink board I have been using all year, on the "gold standard" board the tournament officials were using, they were barely measuring 11.5 inches. They proceeded to throw out my two "barely measuring fish" and penalize me two pounds from the remaining two. I tried pleading my case a bit, stating that they were easily legal on my dink board, and even comparing my dink board to the one they were using, when I found that, to my astonishment, it was about 1/2 inch or so shorter than theirs 
. Unfortunately, was told that, while it was unfortunate, there was nothing that could be done. When I got home, ended up measuring it one more time, just to be sure it was mine, and not theirs that was off.
Not sure if I just got a bad one, or all of these ones are like this. Needless to say, heading over to the store first thing after work today to talk to somebody about it. In a way, its good that I found this out. Forget the tournament, If I had been checked by the fish warden, would've had some explaining to do.
Turtle135 reply :
wow, that is rough, done in by a commercial measuring board! hope you have some remaining tournaments to get you back on track to qualify, good luck!
scaleface reply :
Wow . You would think a ruler woud be pretty easy to get right
S. Sass reply :
On 7/11/2016 at 9:33 PM, scaleface said:Wow . You would think a ruler woud be pretty easy to get right
Not when you can't read English to start with and your country only uses the metric system. <Wink> 
d-camarena reply :
I actually used to work at a factory in mexico were we made a lot of shoes that are sold here in america. Let me tell you a lot of the people i worked with speaked very good english. I learned english in elementary school ib mexico. And we also had to learn the us measurment system in and out. I think this problem has more to do with a printing problem
Darren. reply :
Wow, that stinks.
I have two bump boards and tested both
with a measuring tape. Only one was juuuust
slightly off, but nothing like what you have.
I think the Hawg Trough is probably the one
used most - or from what I've seen. I've got
one and it's the most accurate of my two.
blckshirt98 reply :
Yikes, that sucks! Snap that board in half when you get a new one so it doesn't get sold or given away to someone else!
Evan K reply :
Wow, that's ridiculous! Like scaleface said, it would seem a ruler would be a pretty easy thing to get right. 
Sorry about the bad luck.
A-Jay reply :
Didn't see that one coming.
btw ~ Both my "Eye Ball" & my "Thumb Scale" always seems to read Way High.
So there's that . . . . .
A-Jay
"hamma" reply :
The old golden rule delema? That bites,., find the same ruler they use and leave it on the boat
fishballer06 reply :
And.... There goes all the kayak guys to buy these for their photograph and release tournaments.
A-Jay reply :
On 7/12/2016 at 1:00 AM, fishballer06 said:And.... There goes all the kayak guys to buy these for their photograph and release tournaments.
Here ya go ~
Let the Controversy begin . . . .
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=58564336
A-Jay
IndianaFinesse reply :
Had something similar happen to me during my first tournament. Three of my five bass were just barely keepers, fifteen inches on the mark. It turns out the guy measuring them measured with the tail flat instead of pinched like most people do, plus his board was a quarter inch shorter than ours, so he disqualified them. Talk about embarrassing, having most of your fish disqualified during your first tournament no less. Sorry about the tourney, hopefully next time you can go out and win it.
The photograph and release tournament guys thank you.
TxHawgs reply :
Field and stream junk, here is some nice quality boards. www.prorule.com
Turtle135 reply :
the one good thing about the Hawg Trough is that is delivers a consistent accurate length
GetBent reply :
The bend was messed where you place the fish's head more than likely. That sucks either way. Things like this make me measure my board before use. I wouldn't have known if people as unfortunate as you were didn't post stuff like this. Sucks that it happened to you but thanks for sharing.
frosty reply :
Take that tape measure with you when you get a replacement! This reminds me of an article I was reading about wood working, basically it says to use the same ruler for an entire project, so even if your ruler is off 1/8", your project will still be consistent. Seems these odd measurements aren't just for fishing
if you want one that is dead on, buy a 24" starret ruler. They are expensive, but very, very accurate.
JPascavage52 reply :
Thanks for the support everyone. Fortunately have two more district tournaments and Mr. Bass last chance to qualify, or I can qualify through my club if I place in the top five in total points.
Ended up taking it back to the store, and they gave me my money back for it. They also measured it against the other ones they had, and it seems that I just got a defective one. Just bad luck all around.
Master Bait'r reply :
I also own one of these and low & behold it was also off by about .25"
fishwizzard reply :
On 7/12/2016 at 7:55 AM, frosty said:Take that tape measure with you when you get a replacement! This reminds me of an article I was reading about wood working, basically it says to use the same ruler for an entire project, so even if your ruler is off 1/8", your project will still be consistent. Seems these odd measurements aren't just for fishing
if you want one that is dead on, buy a 24" starret ruler. They are expensive, but very, very accurate.
I worked in a fab shop the provided tools for us and somehow an "off" tape measure made it into our collection. It took like twoweeks of accusations and yelling for us to figure out to check all the tapes and low and behold one was almost an 1/8" short.
We took it out back after work and put it down with a 10lb sledge hammer.
frosty reply :
On 7/15/2016 at 11:37 PM, Bunnielab said:I worked in a fab shop the provided tools for us and somehow an "off" tape measure made it into our collection. It took like twoweeks of accusations and yelling for us to figure out to check all the tapes and low and behold one was almost an 1/8" short.
We took it out back after work and put it down with a 10lb sledge hammer.
I worked for a guy doing small construction jobs in high school and occasionally I'd cut a ceiling tile 5/8" short. After it happening several times in a day he started watching me cut them. We finally figured out one of the rivets in the end of the tape was catching the end of the tile. He promptly cut the end of the tape off and threw the whole thing in the trash
JPascavage52 reply :
On 7/15/2016 at 11:37 PM, Bunnielab said:I worked in a fab shop the provided tools for us and somehow an "off" tape measure made it into our collection. It took like twoweeks of accusations and yelling for us to figure out to check all the tapes and low and behold one was almost an 1/8" short.
We took it out back after work and put it down with a 10lb sledge hammer.
Lol, couldn't help but think of Office Space when I read that.
fishwizzard reply :
We were drinking beer and blasting rap, so you are not far off.
WIGuide reply :
That's an unfortunate way for a tournament to end! Most tournament officials will have their board out before the tournament starts so you can compare what you have to the official one to prevent things like this from happening.
J Francho reply :
On 7/12/2016 at 12:23 AM, Darren. said:I think the Hawg Trough is probably the one
used most - or from what I've seen.
The Hawg Trough would be difficult to screw up because the lines are in the mold, not printed after the fact. It's the defacto tool in the Kayak world, but in the boating tournament world, The Gator Grip Golden Rule is the rule. I believe that Gator Grip makes them in the USA.
HeavyDluxe reply :
Keep that board for when you want to impress us with your posts. ;-)
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