Tournament anglers and attitudes 2024
A5BLASTER reply :
Might be posting this in the wrong area and if so mods feel free to move it.
I want to ask this question to the members here.
What is it with tournament guys and their attitudes towards every day guys out fishing?
Maybe it's because the lake I live and fish on I'm not sure but it sure seems like there is a vast majority of guys that come here to fish tourny's that just have the nastiest attitudes.
Case in point there is a tourney going on today on the Bend and me and dad was out fishing yesterday evening and seen a boat fishing a spot we like to fish, no problem we went to a few other spots didn't think twice about it.
Flash forward to this morning we hit the water trying for some bass on the frog where we seen the boat fishing yesterday evening, nobody around just me and dad doing some fishing and talking, when this boat comes of plane in the boat run and turns and comes straight towards us..
He pulls up next to us and ask us what tourny we are fishing and what club we are with, I tell he we aren't fishing a tourny and we don't belong to any club we are just out doing some fishing.
He goes on to say he seen us watching him yesterday and that he thinks it's rude that we are fishing his spot and that we need to leave and he feels any bass we caught in that spot should be turned back because they are his, this is about the time I lose my cool and bust out laughing as loud and hard as I can.
I tell him what I think of his thoughts and attitude and where he can go stick himself.
He then goes on to tell us if we don't do as he say's he is going to call the warden's on us and have us check and mess up are fishing and get us a ticket, so as calm as I can I use the trolling motor to get my boat next to his and go to hand him my phone. He looks at me all crazy and ask me what I'm handing him my phone for, I tell him you can use my phone to call the warden's and when they get here he can explain why he is harrasing other fishermen. Then explain to him he can get his ticket for that while they are trying to find something to write us a ticket on.
He gets all butt hurt to put it politely and guns his motor and haul's butt away.
Sorry for going on a rant but what is it with some of these dude's ?
Ok rant over deep breath sip of coffee and drag on my cig.
A-Jay reply :
Tournament fisherman or not - a man's decisions, actions & attitudes will display his character & determine his reputation.
If this is how this human routinely conducts himself, eventually he may cross paths with a man who is less tolerant. A man who may not exercise the same restraint that you & your dad displayed here which could result in him needing facial reconstruction.
A-Jay
Hawkeye21 reply :
Pretty rude of him but I know it's a whole different mentality when fishing in a tourney. When it comes to money it can change everything. Some of those guys may just be fishing in i for some fun competition but others may actually rely on winning those tourneys as part of their yearly income. To a guy like that he's most likely thinking like he's working and you are preventing him from doing his job. He's not right by any means but I do understand his thinking.
If the story is accurate then I'd say you did nothing wrong and the other guys needs a reality check.
scaleface reply :
Hes just a jerk . Most tourney anglers are not like that . Hes probably fishing for tiny trophy and a handful of dollars too.
Catt reply :
Sounds like someone is insecure with his fish catching abilities!
NHBull reply :
I have seen things Like that, but on the flip side, there are a couple tournaments on my home lake and the competitors go out of their way to be friendly to the locals and give them room. The locals also enjoy the comp as the weight in spot is pretty good for a couple weeks ?
Darren. reply :
I've only encountered guys fishing in a kayak tourney and
they were totally chill. I even gave them some tips since
they'd not fished the lake before.
However, this is not the first "horror story" I've heard...
Handing him your phone was classic. A good way to counter
his rudeness.
Skeeter Dan reply :
On 6/3/2017 at 8:34 PM, A5BLASTER said:Might be posting this in the wrong area and if so mods feel free to move it.
I want to ask this question to the members here.
What is it with tournament guys and their attitudes towards every day guys out fishing?
Maybe it's because the lake I live and fish on I'm not sure but it sure seems like there is a vast majority of guys that come here to fish tourny's that just have the nastiest attitudes.
Case in point there is a tourney going on today on the Bend and me and dad was out fishing yesterday evening and seen a boat fishing a spot we like to fish, no problem we went to a few other spots didn't think twice about it.
Flash forward to this morning we hit the water trying for some bass on the frog where we seen the boat fishing yesterday evening, nobody around just me and dad doing some fishing and talking, when this boat comes of plane in the boat run and turns and comes straight towards us..
He pulls up next to us and ask us what tourny we are fishing and what club we are with, I tell he we aren't fishing a tourny and we don't belong to any club we are just out doing some fishing.
He goes on to say he seen us watching him yesterday and that he thinks it's rude that we are fishing his spot and that we need to leave and he feels any bass we caught in that spot should be turned back because they are his, this is about the time I lose my cool and bust out laughing as loud and hard as I can.
I tell him what I think of his thoughts and attitude and where he can go stick himself.
He then goes on to tell us if we don't do as he say's he is going to call the warden's on us and have us check and mess up are fishing and get us a ticket, so as calm as I can I use the trolling motor to get my boat next to his and go to hand him my phone. He looks at me all crazy and ask me what I'm handing him my phone for, I tell him you can use my phone to call the warden's and when they get here he can explain why he is harrasing other fishermen. Then explain to him he can get his ticket for that while they are trying to find something to write us a ticket on.
He gets all butt hurt to put it politely and guns his motor and haul's butt away.
Sorry for going on a rant but what is it with some of these dude's ?
Ok rant over deep breath sip of coffee and drag on my cig.
I'm in a club that has 30 something boats in it. I don't know of any one of them including my self that act that way. I think this guy is a jerk on the water and off the water.
A5BLASTER reply :
I haven't meet many that act this way but when I do it sure sticks with me.
I guess it bothered me more this time because dad was with me, he doesn't get to go fishing or hunting as much as he would like and when we do get to go I try to make the trip about him, it ruined it for him this morning and we just packed it in and head home, he doesn't deal well with this kind of stress and I didn't want to make it worse blowing my top.
In the end this too shall pass
Team9nine reply :
How many of those fancy Power Poles did this guy have on the back of his rig? 
A5BLASTER reply :
Lol he had a matching set plus two big flat screen fishfinder's up front and very colorful fishing jersey with all kinds of names on it.
Paint on his boat look like it had just finished drying.
In the end run he has to live with his actions and I can sleep well tonight knowing I tryed my best to handle the situation with as much class and humility that I could muster.
I wasn't always such a nice guy and it has taken years of work to leave such things behind me and looking back on it now it was behavior like this that held me back in life in so many ways.
Thanks for letting me vent gents feeling much better now.
Glenn reply :
The guy was rude and out of line, but so are a lot of drivers on the road. However, I'm sure you don't characterize ALL drivers as rude jerks. So too should you apply the same latitude towards tournament anglers.
Team9nine reply :
On 6/3/2017 at 10:56 PM, A5BLASTER said:Lol he had a matching set plus two big flat screen fishfinder's up front and very colorful fishing jersey with all kinds of names on it.
Paint on his boat look like it had just finished drying.
That's what I figured...2 Power Poles and a jersey is the sign of a professional who thinks he owns the water, or at least has a more deserving right to be there on the spot
If you had said he only had one, then that's a "wanna be" who likely doesn't know any better and was just emulating the behavior of the pros 
He can still be taught proper etiquette if intervention comes early enough, before he adds his second Power Pole.
If you had said he had no Power Poles, then that is just an everyday angler like us, but with a p••s poor attitude 
No help for him - just the way he is...
-T9 (jk, sort of...)
A5BLASTER reply :
Glenn, You are correct I shouldn't have worded my post to characterize all tournament guys like I did.
And not all of them or this way in fact the majority I have meet aren't just a few bad apples here and there.
Mike L reply :
I fish in more tournaments than most fish for fun, all as a co angler (matter of fact I'm typing this waiting in the bag line) and I can tell you without a doubt that guy is the exception to the rule.
Tournament co anglers are unique as we are fishing with strangers for 8 hrs and for the most part at thier mercy where we fish.
I've seen more problems with land and dock owners than other fisherman, tournament or local.
Sure, boaters will complain under thier breath about a local sitting on "thier spot" the same as they do if another competitor gets there first or won't leave in the time frame they feel they should.
And there is no difference in the guy with a 21ft wrapped Ranger with 2 PP, hydro wave, and 4 10" Garmins than there is with the guy in the 30yr old 18ft Carolina Skiff with a 75hp tiller.
That guy you encountered is as insecure in his ability to catch fish as he is in finding fish. He was looking for a conceived advantage that to him you took away.
I'm sure you made your Dad proud by the way you handled it. But its not even remotely representative of tournament anglers at all.
Mike
Mike L reply :
On 6/3/2017 at 11:06 PM, Team9nine said:
That's what I figured...2 Power Poles and a jersey is the sign of a professional who thinks he owns the water, or at least has a more deserving right to be there on the spot
If you had said he only had one, then that's a "wanna be" who likely doesn't know any better and was just emulating the behavior of the pros
He can still be taught proper etiquette if intervention comes early enough, before he adds his second Power Pole.
If you had said he had no Power Poles, then that is just an everyday angler like us, but with a p••s poor attitude
-T9 (jk, sort of...)
Really??
Mike
Team9nine reply :
On 6/4/2017 at 2:54 AM, Mike L said:Really??
Mike
Don't overlook all the smiley faces in my post, as well as the disclaimer (jk, sort of...) 
I've experienced plenty of people on the water that fit all those categories, as well as a bunch that haven't. All just good sarcasm...though I think the etiquette trend line has a negative slope compared to many years past.
-T9
Mike L reply :
On 6/4/2017 at 3:26 AM, Team9nine said:
Don't overlook all the smiley faces in my post, as well as the disclaimer (jk, sort of...)
I've experienced plenty of people on the water that fit all those categories, as well as a bunch that haven't. All just good sarcasm...though I think the etiquette trend line has a negative slope compared to many years past.
-T9
Agree
Mike
BassThumb reply :
On 6/3/2017 at 9:39 PM, Darren. said:I've only encountered guys fishing in a kayak tourney and
they were totally chill. I even gave them some tips since
they'd not fished the lake before.
However, this is not the first "horror story" I've heard...
Handing him your phone was classic. A good way to counter
his rudeness.
He could have very well "dropped" the phone in the lake, and there's nothing anyone could do about it. I would never hand an expensive piece of electronics to someone who has a bone to pick with me, especially while standing on a lake. Just asking for trouble.
Darren. reply :
On 6/4/2017 at 3:50 AM, BassThumb said:He could have very well "dropped" the phone in the lake, and there's nothing anyone could do about it. I would never hand an expensive piece of electronics to someone who has a bone to pick with me, especially while standing on a lake. Just asking for trouble.
True, but he didn't take the phone, it was the act I was
referring to. But yes, it'd be a costly proposition with a
person in a questionable mental state to follow through
handing him your iPhone/Android device. I wouldn't do
it but I'd probably make the overture OP did and say you
can call the police with my phone...but not let him. Say
you'll make the call for him.
Bluebasser86 reply :
I had a guy get an attitude with me in a tournament last year. It was a little tournament, 18 boats on a 2,500 acre lake for a few hundred dollars and a trophy. Me and @gardnerjigman were boat number 16, so a lot of the good spots were covered up by the time we got to go. We only had 1 spot that we'd even caught a single fish in prefishing, so we started near there and started fishing towards it. We caught a few fish and about the time a boat we hadn't seen rounded the corner fishing the same bank towards us, I put our first keeper in the boat. Pretty jacked to have a good fish first thing on a really tough lake, noticed the guy was fishing with we assumed was his son. We both commented on how cool that was and if we wanted to get beat by anyone that day, a father and son team wouldn't be bad. Then we went out and around the guy as we crossed paths, he said something to the affect of we must not fish tournaments often because if we did we'd know not to cut people off like we did. I was pretty shocked, my sentiment about losing to them flew out the window in a hurry. We'd been so far from him that I didn't even see their boat (at least 2.5 football fields of shoreline according to Google I later determined), but apparently that was too close for this guy. I spent the rest of the day doing my best Tommy Biffle impressions, and we put together 2 more keepers in the last 30 minutes and ended up winning, about 2 pounds in front of, Mr. Biffle Jr and Biffle Jr III. He even made a comment at weigh in if our fish had actually measured or not (they measure them at weigh in just like every other tournament ever). Still fires me up now because I take a lot of pride in my reputation as a fair person, to have it questioned like that really torched me.
To the OP, like others have said, that guy is a jerk regardless of what he's doing you can bet on that. Most tournament guys are good people. I've run into far more casual anglers that were either poor sportsmen, or just didn't know any better (but there's lots more casual anglers than tournament anglers so odds are it would work out that way). Being in a tournament gives someone no more right to the water than any other person, and the way he acted was ridiculous.
scaleface reply :
Theres a lot of animosity toward tournament type anglers , especially from those stupid perch jerkers with the dog in the boat .
david in va reply :
what you don't like dogs
slonezp reply :
Kudos to the OP, I would have lost my cool.
gimruis reply :
On 6/4/2017 at 3:50 AM, BassThumb said:He could have very well "dropped" the phone in the lake, and there's nothing anyone could do about it. I would never hand an expensive piece of electronics to someone who has a bone to pick with me, especially while standing on a lake. Just asking for trouble.
That's where I thought the story was going when I got to that part. If he was that big of a jerk, he would have taken your phone and either 1) kept it, or 2) tossed it in the lake.
OCdockskipper reply :
My 2 cents is that it is the structured competition, not the money, that brings out the jerk in some people. Whether it be fishing, bowling, golf, bike riding, any activity where non-professionals can participate in a competition as if they were a professional, a different mindset comes into play. It is a mindset filled with erroneous assumptions that help process the jerkiness of some. I believe these assumptions are:
- The tournament, no matter the size, is important and therefore those who are in it are important;
- Those in the tournament have spent money to do so, meaning they are more serious and better at the activity than those not in the tournament;
- Those not in the tournament are an obstruction and should defer to those in the tournament.
This doesn't happen to just non-pro's, Mike Iaconelli portrays that mindset every time he is on the water. His display on the first day of the Classic was embarrassing to everyone but him.
Here in Southern California, we have a lot of roads & not much water, so I run into (not literally) more bicyclists who believe they are in the Tour de France than bass anglers who think they are competing in the Classic. They portray the same rudeness & condescension as the dual power pole/jersey wearers that T-9 so aptly described.
Think about the difference of some parents reaction and interaction to their kids playing baseball in some random park compared to a Little League game and I believe you have an illustration of the self-importance some put in organized competition.
SMcLamb reply :
@OCdockskipper the worst part of the Classic that I saw wasn't the Ike attitude but chris Zaldains wife Trait who also fished professionally. Her Instagram story for every day of the tournament was pictures or videos of casual fishermen complaining that they don't belong on the lake during the tournament and if a tournament angler shows up they need to move. I fish 20+ tournaments a year and understand my level of importance on the water is the same as everyone else out there, it's public and I have no rights to any spots. I have had people fishing the same tournaments as me pull up to a spot I've been on for an hour and want me to move because they prefished it and I have no problem telling them no. You get there first it's yours.
J Francho reply :
There's jerks in every walk of life. No need to brand tournament anglers this way. I see more jerk moves on the water from recreational anglers than anything else. I just chalk it up to not knowing any better. Most of them are panfish anglers, and I think they're used to fishing really close to each other.
Scott F reply :
The bad apples of the tournament world I'm sure make up just a small minority of the total number of tournament anglers. I just must be extremely unlucky that I run into so many. They aren't limited to bass tournaments though. Musky tournies have their share of rude fishermen. Their rude tactics do work though. I've had enough bad encounters that I stay off lakes on weekends. I do have to say that these guys have given me a negative attitude about how I feel about fishing tournaments as a whole. It bothers me that I can't fish when I'd like because of tournaments and the risk that one of those guys is going to ruin my day.
Angry John reply :
I have met rude people every day of my life. It's no diffrent on the water than on the road. If I was retired I would never fish the weekend and just do something else. Fishing during the week is more peaceful and more productive in my experience. Me and my partner are both very conservative and give people wide berth. I will haze jerks when they act stupid, but that's rare and I am happy most people just want to have a good time.
OCdockskipper reply :
On 6/10/2017 at 2:33 AM, SMcLamb said:...the worst part of the Classic that I saw wasn't the Ike attitude but chris Zaldains wife Trait who also fished professionally. Her Instagram story for every day of the tournament was pictures or videos of casual fishermen complaining that they don't belong on the lake during the tournament...
I didn't see that, but agree that is gross. For her to post that shows a complete lack of awareness of how wrong she really is, kind of like the parent at the little league game screaming at the umpire.
As an aside, Trait (Crist) Zaldain is a "professional fisherman" in the same way that many people waiting tables call themselves "actors" and gamblers who continually lose call themselves "professional poker players". She has the uniform & shows up at the event, but that is about it.
Lures'n'Liberty reply :
I've always had a theory that directly compared the size of the stacks on a diesel pickup truck to the size of "other things" (don't want to go violating site rules, lets just call it a wee wee with emphasis on "wee"). I guess the same goes for power poles and will in turn hypothesize that this dude was angry because he's hung like a tic tac.
As far as the phone thing goes, I have used that line several times in a previous life working as a repo man. If they said they'd call the cops while I was there with a legitimate repossession order, when the cops came I always left with the car. That said, I handed them the company phone, not my personal one. I never had one thrown and I did have the police find 56 stamp bags of heroin and a couple needles in a debtor's car after they called the police on their own phone. They went to jail and things got complicated, as the police had the car impounded and I didn't get to pick it up for 2 weeks until their preliminary hearing was over. As an employee of a big company, though, I was threatened writeups for refusing to do unsafe things a couple times. Each time I heard "I'm going to have to write you up," they heard "here, use my pen." Never once did they take the pen.
RichF reply :
Some people just suck. What boat he/she owns has no bearing on that. Some of the nicest people I've ever met on the water ride around in $60k rigs while some of the worst have moss growing on their deck carpet and ride around the lake with no cowl on their motor. The guy in the OP's tournament would've been a butthead no matter what boat he was driving around in.
J Francho reply :
..and we're done here.
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