moral or ethical tournament fishing

[QUOTE=barryj;341429]most of todays good money tournaments are not on an even playing field especially for the angler that works 5 to 6 days a week.i have always said someone needs to start a tournament trail where you are off limits to the lake one week prior to the tournament day.you would start seeing different anglers at the weigh in scales instead of the guys that live on the water.[/QUOTE]
agree with this,i see guys in clubs go to ky lake for a 2 day tournament that will pay less than 600 to win,they go down 2 days early and hire a guide,sometimes it works sometimes it don't..but for what..would love to see some tournament off limits

The only problem with tournament off limits I would never get to pre-fish. I usually have to take a day off work the day before fish and stay down at the lake because it is cheaper to get a Roach Coach Motel than to drive back home and then back to the lake the next morning.

[quote=Fishin is life;341449]Agreed. I fish small a small town bass club and get no greater thrill than carrying the fish to the scale. Does it help to cash a check every once in a while, sure. But if you are fishing solely for the money, you aren't a fisherman, you're a businessman. I love the sport and will probably never make it big, but I will continue to fish "my" fish, win lose or draw.[/quote]

i like the way you put it. to me fishing is the ultimate stragic game. whoever has the best game plan, the most knowledge, and the most luck should win, not who has the most money. im not saying thats its wrong to hire a guide, im saying its wrong to hire a guide right before a tournament, you know that there going to be right back on the spots the guide showed them.

If a person is fishing unfamiliar waters especally those that could be hard to navigate, ie; some of the Florida lakes and lakes like Santee Cooper, that is very hard to navigate if you do not know it, and others like it, hiring a guide is not a bad idea if you can afford it, for none other than saftey reasons. I wished that I could have afforde to hire a guide at the Fed Nation South Div at Santee, the lake was low and very very hard to navigate, and I spent the majority of pre fishing time just learing how to get from point A to B. I like to find my own fish also but if you are fishing a big money tourny and need the check and have limited time, a guide is a help, it would be more cost efficent as most guides cost less than a couple tanks of gas, but it has its pros and cons. Most tourney fisher's and fun fisher's nevr turn down info, whether you admit it or not, we all check reports and discussion boards to see where and what they are doing, and now with all the new info avilable, a lot of prefishing can be done at home,Google earth is a big help to just get a look at the lay of the lake. So is hiring a guide unethical or unmoral, no, as fishing is fishing and the fishing is always changing.