What I feel is an alarming trend

[bassmaster]

the day that mark is referring to we were both actually on the water, fishing 11 miles apart, experiencing the exact same activities in question.
we would talk on the phone and snicker about the 'wrapped boats, the patched up shirts, the thousands of dollars worth of rods reels , and the million dollar attitudes. the reason i say snicker is this....you couldnt have held a gun to these guys heads and get a simple polite conversation out of them.....all the while mark and i are texting pics back and forth of big ol pig smallmouth. as a matter of fact one young man that was doing some gps work for a tournament the next day was polite enough to have a conversation with me....i gave him 2 bags of the plastic i was catching my fish on, im sure given the opportunity mark would have done the same thing. its funny how little we can see with our noses stuck high in the air. get over yourself
if you need to "think' youre better than me....MORE POWER TO YOU....im just here to let you be you.
BUT....when you ACT out like you are better than me? well we just found a problem.
when this is simultaneously happening to 2 different boats that are 11 miles apart there is alot more than coincidence going on here.
i guess its just the mere high concentration of anglers at one time on one lake that raises your chances of running across a poor representative of the sport....and what better high concentration of anglers than a big tournament. kind of like bumping into a pothead at a grateful dead concert....your chances are greatly elevated
tournament anglers, guides, pleasure fishermen, hardcore meat hunters all have their own bad actors, nobody cornered the market on being a jerk. you just dont see enormous groups of meat hunters, or pleasure fishermen so highly concentrated, so yes the tx angler is right out in front in the spotlight. everything about him is high profile, boats, trucks and poor sportsmanship.
as dave stewart said in one post, i have chosen not to fish on certain days throughout the year, holidays, nice weather saturdays, big tournament days etc etc. its just easier and safer to to avoid those high traffic days. one of my fishing partners says he isnt going to let anybody run him off the lake, he has just as much right to be there as anybody. hes missing the point, im not going to do anything i dont enjoy, and i just dont enjoy the crowds.
like mark the overwhelming "vibe" and exposure to the tx anglers practicing on that particular day was completely negative. you would have thought they were competing for a spot in the bassmaster classic, the pressure was causing them to be a person they wouldnt be any other day.

Agree BUT to group ALL tourney anglers in this category as some do is just wrong. I fish tourneys and they act they are better than me sometimes and you know what "sometimes" they are but I don't let any of that bother me. They have the problem not me nor you. I just don't see the difference in a "jerk (aka tourney fisherman)" killing fish or a preacher doing it which is the message I get on here. Jeff you my friend are as good as it gets as far as hunting and fishing BUT most importantly........is having priorities in the right place for me it's God, Family, and Friends, I don't let others dictate my "fun", hey, the bait shop is always full but I still go in there even if "the pros" are there. Later my friend.

[wishniwasfishn]

You know its bad when your fishing on Nolin, and having a good day fishing a long point that you really cant see unless you know its there, or work the area with a graph, and a couple of nut sacks pull up to you, in their high dollar boat, full of stickers, and they have their tournament jerseys on, we all know the sponsors, mom, dad, and grandpa, and a bowling alley, and some local mom and pop beer store, real world sponsors, and tell you that you are on their spot, they were saving it for tomorrow's tournament, and that they had found this particular spot in Briers creek about 2 weeks ago, and ask you not to catch their fish......this is no lie, it happened to me about 4 years ago....well while they were TELLING me, not asking me not to fish there, I set the hook on a nice 4lber, talk about karma, you should of seen the look on their faces......told them I would be back tomorrow with my anchor, and I would be there ALL DAY crappie fishing.....I thought one of them was going to cry, and the other one was going to shoot me!!!, They turned around, shot me a rooster tail, and left. I was back there the next day before the sunrise, and I anchored my boat, took my wife, and we sat there and crappie fished till about 2:30, and these guys rode by about 20 times, they fished all around me, but couldn't get to the sweet spot, I was sitting right on top of it.....The bad thing is, if they would of been nice, would of gladly moved, and let them fish, and told them how to catch the fish. I use to fish tournaments, and met a lot of great guys, and met a lot of guys I would pee on if they were on fire.....I don't think its fair to group them all together, but I have to say it has gotten a lot worse in the last 4 years, considerably worse.....

[mhall]

Agree BUT to group ALL tourney anglers in this category as some do is just wrong. I fish tourneys and they act they are better than me sometimes and you know what "sometimes" they are but I don't let any of that bother me. They have the problem not me nor you. I just don't see the difference in a "jerk (aka tourney fisherman)" killing fish or a preacher doing it which is the message I get on here. Jeff you my friend are as good as it gets as far as hunting and fishing BUT most importantly........is having priorities in the right place for me it's God, Family, and Friends, I don't let others dictate my "fun", hey, the bait shop is always full but I still go in there even if "the pros" are there. Later my friend.

Tim of everything said on here and the real intent of this thread you took away that Tournament fishermen kill more bass than regular fisherman sorry man I don't get that at all. That is where this post went but certainly not how it started or what it was meant for.

I see some of your points but I think you are missing some of ours. My original intent of this thread was to bring some food of thought to ''Are we having too many tournaments on any one given lake per year''...............And I still say we are.

Have a good one bro

[bassmaster]

Tim of everything said on here and the real intent of this thread you took away that Tournament fishermen kill more bass than regular fisherman sorry man I don't get that at all. That is where this post went but certainly not how it started or what it was meant for.

I see some of your points but I think you are missing some of ours. My original intent of this thread was to bring some food of thought to ''Are we having too many tournaments on any one given lake per year''...............And I still say we are.

Have a good one bro

Hey man, I know you didn't relate the fish killing thing but there are several posts here that have. You and Jeff talked about those guys attitude and I just stated that IF I want to go fishing and choose to do so on those days where I know there will be alot of tourney guys, pontoons, jet skis, houseboats, cabin cruisers. AND all the other fisherman, I'm not gonna let that stop me from having fun no matter the circumstances. People have attitudes, tourney fishermen or not. Ask yourself this question, if they did cut these tourneys back(not saying they shouldn't), will you still go fishing if all those boats that would have fished a tourney are just down there fishing and not in a tourney? I see your point, there maybe shouldn't be so many tourneys, but I can tell you, most guys I know will still go fishing.......so they still will be there to contend with.......I just don't let it bother me
Have a good one.