I'll make one more post, then you can have the last word,then we should take this to email and quit boring everyone else here.

Technically, they did not steal, as they did not win any money.

They can still be banned. You see every single tournament rules I've ever read says that being allowed to fish in the tourney is at the discretion of the tournament director... or something very similar. What that means is they can, the tournament directors, just decide not to accept the entry. Thus they are banned.

Now as for sticking your head in the sand... ranting and raving on this board is not doing a thing to correct the situation. Heck, only a handful of us know who you really are, so even the accused don't know how to face their accuser, in this case you.

If you really want to make a difference, then you need to organize some sort of action, not rant and rave. You can organize some sort of political lobby... you can petition the state to ban buddy tournies. Of course that is a slippery slope. Just complaining and going against the rules of the board owners are not constructive ways to express your concerns, or to address making corrections. You can also choose to not participate in any tourney that is not a draw tourney. You can try to organize other anglers to do the same, and you can try to do away with these buddy tournies.

I am pretty sure at this point the people who put on these tournies all know who the anglers in question are.

Think of it this way... picture a small circle, then picture a larger circle around the smaller one. The small circle represents your circle of control. This is the things in life you can control. These you can do something about. The larger circle contains all things in life that affect you, but are out of your control. These things affect you, but you can not do any thing to influence them. You now have a small circle, your circle of influence, and a large circle that you have no influence over. If you spend your time concentrating on your small circle, you circle of influence, you will be able to make changes that affect your life. if you spend time talking about the larger circle, your circle of concern, if you will, you are only worrying about that which you have no control over.

Now it needs to be said that the above concept is not mine, and is paraphrased from the 7 habits of highly affective people book.

So, what is in your circle of concern, that is not in your circle of influence? Well, the rules of the board for one. We are all affect by them, we are all concerned with them, but only a couple have any influence over them. Those two are Peter and Jim D. Also in that circle of concern, but not your circle of influence is the two guys accused of cheating. you have no control over their trial, you have no control over whether they get into tournaments, other than those that are put on by organizations that you belong to, such as SOKY.

What that means is that we need to let go this whole discussion on the board. I'll galdly talk with you over email. I'll let you have the last word in a reply, then I'll ask one of the other moderators to lock the thread if any other posts are made in regard to the incident.

As for fishing with you guys.... man I want to so baddly. there are reasons I'm not doing it this year, but hopefully next.

We can talk via phone if you want, or email, but I will be back with you guys some time, I hope!!!!

Danny