Tournament ethics

I'M in a quandary......I was out walleye fishing this morning on Lake Butte des Morts. i was by myself and running three planer boards, about 150ft off a rocky point on the north end of Gull Island. The Big bucks Bass tournament boats left Winneconne heading for Lake Winnebago, and two boats cut between me and Gull Island. They're running 50 - 60mph and despite my frantic hand waving, they ran over one of my lines, stripping 1000ft of Berkely Trilene off my reel, stripping the gears in my Okuma Convector, and making off with my #5 Salmo Hornet and my Offshore Planer board. I feel incredibly violated, and i apparently have absolutely NO recourse. I went to the weigh-in and tried to explain my plight and no one seemed at all interested. Running as fast as they were, I wasn't able to get any identifying information off the boat. It seems a shame that tournament payouts seem to be so high that fisherman will totally ignore common fishing and boating courtesies. I'm so angry right now I'm just not sure what to do........

I think their may also be a species difference here. How many bass fishermen ever pulled boards. Just an idea, but either way wide open that close to you isn't right either.

I would agree that the "bad" tournament apples are far fewer than the good ones. But, that said, I do feel many tournament guys feel superior to the Joe Fisherman. Or, anyone not in the tournament. As always, I also feel that with many tournaments and tourney guys, the "fish" is secondary to all other aspects of the game. SR

I've had recreational anglers cut me off in a 12 Jon Boat so it's not an exclusive thing of tournament guys!

I will say, not all guys are like this - just like everything else, only the 10% are bad, giving them all bad names. I have seen, where in a bass tourney on lake WI, we were fishing in the middle of the river. There were about 8 boats that came by us with the number on the windshield, assuming they were all in the tourney. 7 went down to a no-wake speed, very courteous. The 8th guy - wide open 55+mph and within 50' of us. The one bad apple.

Experience the same type of thing in our neck of the waters! They have absolutely NO courtesy for other anglers on the water! It seems that if they're out there, THEY have themselves convinced that they own the water!! I've been a tournament angler myself for many of years, not bass though and can honestly say that I've NEVER done that!! If I/we see pleasure anglers out there, we make it a point to be more courteous!! We'll do our best to stay far enough away, as NOT to cause problems like 1/2 swamping others or cutting their lines. As a deterent, some of the tournaments have rules in place, that if we're caught/reported doing things like that, we WILL get Penalty Points and in some cases possibly be disqualified from that tournament and suspended from others. Depending on the severity of the infraction or incident. I can assure you, I have NO problem with that either. Seems a lot of those running & gunning like that have LONG FORGOTTEN how they first started. Except of course, for those that were born with a silver spoon and given everything they ever wanted and never had to start with nothing & work their way up. Experience on the water over the years, both as a recreational & tourn. angler has proven this to be true, way more often than not. Very sad and unfortunate that those type of tourn. anglers give ALL tourn. anglers a bad name!