Tough Bite – I Did Not Fish, See Fishing Notes Re: PB2 Fishing To Win

Today I was not on the water as I have my boat out of the water having a new transducer put on my front graph and getting the boat cleaned up ahead of my trip to Tablerock Sunday to prepare for a full week for the FLW BFL next weekend. Stay tuned for some fishing reports from Tablerock as well as Rob’s Bass reports and other fisherman reports on Lake of the Ozarks. If you get out and fish, it would be very helpful and appreciated while I am gone from the lake if you can post your report on the website or send my your info via email, bob@bassingbob.com or call or text me at 314-575-5545.

I had many many emails regarding my comments from the Wednesday night tournament with cash checkers fishing outside of PB2. I appreciate all of your feedback. Most messages were understanding of the need/desire to broaden the off limits fishing area outside of PB2 for most tournaments. I did have some messages and conversations with many fisherman that have some good arguments about that issue. As I stated in my Wednesday night report, the fact is that area is not off limits and thus legally fishable, that is absolutely correct and for some fisherman that is part of a legitimate fishing game plan to win or cash a check. There have been pro’s in pro tournaments that have fished for retreads to win a tournament, while most just simply will not do that it is a legitimate game plan. Many tournament directors have indicated that it is too hard to police/administer the off-limit zones, while that is understandable, I think that fisherman for the most part are honest and will respect those off-limits and if not, know that the other competitive fisherman will be watching and if someone is cheating, that would/should be reported by another angler in the tourney. Finally, at the end of the day like many things in life, it comes down to money. There are many products manufacturers that will pay you if you win a tournament with a certain number of boats for which you are sponsored by the manufacturer, this is mostly true of boat, motor, trolling motor and graph makers. This past Wednesday night tournament qualified for some of those manufacturers, with a minimum of 30 boats and you win you can get a bigger check from those products sponsors. I do respect the capabilities of the fisherman that won, I know they can catch em other legitimate ways and fishing outside of an off limits area is a legal and legitimate way to catch em and cash a check. I just know that for me personally, I would just not feel right doing that and would feel kind of embarrassed if I did that all tournament. That is not to say that I would not fish nearby at the end of a tournament while I still had some time before weigh-in. Another very good comment was that there are many released fish within a couple of miles of PB2, thus how far do you go with the off-limits. So, again thank you all for your comments, most of the comments were overwhelmingly in support of the distain for fisherman to fish those areas, however, there is always another side of that coin to consider, which are also valid viewpoints.