Another Big Money Tournament disqualification

[Fishing Report]

New Poco Bueno winner declared; disqualified team objects
Crew members claim committee decision is unjustified




* By ALBERT ALVARADO
* Originally published July 18, 2010 at 9:54 p.m., updated July 18, 2010 at 11:25 p.m.



Controversy capped this year's high-stakes Poco Bueno fishing tournament.

The tournament committee stripped the Marlin Majic of its 2010 Blue Marlin Championship this weekend, giving the Whap Bam Boom team the tournament title.

Jordan Adams of Marlin Majic contended Sunday that his team didn't break any rules when it brought in a 476.5-pound blue marlin and the committee is not justified in disqualifying his team.

"It was a sloppy catch, but it was a legal sloppy catch," Adams said.

The controversy stems over when Adams' team gaffed the fish Friday and what is considered a catch by International Game Fish Association rules.

A gaff is a large iron hook attached to a pole or handle and used to land large fish.

While some competitors claim the Marlin Majic gaffed the fish in the water, Adams said the fish was gaffed on the boat, then jumped off the boat and back into the water, where the crew gaffed the fish a second time.

According to IGFA rules, once a fish is gaffed on a boat, it is considered a catch, Adams said, and he contends the committee made a ruling based on a situation not covered in the IGFA rule book.

"The IGFA rules and the tournament rules say nothing about what happened; it says once you gaff a fish, it's a caught fish," Adams said.

Since the Marlin Majic was disqualified, first place in the tournament went to Whap Bam Boom, who brought in a 465-pound blue marlin.

Port Lavaca native Michael Walker of the eight-member Whap Bam Boom had mixed feelings about the win because Adams is his friend.

Big money is at stake. Organizers said this year's total cash prize reached $1.37 million.

When asked about the amount of money the Whap Bam Boom won, Walker said he was "pretty sure" it was $500,000. He said the team won 51 percent of the total prize.

"I don't want to say bittersweet, but something like it because Jordan Adams is a friend of mine and my heart goes out to the guy," Walker said. "Jordan was honest about how they caught the fish. Jordan was a great sport - he came up to me first and shook my hand and said congratulations."

Attempts to contact Whap Bam Boom's captain, Nate Forbes, were unsuccessful as his voice mailbox was full.

Adams said he doesn't have a problem with Walker or any of the other competitors.

"I got no beef with anybody. It's the tournament committee that did us wrong, not the Whop Bam Boom," Adams said.

Tournament committee members could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Adams said he had a problem with the decision and how his team was informed of the disqualification.

The Marlin Majic heard it was disqualified over the boat radio Saturday morning, Adams said, and he called a friend back on land to try to set up a meeting with the committee.

"We were the last in line to hear that we were disqualified," Adams said.

Adams was concerned that the committee disqualified his team before it had a chance to hear his team's side of the story.

"We were actually disqualified before we had a meeting with the committee," Adams said. "Judging on just complaints and hearsay they disqualified us before, they even talked to us. That's just crazy."

Adams said the committee told the crew it spoke with someone "high up" in the IGFA regarding the situation Saturday, but organizers wouldn't tell the team who it spoke with or give details about the conversation.

Adams wants something more solid than an assurance by the committee that his team committed an infraction.

"Yeah, someone can say something, but put it in writing. We want to see it in writing," Adams said. "They couldn't give us anything, any reason. It's a gray area. After the fact when a fish is gaffed there is no more rules after that."

Tournament inspectors looked at the fish Friday to make sure the wounds were consisted with a gaff wound, Adams said, and the fish passed inspection. Since the fish passed inspection and there is nothing in the IGFA rule book about the situation, the team didn't feel a need to share its story Friday, Adams said.

It is unlikely the Marlin Majic and its members will enter the Poco Bueno again despite the tournament's prominence and tradition.

"I honestly don't think any of us are going to fish it anymore. We're pretty upset about the whole deal," Adams said.

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news...071910_104087/

[FAT CAT MX]

So, the fish was "boated" twice - there's no infraction of the IGFA rules.

[Patudo]

Some guidance really needs to come from the IGFA regarding the IGFA rules, given how often they are used as a template in tournaments. Or the tournaments themselves should look at potential fuzzy areas and try and resolve it themselves.

From reading the article, it sounds as though the fish somehow managed to jump out of the boat after gaffing (!!!!) and was gaffed in the water (by someone who swam out to gaff it???).

I cannot find anything in the IGFA rules that states that "there is no more rules than that" after the fish is gaffed, or that "once you gaff a fish, it's a caught fish". If I make a bad gaff shot or the fish is just too strong and the gaff pulls out, I could not pick up for example a harpoon, stick the fish with that, and stay within the rules. I must fight the fish back to the gaff according to the rules. The fish is only caught when it is totally secured.

There is a rule that anyone leadering or gaffing a fish hooked by a shore or wading angler must be within a rod's length of the angler. But I cannot find anything within the rules that states the fish must be gaffed from the boat. I would guess the IGFA thought that a gaff man jumping into the water and trying to gaff the fish in the water would do more harm than good to his angler's chances of catching the fish.

[Capt Josh]

I just can't believe that these tournament committees are going down this road. All kill tournaments should go with the simple formula of biggest fish caught with a rod and reel on the dock wins, period.

It's getting to the point where crews are going to need a full-time lawyer onboard before, during, and after the fishing to ensure they abide by the myriad and often ambiguously complicated "rules".

What a joke.

[Patudo]

The rules themselves are not really to blame. They were drawn up in an age where big game fishing was led by a small group of gentlemen who were proud of their strict sense of sporting ethics and fair play. They were not meant to cover tournaments where hundreds of participants compete for millions of dollars.

I still think if you compete in an IGFA tournament you damn well better know all the rules. Just like if you're playing a pro baseball or football game or any other sport where big money or honours are at stake. Sport fishing is not the only sport with complex rules.

It would not hurt either if the IGFA or the individual tournament published their view of potentially troublesome practices and situations such as were encountered in the Poco Bueno.

[puroagave]

Sounds like they looked at it as if they free gaffed a fish. Once it jumped out or fell back into the water if then gaffed again when it was not hooked. That's just nuts. And why would tell the committe what happend? I didn't think there was anything in IGFA rules where you cannot gaff a fish multiple times?

Patudo has a very good point. When these rules were written it was a completly different game.

[BahamaLure]

It's hard to divine from the article what really happened, but it sounds like the fish escaped back into the water [I am assuming here that it was no longer attached to the line] and was then free-gaffed to retrieve it.

Based on that assumption and no other evidence it would be a disqualification as the fish was no longer 'caught' because it was swimming unattached to the gaff, rod and reel. For them to then legally catch the fish it would need to eat another bait and be fought again.

[striper swiper]

It's hard to divine from the article what really happened, but it sounds like the fish escaped back into the water [I am assuming here that it was no longer attached to the line] and was then free-gaffed to retrieve it.

Based on that assumption and no other evidence it would be a disqualification as the fish was no longer 'caught' because it was swimming unattached to the gaff, rod and reel. For them to then legally catch the fish it would need to eat another bait and be fought again.

They landed it it slide out jumped out whatever and secured it again? This is how they were DQ'ed?? I don't see the infraction.

[Dismissed]

We were fishing about a mile from them when all of this happened. The article posted is inaccurate in several areas. From what the committee, as well as several captains fishing RIGHT NEXT to them, said, they wired and stuck the fish, the gaff pulled and the leader broke, then after "some time and distance", the fish surfaced floundering, was run upon and stuck again. When presented with this, the team agreed that this is what happened. Really sucks for the team, but IMO, the committee was right. They free-gaffed the fish.

[Fishing Report]

Poco ruling no bueno with snubbed anglers
Marlin Majic owner denies IGFA President conversation accounts


* BY ALBERT ALVARADO
* Originally published July 20, 2010 at 10:06 p.m., updated July 20, 2010 at 11:05 p.m.

PORT O'CONNOR - Controversy continues to surround the outcome of last weekend's Poco Bueno offshore fishing tournament.

On Tuesday, conflicts arose about the conversation between Wayne Brock, the owner of the Marlin Majic, and Rob Kramer, president of International Game Fishing Association.

Brock's boat brought in the winning marlin on Friday, but the title was stripped from them Saturday when the Poco Bueno committee ruled the boat crew violated tournament rules surrounding the landing of the fish.

They awarded the 2010 Blue Marlin Championship to Whap Bam Boom's 465-pound fish.

Brock contacted the association Monday to clarify the rule that the Poco Bueno committee used as the basis for disqualifying their fish.

The association told Brock based on his account the fish was not successfully gaffed.

"They attempted to gaff the fish and the fish got away, that's what he told me," Kramer said.

Brock maintained the 476.5-pound marlin was gaffed before it got away.

"I never told him it was an unsuccessful gaff," Brock said. "If it was an unsuccessful gaff it wouldn't have penetrated the skin."

The tournament committee received handwritten protest letters recounting eyewitness accounts of the incident in question, according to a news release from Poco Bueno Tournament Director Walter W. Fondren IV on Monday.

Fondren said by e-mail Tuesday the facts of Monday's news release have not been disputed. "The Poco Bueno Committee stands by our decision."

Poco Bueno is not affiliated witrh the IGFA. Its rules apply only for fish submitted to the organization for world records. Kramer said if the fish caught by Marlin Majic was submitted for a record, it would have been disqualified.

"Absolutely, unequivocally the fish would have been denied a record," Kramer said.

The association was developed seven years ago for record fish.

Because the Marlin Majic's marlin wasn't submitted for a record, the IGFA does not have to intervene on the situation, Kramer said.

Although many fishing tournaments use IGFA rules as a basis for their events, tournament committees aren't obligated to follow the rules.

"That would be up to the tournament. That's not up to IGFA because this is not a record situation. This is a tournament situation," Kramer said.

A gaff is a rod or pole with a large hook attached to the end used to land a large fish.

Under IGFA rule No. 14, the rule quoted in the disqualification, a catch will be disqualified "if a fish escapes before gaffing or netting and is recaptured by any method other than as outlined in the angling rules."

Although Kramer said Brock told him Monday that the gaff was unsuccessful, Marlin Majic angler Jordan Adams contends the marlin was gaffed on the side of the boat, became separated from the gaff and leader and jumped back into the water, where the crew gaffed it a second time.

Adams contends the rule does not define what a successful gaff is.

"The rule book they have is so vague," Adams said. "They don't state that anywhere in the rule book."

Kramer said that gaffing is a process and a successful gaff would have resulted in the fish being brought back to the dock.

"Whether or not the hook of the gaff pierces the fish is irrelevant," Kramer said. "Based upon what we were told there was an attempt to gaff the fish and bring the fish onboard and the fish escaped during the process."

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news...072110_104338/