TOPIC:

Congrats to Melton for taking the big win and Plane to Sea for 2nd. Plane to Sea also won the big prize pack provided by Slez's bait shop. Slez has provided awesome prize packs for every tournament this year!

Just realized you got a new boat. Congrats.

I would agree with safecracker. The tournament should not of been ago. We ended up gettin a crew memeber sick and another that hit his head, slipping on a wet deck as we were trying to make way.. 2 strikes I'm out. Turned around and went back in. Never set aline so I could of stayed at the on shore and donated my money. This isn't fun fishing. Not what we are suppose to be about. Kinda like a bowling league? Would you go bowling if the lanes were tore up and couldn't roll the ball down the lane? I know of one mod who wanted to put this off or run it on a day like today. But I'm just one voice and I don't seem to get much traction so, We will not be fishing anymore fun tournaments. There is no reason to fish a tournamnet that is suppose to be based on fun in conditions like they were. Everyone new the fish were 20-30 miles off shore.

Way to go Mark!

Yes the weather sucked, it was drastically different than the forecast, I had a great time! Thanks for organizing this Jeff, and good luck with the new boat!. I was really cool to meet everyone and I am looking forward to the next one.

Jeff - you contradict yourself about the waves. I was present to a conversation about whether to cancel a tournament or not. There was never a 3' wave height mentioned. Maybe amongst your in we circle but to the public it was about everyone being able to fish. It's for fun you said. 3' waves limit a lot of boats that are on this forum. That was the point, right? To get guys involved that wouldn't feel comfortable fishing in the Coho club.

Secondly, I never said your boat. I know you were in steves boat. You didn't answer if you would have taken the Stratos that far out if you were still in that boat?

"Fun tournament" is something you've preached since I signed up on this board 2 years ago.

Nothing about 25 miles in threes is fun.

Tough to run tournaments for this reason. What's fishable and fun to some vary and cancelling a tournament at the last minute is difficult because sometimes people spend a lot of time building a crew and maybe even taking off work so then people get pissed about that too. Always going to be some guys on shore going "it's not that bad". I've seen plenty of guys in sub 20 boats in 4 footers while I'm sitting at the dock with a 27. I will say that I don't buy the bouy height as being a valid as the bouy in South Haven said 2.3 and waves that were supposedly a little over my knee were rolling over my bow on the way out at 5:45 eastern. I always figure at least a foot higher than what the bouy says with a few higher ones mixed in.

Hope things work out better for everyone next time.

I agree it's a tough call when everyone is there ready to go. It is a catch 22 if you push it the morning of or hold off for an hour or too. These events were originally set to allow anyone that posts on this board a chance to compete if they want too. I do agree with regulator when the buoys are reading wave heights I look at that number as an average wave height of the larger waves. There are always a few much bigger than what the buoy is reading once the lake gets rolling good. I have spoken with Jeff and I believe we are going to all sit down and talk about all the different weather conditions that can happen, the day before, morning of and while the tournament is in progress and what decisions will be made. It has not been determined yet but I would like to see it all in writing and posted as a sticky so everyone can see it. So that way if a tournament is pushed or delayed no one can complain. Since these tournaments are not set up like a big tournament. In the same respect I don't think the lake was dangerous but maybe it opens our eyes a little and forces us to make a protocols that everyone knows so there are no surprises.

I feel for the guys who organize tournaments. One call either way has people mad about that call. Me personally would never travel 20-30 miles to fish in a "fun" tournament. If that is the only option for catching fish I'll find something else to do. I passed this year on the Coho Club Powder Puff. Boat was moored in MC and I was there early ready to go. Strong South winds had 3+' waves at the buoy and we would need to go way further offshore to have a chance. Having a crew of my daughter, wife and 76 year old mother in law it was a real easy decision for me to not fish. They delayed a couple hours and the lake did lay down but I'm sure it was a little bumpy at the start. It is what it is and while disappointed I see both sides. On a side note the Past 4 or 5 weekends have started with nasty Friday North winds.

At the end of the day some decisions need to be made on how the tournaments are run are we going to run them weather wise like a coho club tournament or are we going to run them to allow all our members to participate. The waves were not dangerous for my rig but some others it was.