04/11/2024
Alright friends, after much discussion & further research amongst our volunteer tournament committee, we have come to a decision as it relates to the final results of Saturday's derby. As it seems most of the local bass fishing community already knows, we had a situation during the tournament with a team found to be fishing inside of a "KEEP OUT" area in Honeymoon Cove, in the shadows of the Desert Outdoor Center. It so happens that this team finished in 1st place in our competitive division.
There was some discrepancy about the timeliness of a formal "protest" of the results of the tournament. In speaking with contacts that have much more experience running tournaments, we heard a couple different things: 1). Protests should be filed before scales close.....2). Protests need to be IN WRITING and presented within 30 minutes of the anglers check in time. The reality of our situation is that we are a small tournament, usually averaging 25-35 boats. We have a very basic rule sheet that we present and we do not have a formal policy in our rules specifically related to protests. (until next year...haha!).
Because I know that inquiring minds want to know, I will say that the FIRST TIME that I heard of anything related to a possible protest was literally about 2 minutes before I was going on stage to present the tournament results and award the cash out to winners in envelopes that had already been filled with $$$ and with names inscribed on them. I was shown a photograph by an angler that he took on the water that morning. Due to the timing of the photo being presented, I simply could not deal with it then. Trust me, I wish that I had known about this much sooner and perhaps I would have, but things were slow, as doing the weigh in at the top of the ramp and without a fish holding tank added to our weigh in process time, I get it!
My 13 year old son and I had about 300 sets of eyes on us very patiently waiting for the results to finally be announced and for the huge raffle and live auction to start. I was in a high pressure situation at this time and simply could not postpone getting the rest of our event underway. Our raffle and auction took over 2 hours with all of the donations that we gave away! I elaborated on all of this so that you can hopefully understand that this is SO MUCH MORE than a fishing tournament. This is not to say that we don't take that part of the weekend seriously, it's just that it is a small part of the entire event, which runs Thursday through Sunday. Coincidentally, it looks like we raised around $40,000 for Hospice of the Valley this weekend!!!! (final tallies are almost done)
Okay, now to address the issue with the KEEP OUT area violation. After being presented photographic evidence of the boat in question being inside of the area, as a committee, we made 2 separate trips to the cove to check things out. We also placed phone calls and spoke to both management at the Desert Outdoor Center and a Game Warden with the Arizona Game & Fish Department. They both verified that it is in fact an off limits area of the lake and closed to ALL boating/recreation. Until a few years ago there was a summer camp there at the center and they used the cove for water activities for the students. We were told they do not want abandoned/snagged lures along the shoreline and trees and also do not want to have to deal with anyone being on or near the dock anchored in the cove.
Our trips out to the cove verified that there are 3 buoys in a general east to west line that are very clearly marked KEEP OUT on them. They go between a rocky point on the east side and shoreline on the west side, and close off a pretty large area of water. We took zoomed in photographs of the very back of the cove (on the south shore of it) and were able to 100% positively verify that the fishermen/boat in question on Saturday were in fact fishing the very back of the cove, likely close to 200 yards beyond the KEEP OUT line.
After all of the analysis and a lot of discussion, it is the findings of the tournament committee that regardless of the timeliness or proper filing of any PROTEST related to this matter, the facts show that the party in question broke either Maricopa County or State of Arizona boating law by entering into a closed area. We feel that with this area being closed to boat access, this certainly could be viewed as being an advantage to anglers fishing in waters that haven't had boat or fishing pressure on them, especially during the spawn/bedding season. Due to this infraction, the committee has decided that the 1st Place team will be considered DISQUALIFIED from placing in the event.
Now for the hard part! Since monies have already been distributed on the spot on Saturday in the form of CASH, we have no choice but to await the decision of the 1st Place team as to whether they will return their prize monies. I can assure everyone that if and when this happens, those funds will be dispersed to the teams down the line deserving of the extra payout. An email went out today to the team involved, and we are awaiting their reply.
We also want to say that we will be happy to post any reply on behalf of the team involved, should they wish to address the situation. This simply could have been an honest mistake on their part or perhaps they had been given some conflicting information about the legality of being inside of the closed area. We are not here to smear their names or imply that they knowingly "cheated" in our event. Due to the nature of our event being all about raising funds for H.O.V., we ask that everyone hold judgement to yourselves and try to keep comments to this post as positive as possible! We know this decision will not be agreed with by everyone, but we hope that it will at least be respected as being truly "the best that we can do" with a difficult situation.
We look forward to hopefully seeing you all next April for the 30th Annual! Thank you for your participation and for being a part of our fundraising efforts!
Jesse
