Twos a Crowd | Angler Battles on the Water by Pete Robbins

The Unwritten Rules that Guide Pro Bass Anglers Through Fights on the Water

®

Fall 2018

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That’s

understandable, because

the playing field, while

expansive, featured tight

quarters in key places.

It’s not just limited to

rivers, though. On the

FLW side of things,

Randy Haynes and

Jason Lambert – in

first and second place,

respectively, when they took off on Day Three at massive Kentucky Lake – ended up rub rail-to-rub

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rail. The situation so

disheartened Haynes

that he left, put his boat on the

trailer and went home, sacrificing a solid chance at a

Some states and organizations are

$100,000 payday.

working to combat that, creating lessons on ethics for the

So, what can we do to make these issues go away?

youngsters; but even then, none of this is super-clear. The

Likely nothing.

unwritten rules – precisely because they’re unwritten –

mean different things to different people.

UNWRITTEN RULES

For example, you’re “supposed” to cede key stretches to a tournament leader; but what if it’s Day Four, you’ve been

Yes, we can teach the younger generation about the

there the whole event, he’s been there for a short while each

“unwritten rules.”

day, and he’s leading you by an ounce. An argument could be

One of the few negative consequences of the rapid rise made that he should yield to you.

of high school and college fishing is that not all of the up-

There are countless other examples where reasonable

and-comers are versed in how to behave ethically.

people can come down with diametrically opposed opinions.

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