One of the most significant catchphrases right now in bass fishing is "Unwritten Rule." Watch any fishing tournament show, read any magazine, or hit any Internet forum, and you will see those annoying little words. They irritate me more than a tournament morning fog delay. In reality, if a rule is not written down, it is not a rule at all. I do not consider them anything more than a person's opinion, and everyone has more than a few of those.
People can complain all they want about anglers that fish defensively or how many rods a co-angler hauls to each tournament. The fact of the matter is there isn't much we can do about it unless they violate written tournament rules.
A couple of months ago, there was a "pro" angler on television that did more cussing than you would hear in an Eminem song. He went on a tirade about people fishing "his" water. I don't care if it was right behind his house and he was flipping Kreatures around a boat dock that he built; it isn't "his" water. It is public property, and anyone is entitled to fish there. If anyone should have been punished during that tournament, it should have been the guy using all of the profanity. He made himself look like a complete idiot in front of the whole ESPN audience. There are a lot of kids that watch bass fishing on television, and that is not a very good example of how a pro should act.
Even though the water is public domain, and it is not against the rule to fish close to another angler (unless there is a written rule), I still think it is pretty crappy when other competitors get carried away with how close they move in on other anglers. There are getting to be too many tournament anglers that lack respect. It is not uncommon to see them fishing within ten feet of a family out of fun fishing. That is uncalled for. I saw a person fishing from a small dock with his two little kids at one tournament. A tournament boat pulled up and started fishing that same little dock. As big as that lake is, there was absolutely no reason for the angler to encroach on the area around that dock. Incidents like that give tournament anglers a bad reputation with the general public. Some tournaments have the "50-yard" rule, but that only pertains to other competitors, not non-tournament anglers.
Most of these "unwritten rules" boil down to common sense. If we go out there and act like adults instead of idiots, we would be much better off. People are being judged on everything they do in life. It doesn't matter if you do ten thousand good deeds and only make one mistake; the mistake is what people will talk about. It is just that nature of our society. Regardless of how much we dislike some of the ways other anglers act. If they are not breaking a written rule, they are entitled to do whatever they are doing.
What are your thoughts?
Until next time, Fish Hard and Fish Often.