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Location: Rhinelander | Rising waters on the Illinois River will render the Launch site for the Spring Valley MWC unusable because of flooding by Sunday morning according to forecasts. The MWC, in the interest of safety and for other obvious reasons, canceled Day Two.
All the boats will leave in a continuous single flight. ALL boats are due back in by 2 PM tomorrow afternoon.
The payout will be divided by the number of teams catching fish, using the curve one would expect. If only one team boats fish (not likely, but certainly possible) the payout would be $109,000.
WalleyeFIRST's Day Two coverage unfortunately heads out the window with the cancellation of Sunday's activities. We are committed to covering another event Saturday, but were truly excited at the prospect of beginning the all new OutdoorsFIRST coverage regimen at the Spring Valley MWC.
I'll post more information as it comes in! |
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| Just got off the phone with a buddy who is fishing and he can't beleive they are even going out. He said the river was full of stuff, and can't even believe they would send them out. I hope no one gets hurt or worse, I've seen that river at it's worst and I would never put my boat in that. He said he and his partner were going out to the landing in the morning and will make the decision if they are going home or not.
Sounds like a bad deal, I hope everyone has the sence to stay safe. |
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| The launch site is full of trees as of tonite. It's going to be quite a mess in the morning. Be safe out there and good luck everyone!!! |
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| This tournament is a big joke!!! The decisions made are nut's. Making it one field and all returning at 2:00PM is rediculous. The second wave is getting scr^&%$d. Now they are talking about a fog delay possible in the morning. What second wave 4 hours of fishing. Alot of bad decisions being made. MWC is going to lose alot of support by letting this one go!!! Let's see if the camera boat goes out if it is so safe!!! |
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Member
Posts: 82
| Yep.
Real ugly..but, I can understand their wish to launch boats. Its not a tournament unless they launch......
Just hope the water isnt around our trucks when we come back for check in.
One thing wasnt answered...what happens if it is a blank? And I cant believe I am saying this...but its a possibility. |
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| have some buddies fishing this one. hope everybody stays safe! its impossible to see every huge log floating around. fished a tourney there last weekend and it wasnt anywhere near as bad as this. almost hit a few BIG trees in the water! i imagine there will be some ripped off lower units not to mention broken transducers and such! will be real interesting to see this one pan out. |
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| saugers2 - 3/23/2007 8:28 PM
One thing wasnt answered...what happens if it is a blank? And I cant believe I am saying this...but its a possibility.
Good question. It is possible. Will be a tough bite to say the least!!!!!! |
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Member
Posts: 2445
Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | wow, 4 fish four teams. with 109,000 on the line there will be some hefty payouts. |
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Member
Posts: 1382
| $54,000 for 1st plus 2500 big fish money
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Member
Posts: 2393
Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | Congrats Schmitty and Mark |
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| I have to admit that I was even dissapointed they let us go. I have NEVER seen so much debris in the water anywhere. There was literally crap from shore to shore and boundary to boundary. Current was faster than I have ever seen on any river and the water was as dirty as chocolate milk. They will lose some support over this. Congrats to the four teams that caught fish, what a great payout for you. I hope somebody has some good pictres of the conditions so you all can see what I ma talking about. I saw one of the buoys get taken under about 50 times today from a huge tree hitting it. What fun! |
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| My husband "fished" this tournament. I've never been so worried in my life for his safety! What a joke. Sometime you just have to know when to say when. This was a really bad call guys! You should have known better! Next time you should really stand back and think about what's best for the fishermen. Let's learn from this one and move forward. |
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Member
Posts: 1195
Location: Orland Park, IL | Yep, catch rate was just over 1%. Its gonna get worse. IWT cancelled next week. We found clearer water but no fish. Takeoff was terrible. With debris, and slow movin, took over an hour to our first spot, upside of 251. Was wild seeing the creek by the damn full of boats. 10lbs crap in a 5lb bag.
Congrats to the winners. |
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Member
Posts: 1188
Location: Chicago IL. | I was one of those boats there by the creek. What fun it was!!!!!! A whole bunch of boats trying to get a 14" fish. Some of the best jiggers around tucked into a corner. Congrats to the guys that caught fish. The river is a moveing garbage can and lumber yard. Glad no body got hurt,we should not have been on that water. |
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| now i am glad i gave tournaments |
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| Aren' t these tournaments for the fisherman?Why did this come down to an executive decision?This should have been voted on by the fisherman,at the friday night meeting.They're the ones who's safety is in question.They are the ones who have a 50,000 dollar boat that could get damaged.What do you guys think about that? |
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Location: Rhinelander | No matter what else a tournament organization might be, most are never going to be a democracy.
What a mess that had to be. I know if I was fishing the event, I'd feel like I had just had the tournament reduced to a total crap shoot. With all due respect to the teams that caught a fish, this event was reduced to a dangerous gamble.
That being said, the event directors have the final say. It looks like they wanted to get this one in the books no matter, and felt if everyone slowed down safety wasn't a huge issue. The shame of it is that the field went out for a few hours into a nightmare, and predictably, only a few caught a single fish. |
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Member
Posts: 2393
Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | When situations like this come up many people are damned if they do and damned if they do not.
It ALWAYS comes down to an executive decision. I've never been in a tournament that did anything else. Most will have an advisory board and ask for their input. But the final decision will always come down to the tournament organizer/owner/rep.
Kristine and the MWC had a very tough choice to make. Was it unsafe? Only those who were there can make that call. I look forward to hearing their assessments. Now that it is over, it's possible to go back and digest the circumstances and results (arm chair quarterbacking). Was anyone hurt? Was there any damage done to equipment? What did the local authorities say? Did any fishermen refuse to go out?
You say that it should have been voted on by the entire group of fishermen. That's a good thought. I have been involved with those types of decisions. BUT, I'm a realist and realize that over 1/2 of the people there will be voting on their success on the water. If they are on fish they want to go. If they are struggling it always looks a lot riskier to go out. Down deep we all know this to be true.
I made a major promise to my wife and family when I started doing tournaments. I declared that I would never let a tournament director make a decision on my life. If I felt that conditions were too unsafe to go out, I would not go even if they said the tournament was on. These are strong promises that are made with clear heads away from the competition. But reality and total honesty have educated me.
I do go out in some pretty ugly stuff, especially when I am on fish. I go out in conditions now that I would never have gone out in 10 years ago. Have I gotten smarter, dumber, better at handling conditions, riskier, or used to bad weather? The answer is a little of each. But before I digress further, back to the question at hand.
Should the fisherman make the final decision? Should the tournament director make the call? Should an advisory group make the final verdict? After a few years in the business I believe that none of these groups look at the total picture with open eyes. Everyone has something to loose or gain with the final decision and few are really putting safety first. They’re putting the financial risks first and safety second. I hate to say this. I didn’t believe it myself until I did my final PWT last year. You see, I was in 26th place at the end of day one. Had motor trouble during day two. And I knew that I could cash a check if I was given a chance to makeup some time and if I was given a chance to go out on day three. I had made it to the big show and I was willing to risk my life to cash a check and show the world that I was a member of an elite group. Looking back, it’s hard for me to believe that I had become that impulsive tournament fisherman that I promised my family that I would never become. I thank the PWT because they made the right call. They gathered their advisory group made up of seasoned fishermen (not crazy rookies like me), they contacted the authorities (coast guard and local weather) and they made the correct call. They had the right process in place. They got input from everyone. Thank God they didn’t ask me.
Bottom-line, every one of us have the final say. None of the fishermen had to go out yesterday. They could have said no. If they thought that they were really at risk, the entry money would have been gladly given up ………………… maybe, unless they are crazy like me.
Edited by Sunshine 3/25/2007 8:09 AM
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Member
Posts: 82
| Generally fishermen are a little crazy anyway...and tournament anglers take more chances then most.
Is it stupidity...maybe.
But, as a competitor I guess I expected more compassion for our safety and our equiptment from the organization that we pay to belong to. Sure, I could have said no, I'm not going...but that really isnt anything a tournament angler will do on his own. We think we are seasoned enough to handle all conditions, and we did....but it was miserable and scary.
Debris fields filled parts of the river from shore to shore and required that you just stop and push trees away to procceed through. I am so happy that the wind didnt blow, or else tragedy would have been likely.
I know the reasons for launching boats, and we can thank somebody else that nobody was hurt....but what a gamble. I learned a lesson yesterday.....to listen to your heart and not risk it again if another tournament organization makes a mistake again....I will watch from shore. |
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Member
Posts: 265
Location: Lincolnshire, IL | What actions could the tournament directors take if the event had been cancelled? Are there any provisions in the rules? Could a portion of the entry fees be refunded? Would the anglers have agreed to a portion of their entry fees being refunded? I would think that the MWC could not have absorbed all of the costs associated with the cancellation of an event. Just wondering what would/could/should happen if an entire event is cancelled. The tournaments are a tough gig...that's why I only donate to a few each year! |
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Member
Posts: 794
Location: Elgin, Illinois | Dennis,
You are a very smart man... period! Good post, and very "spot on"... |
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| "Safety first", right?
That went out of the window for this tournament. In my mind there was no difference here than Kristine sending us out in a small craft advisory on the great lakes just to make sure the tournament happened and she wouldn't have to deal with the headaches of rescheduling. Sure she can say "slow down" and "make sure your safe while you're out there". Is that what she's going to say and launch guys in 6 footers one day?
You can say what you want, but we all realize the only reason we went out was because we were going out one way or the other, just to say that it happened and there wouldn't be more work and problems for them afterwards.
I was one of the boats out there. Got a tree stuck under my motor while running and had to put down and almost got hit by a cowboy running hard for who knows what reason.
It tells you something when one of the 4 guys who actually cashed a check told Kristine that he was glad for the money but he still thought we should not of been out there.
Oh and no to mention at the rules meeting saying that since we were going as one flight we would change the rules and wait for everyone to be in the water until we took off. Then magically on the water Saturday morning we were back to launching at 7 no matter what. Don't get me wrong, we should of launched at 7 no matter what, not the rest of our fault people can't get there on time, but if you say we are waiting for everyone Friday night, how do you change your mind Saturday morning 5 minutes to 7?
Don't think this will be the last year that MWC doesn't start the year with a full field. Non of this helped with that one bit.
We can all say all's well that ends well since as far as I know no one got hurt. But for me, another couple feet difference and some people would of got hurt. And I'm sure that wasn't the only close call out there.
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| I was going 25 miles an hour watching the water like a hawk, and i still hit something that was submerged. I didnt notice leaking during the day, but i havent done a total visual hull inspection yet.Either way it could have been worse.None of us have the time to run the length of the river in the morning to check how much debris is there.Were going out at the mercy of the directors who have all the information from the army core of engineers.They also could have had someone run the river to check it out.I definetely am left to wonder how they ever let us go. |
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| Underlying the MWC is a business, a for profit business. And I suspect that IF their to be a serious incident, their would be lawsuits. I am guessing that the waivers that you sign would help to limit any liability to the MWC. IMHO. |
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Member
Posts: 1382
| Here are several images. I apologize in advance for the lack of quality (camera phone).
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