The committee made the right call and are righteous in their evaluation and decision. They are tournament fishermen and not only that, it is their own tournament so they will protect its integrity above their own! That’s just the type of people they are. If someone had run bait off shore 20 mi I believe they would have DQ’ed the team in a second. The guy was at the middle marsh at Harkers island, captain Staceys is little more than a few miles as the crow files so it’s just fine by me because it’s a common and accepted practice. Personally I get sick of the way people try to act all put out and offended when things don’t break their way though even when they know it was the right call. Get over it, move on and if you feel wronged use your American and God given right of choice to not fish with them next year. I for one will be back!

CONGRATS to all who fished! It was a great event as usual

Congrats to a great bunch of guys that did nothing wrong. Everything they did was completely within the rules. Everyone got their feelings hurt when some guys came in that fish very few tournaments and they smoked yalls ass and y’all have yalls panties in a wod. Grow up and take that ass whooping like a man. That’s all.

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Here's my question...are people mad at the team or the committee? And if mad at the angler, would you give back that 6 digit check of you were not dq'ed?

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Congrats Patch!!!! Sushi on thursday to celebrate? Lol

Congratulations!!

Hopefully they take that check and go buy some MORALS.......

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Why have any rules if they’re not going to be enforced??

Nice

Philip Scrabat

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Micah Womble Tim Holder wow... smh

*

Smh .

Well........ I have tried my best to stay out off this controversy but since Lisa and I sold the winning bait to Currentsea we feel that we're obligated to weigh-in. This time of year the Menhaden can be very difficult to catch and require heavier and larger cast nets than usual. Some participants are just unable to physically handle this type of equipment and subsequently would be unable to participate; therefore, they elect to purchase bait. During last years SKA Nationals I had the priviledge of selling bait to many (over 20) factory sponsored teams. As well as my regular local Teams. Maybe.... a true unfair advantage would be.... owning a pen and having the luxury of catching and curing baits ahead of time. Lisa and I have fished and sold bait for years, there is not much I haven't seen or tried with bait. Cured bait is often referred to as (Turbos). The reason why is, after they are put into a pen they go through a process of hardening and changing of colors (CURING). They loose the green color and spots and become very silver. AKA (Silver Bullets) or (Turbos) referring to how hard they swim. The first, second and third day in the pen they are very weak and fragile. The fourth and fifth days they loose the red and become very silver and no longer resemble a wild Menhaden. They are now very hardy and swim twice as fast as a wild caught bait and due to the color change they stick out in the water differently. A comparison would be, like a white chicken in the middle of a grass field to a Chicken Hawk. Hence the name (King Candy!) Subsequently someone fishing a penned up Turbo bait can troll twice as fast thus cover twice the territory. Probably the most important advantage is, they don't have to waste time catching bait. They get the bait out of the tank at 5am so they have the advantage of fishing the entire day and the baits often look as good at the end of the day as they do at the start. A person that purchases fresh caught bait at 9:30 hardly has an advantage over the 15 -20 teams that have the luxury/priviledge of catching bait and putting it in a pen ahead of time. The same teams win these big tournaments and when a team from out of town leveled the playing feild by purchasing fresh caught bait, they took away thier advantage. I have read many post stating that they are OK with purchased bait as long as it's before the tournament starts. I'm sure they would be, bait bought the day before and penned up is absolutely at it's weakest point, red and just about as fragile as it gets. Trust me, these local guys penning up bait know this and that's why they are OK with bait purchased ahead of time. The only bait equal to the quality of penned up bait is fresh caught bait less than an hour old. It is obvious the intent of the rule is to not allow a boat to pass off fish to one another and as Mark Chambers mentioned, the rule verbiage is clearly stated (MAY be disqualified) not (WILL be disqualified). Disqualification is descresenary to the committee as to whether or not the intent was to cheat. The only thing this team did was out fish everyone with the best bait they could get and prove that priviledge doesn't always get you a win. Very few of our customers are tournament fishermen so when a top level competitor ask to purchase bait from us we are truly humbled. Congratulations to Currentsea and to all the other competitors that purchased bait for the tournament, we truly appreciate you and your friendships. Capt Ken and Lisa The BAIT BOAT

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Congrats to the real winners. King’s Ransom.

Congrats to the real winners Kings Ransom. Do what’s right and enforce the rules.

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Boy, there are some salty folks up here.