The FLW Tour will have a no-information rule next year for the first time.
In an open letter to anglers posted on the FLW Outdoors website, CEO Charlie Evans implied that the rule was put in place at the request of anglers. Luke Clausen spearheaded a survey of anglers at the Champlain event earlier this summer and reportedly collected about 100 signatures in favor of such a rule.
According to Evans' letter, the rule will read as follows:
"After the entry/balance deadline date for each tournament and during competition days, contestants may not solicit and/or receive fishing information from any non-competitor other than publicly available information.
"Additionally, regarding registration at FLW Tour events, tournament waters will be off limits beginning at 12 p.m. (noon) on Wednesday of the tournament week. Registration will be from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. and the pre-tournament meeting will start at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday."
The FLW Outdoors site doesn't list entry/balance deadlines for 2007 FLW Tour events. For this year, the deadlines were 2 weeks prior to day 1 of the tournament.
The new rule is very similar to the one employed on the FLW Series during its inaugural season this year. Unlike the Tour, the Series has a 12-day off-limits period prior to the tournament, and the no-info rule is in effect during that timeframe.
The FLW Tour had never had an off-limits policy regarding practice prior to the 3-hour period in the new rule. By contrast, the Bassmaster Elite Series has a 30-day off-limits period before the first official practice day (the Monday before the start of the tournament), and Rule 3 (i) also contains the following no-info clause:
"During the 30-day off-limits periods, other than using publicly-available information (e.g. newspaper and Internet reports), pro competitors cannot solicit, receive, or gather any information via phone, electronic devices, or any other means about locating or catching fish on tournament waters."
Clausen, reached by phone on Thursday night, said his survey was intended to show the organization's top brass that most of the anglers favored a no-info rule.
"It wasn't really a petition and we weren't trying to make any demands," he said. "We just wanted to show that most of the anglers felt that way.
"All I know is that I had a conversation about it with Charlie Evans (after taking the survey), and there was a change thereafter. Whether I actually had anything to do with it, I don't know."
Randy Blaukat helped Clausen circulate the survey at Champlain.
"I'd say about 75% of the pros are happy (with the new rule) and 25% aren't happy. But we don't really care about that other 25%, because all this does is increase the credibility of our sport.
"There's no reason for that rule not to be in effect. A lot of anglers have been wanting it because there was a certain number of the top pros that were relying on that type of information for their success. They were hanging around the best locals and learning about their offshore spots and all their little tricks, and it wasn't fair to everybody else."
FLW Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) Anthony Gagliardi said he was among those who'd been hoping such a rule would be put in place.
"I like it," he said. "I think it'll be good for me and good for a lot of other people.
"It'll cut out some people I talk to (who live near tournament venues), but I don't think it'll hurt me in any way. It'll make things more balanced."
