Two DQs at the Elite Series at Oneida on day 1. Bill Lowen and Bobby Lane both had their catch DQd on day 1 for having six bass in the well – violations of BASS rule C16 & C6 were reported as rules used to DQ their catch. In Lowen's case, he called the tournament director and reported that he released one bass when he discovered six in the well, so the director DQd the catch as he could not determine his largest bass at that point, as rule C16 states.
Lane reported to the director that he had done the same after hearing about Lowen's DQ at the weigh-in, so again the director couldn't determine his largest bass at that point.
Rule C6 was also quoted, stating that if Lowen or Lane had brought in six bass they would be in violation of rule C6 and also New York state rules.
This puts a tournament director in a spot that I found myself in years ago at a BASS tournament on West Point Lake. Tommy Martin dumped his bass in the check-in basket and discovered he had one too many in the bag. He also discovered that an Alabama game warden was helping out on the check-in and had just counted his fish, which was in violation of Alabama laws.
The warden said, "I don't know what to do." Tommy said, "You have no choice – everyone is looking at you, write me a ticket", which he did.
Tommy wasn't DQd because the BASS rule stated, "All competitors are bound by the prevailing statues and regulations of the various states within which they fish".
Tommy was in violation of state laws and was ticketed for it, but the BASS rule, at that time and still, doesn't mention being DQd. It's kind of like the length limit rule. If the state law is 12 inches, then the BASS rule is 12 inches, but if you mismeasure and bring in a short, you're not DQd for it. You're penalized, but your catch isn't DQd.
Now, back to having six in the well and culling one. BASS Rule C16 states, "At no time shall a competitor have in his or her possession more than the tournament limit. Tournament officials will conduct checks for violations of this provision, and in the event a competitor has more than the above-described limits in possession, shall cull down to the limit described, beginning with the largest bass first."
Now the question is when is a bass in your possession? When you boat it or place it in the well? If you have five in the well and boat another one, do you have six in possession? If you place number six in the well while you look for a smaller one to cull, do you have six in possession?
Our ruling was always that if you have a limit and boat another one you must release one before making another cast. This gave everyone a chance to decide which one to release.
At the same West Point tournament, another angler was bagging his bass at the weigh-in dock and in full view of everyone pulled out an extra bass and threw it under the dock. He was reported to me and I culled his largest bass which weighed over 8 1/2 lbs.
These are hard rules to write and enforce because you cannot think of everything that can happen. Lowen and Lane didn't stop to think about it when they discovered the extra bass. They quickly culled one to correct their mistake, then notified the director who could have still culled their largest bass leaving them with only four, or DQd their catch as he did. When a decision has to be made on enforcing rules, it's always must be the tournament director who is responsible to do that. That's why we have rules writen by the director.
