RE: Balog on rules – The Opens do indeed have many limitations relative to the sport of bass fishing. You know them all. They range from horsepower restrictions to off-limits periods. There's plenty of them and I'm of the belief they are followed to the fullest and that most any pro would self-report if they even questioned whether they violated a rule. I do not see a problem with being allowed to choose to use a different rig for a specific tournament in the triple-As and not so at the tour level if that's what everyone decides from the get-go.
The key word is choice. All competitors knew the rules. They all had the same amount of time and opportunity (with maybe the exception of financial reasons) to procure a tunnel-hull or whatever type boat was needed. To me, the decision whether to use an alternate boat is no different than many other decisions anglers have to make during tournament preparation on and off the water. Gaining a so-called "advantage" in one way, greatly limits your abilities (advantage) in others. Since DeFoe is the most recent discussion, I'll use him to attempt to describe my thoughts on this.
Ott knew the minute he chose to use his tunnel-hull boat that he would be greatly limited on where and how efficiently he may be able to fish. He basically eliminated his ability to fish the lower ends of Douglas due to limited fishing time getting there and back. This is unlike all the traditional bass boaters who had a 250 to propel them anywhere on the lake multiple times a day (if necessary) in minutes. He was also limited in fishing time on where he did decide to fish due to using a tunnel-hull instead of his 250 glass boat. I know that you in no way doubted Ott's abilities as a fisherman in your article. But I'd like to add something else that relates to why it makes no difference if triple-A events don't have the exact same rules as tour events. Ott has fished the French Broad for years. I don't know him personally, but I'm willing to bet he has put more hours into learning that river than most folks could imagine. He had to make all the same adjustments the other competitors had to make over 3 days. They range from water flow changes, fish movement/depletion, water level and clarity, to weather changes. He didn't have this one hole that whoever got to it would be guaranteed the win. He fished multiple areas over 3 different sets of conditions.
Not that I would know personally, but winning at that level requires good decisions for every day of the event and most everything going your way. That happens more frequently to those who put their time in, prepare properly, fight through the misfortunes and execute when they have to. Ott did all of these to win that tournament. If other competitors really believed they could compete with Ott and the few others who chose unique boats, then they would have found a way to get back there. My pro partner in that tournament gained confidence in a dock-fishing pattern during practice, so he chose to fish docks for 10 hours on day 1. John Murray thought if someone found the right area, it could be won extremely deep and offshore, so he made a choice to commit to that.
Ott Defoe was flat out the best fishermen those 3 days. The odds were greatly in favor of him winning before it started. Not because he had a tunnel-hull, but because he knew how to adapt to the changing conditions better than everyone else. On top of that, he made the correct decision to utilize the tunnel-hull and commit to the upper river – a decision all other competitors had an opportunity to make and a very few chose.
If someone wants to make the Elites or qualify for the Classic through the Opens, they have to make the right decisions and catch more fish than most others. As long as the rules are the same for everyone, it make no difference if there are slight variations from Opens to Elites or Costas to FLW Tour. The big issues of the sport are already consistent. You may just have to take a big gamble or do something out of your comfort zone to make the jump. It's always the boater's responsibility to make the right decisions to get themselves in a position to win, earn a top 5 in AOY points, etc.