(Editor's note: A BASS communications official notified BassFan at 1:30 p.m. ET today that Kevin Langill has been suspended for the remainder of the 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series season due to events that took place on Saturday that are detailed in the story below. If he so chooses, he's eligible to fish the Bassmaster Opens in an attempt to re-qualify for the 2010 Elite Series. For Langill's reaction to the suspension, see Dock Talk.)

Kevin Langill's Bassmaster Elite Series future is in limbo following two incidents Saturday prior to and during day 3 of the event at Alabama's Lake Guntersville. According to eyewitness accounts, the North Carolina angler loudly voiced his displeasure at having his day-2 weight disqualified the previous evening, which wiped out a Top 50 finish, and then spent several hours harassing Boyd Duckett on the water.

The issue wasn't settled until law enforcement officers intervened.



"What he told me was that if he was going to be DQd, then I wasn't going to fish either," said Duckett. "He pretty much took half of my third day away."

Langill's DQ the previous day was on sportsmanship grounds and was rooted in a dispute with Duckett over the right to fish a small grass bed (to read BassFan's report on the DQ, click here). Langill allegedly came off plane in the immediate vicinity of Duckett's boat – an act that Langill denies – and then angrily confronted the former Bassmaster Classic champion as to why he'd filed a protest against Langill after day 1.

Duckett said he didn't make a cast in earnest on day 3 until about 10:30.

"(Langill) circled my boat and ran over my line, and just prohibited me from fishing," he said. "I had to go back to the dock and call (tournament director Trip Weldon), and finally they got the sheriff's department to take him off the water. Once the sheriff had him, then I went fishing."

No Regrets

Langill, who'd been knocked out of the day-3 field by the DQ, admitted he was at the grass bed that both anglers had fished during the first 2 days of the tournament when Duckett arrived on Saturday morning.

"I was just having fun fishing," he said. "It's public water and I'd been DQd. The sheriffs talked to me, and then I left."

He said he doesn't regret his diatribe earlier in the morning at the launch site.

"I felt like I was backed into a corner on this thing, and I came out and said what I needed to say. I wanted to let everybody know what had happened because what I was being DQd for was never made clear to me.

"I wanted everybody to know why Kevin Langill wasn't being allowed to fish and why I was probably never going back to BASS. (Fishing professionally) was a dream of mine since I was a kid and I was having it taken away. They jerked my first (paycheck) of the year away from me because a former Classic champion said he wanted an area all to himself."

Rulings Awaited

Langill now has two separate issues pending with BASS. He's retained an attorney and is appealing the DQ, and the paperwork for that must be filed by Friday (within 7 days of the date of the ruling). It will then be ruled upon by a BASS-established committee consisting of one BASS employee not affiliated with the tournament department and two anglers who did not compete in the Guntersville event.

He also faces possible disciplinary action due to what transpired on Saturday. A BASS communications official could provide only limited insight to questions such as what that action might be, who would be involved with that decision and when the verdict might be forthcoming.

"There will be a group of people who'll look at everything," the official said. "I know it won't be just one person (making the decision) and I don't know the timeframe."

Nowhere to Turn

Langill said he still feels as if he did nothing unsportsmanlike toward Duckett on days 1 or 2, and also thinks that BASS is short-shrifting the opinions of the marshals who rode with him (both supported his accounts). He said that's why he returned to the launch on Saturday.

He said that both marshals accompanied him initially – one departed when it became clear that Weldon would listen to no more testimony, but the other remained until Langill departed the dock in his boat.

"If I'd just walked away from it, then what Boyd Duckett and his marshal said would be what everybody believed and what stood (as fact)," Langill said. "(BASS) should've listened to both sides. I never even got anything in writing – all I was told was that I was being DQd for driving my boat in too close to Boyd Duckett, and that didn't happen.

"I pushed the envelope (by returning on day 3), but I wanted everybody to know that BASS never let me explain my side of the story."

Duckett said Langill has nobody but himself to blame for whatever fate awaits him.

"It's a shame that the guy doesn't understand," Duckett told BassFan. "The long and the short of it is he accused me of ruining his career, but he stood right there on the dock and ruined his own career.

"Every pro fisherman out there has had an event go bad – even guys like (Mike) Iaconelli and KVD (Kevin VanDam) have been DQd. But man, don't throw your career down the tube after you've made a mistake."

Notable

> Duckett went on to catch a 20-06 bag on day 3 and ended up in 30th place.

> Langill said Duckett might've gotten upset with him initially on day 1 because Langill was having an easy time catching quality fish on a suspending lipless crankbait of his own design called the Hover Trap, and Duckett didn't possess such a bait.