Wellman Thing Done Now

Good job Bassin’Fan. I’m sure you read it by now, but the Joe Stois interview is interesting. (You can also listen to Joe make basically the same comments at BassEast here. Lets you hear Joe, who sounds like a together guy.)

Anyhow, couple thoughts, starting with this excerpt from the Bassin’Fan piece which to me puts the whole thang to bed:

Stois said he was bothered greatly by the story describing the penalty that ran on Bassmaster.com. He took offense to its assertion that Wellman’s alleged actions had merely “made him uncomfortable.”

“As soon as I saw that, I called Chris Bowes and told him to set up two polygraphs, one for me and one for Nate, and that I’d pay for both of them,” he said. “Chris’ response was that a polygraph wouldn’t be able to determine Nate’s intent when he said those things.”

And there you go. I’m no polygraph expert, but if Chris said it I’m believing him unless an expert or two disagree. (And props to Joe for offering.)

Few more things I’d like to offer here:

1. Would still like to have seen Wellman’s father interviewed or him decline that interview. If someone said Jay Kumar was at the dock with a couple Ks cash for a fish, I’d be making sure folks knew that was not the case (unless another guy coming in had a mint late ’70s or ’80 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe in the boat…lol).

2. WTH is up with Stois getting angry phone calls and emails? There can’t be that many Nate Wellman uber-fans – who’s doing that crap? Ditto if it happened to Wellman. Sheesh.

3. From the passionately negative reactions both Wellman and Stois got, I wonder if there’s something broken about how cheating allegations – not actual cheating – are “handled” (maybe there’s a better word that combines “perceived” in there) in this sport.

Re: #3, I of course don’t mean endorsing, ignoring (or whatever) cheating or things that get close to that line. I just mean that when this stuff happens, people who have absolutely no firsthand info about what happened that day and whom I assume are otherwise rational folks feel like they have to pick a side and start shooting. What up with that?

Is it the interwebz?

My $0.02

If it matters, the way I read this from the coverage – I haven’t talked to Nate or Joe or Chris, etc. – is that:

a) Nate freaked out about the Classic, the pressure, whatever, and handled it poorly – or didn’t handle it at all. Surprised his eyeball didn’t pop out of his skull and roll across the deck. “Handled it poorly” means it sounds like the least that could’ve happened to him, did. But if Nate was serious, I guess Joe could’ve said okay, marked the fish, given it to him and then reported him when they got in. Then what? Either way Nate loses – so he handled the pressure poorly. Too bad because sounds like he caught the fish.

b) Joe did exactly what the rules tell him to do, nothing more. Will say that in this instance that took a lot of guts since it involved an Elite pro and a Classic berth.

c) B.A.S.S. made the tough decision and, importantly, sent the required message.

Let me know if I’m missing anything here. But pending that or anything else someone burps out, I’ve moved on. Time to get back to those 10-inch wormies.