Say you’re conducting a bassin’ tourney – a big-bass version. Happens to be a big event. Well-known.
You get all the ducks lined up, weigh-in gear is all ready, tourney day comes, the starter pistol goes off and out go the bassers after the wily mossyback fishes.
They do that for 2 days and the prizes are good ones:
> $10,000 for the biggest bass
> $5,000 for 2nd-biggest
> $1,000 for 3rd
> A $5,000 cash drawing
> Cash for the Top 10 biggest fish weighed each hour
> And an exacto: Whoever weighs a bass at exactly 6 pounds wins a Nitro Z7 bass boat.
Even more. It’s a great event fo’ sho’.
Lo and behold on the first day of the tourney a guy weighs a fish weighing 6.00 pounds! The tourney is insured for this unlikely event, so the Nitro Z7 is a goner.
But wait. The scale used for the weighing operates in 0.01-pound increments. The insurance policy says the mossybacks have to be weighed on a scale that weighs in 0.001-pound increments. So the insurance folks, in typical insurance fashion (just ask the people of Louisiana), say: Nope.
_____
As you might guess, this is not fiction. It happened last weekend at the annual Ronald McDonald House Big Bass Tournament (a charity derby), held on the Ouachita River, Lake D’Arbonne and Turkey Creek Lake down Louisiana way.
How did it get resolved? A local paper reported:
The Ronald McDonald House decided to pay for the boat and allow [boat winner Mark] Thomas to keep [the boat] — as well as award three extra places because the scales resulted in so many ties throughout the first day.
Pretty great of ’em, don’t you think?
More
> The $10K winner was John Ragus, whose 10.30-pounder was caught on Turkey Creek – as was Mark Thomas’ boat-winner.
> 2nd (Grady Rinehart) was an 8.61 worth $5,000. 3rd (Brian Evans) was 6.04 for $1,000.
> 547 fishermen signed up at a rough minimum of $90 per day they fished.
> For more info about the Ronald McDonald House, go here.
6 Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Wacko
May 24, 2011 at 6:44 am
A thousandth (.0001) of a pound? That’s a joke. A slight breeze could sway the scale that much.
I don’t even like it when the weights are done in hundredths. Our club does that as do most small events. I guess to help keep the ties down. But in my opinion tournament fish should be weighed in pounds and full ounces. If there is a tie flip a coin. BASS has this right.
I have been beat by .01 and I have won by that margin. That is less than what a shakey head worm weights.
I’m glad the fellow got the boat.
Dwain
May 24, 2011 at 7:47 am
talk about reading the fine print. Glad RMH stepped up and paid the winners, this could have been a really bad deal.
Big Brake Basser
May 24, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Those two fish were caught at Lake Darbonne. Turkey Creek has been severely crippled from a idiotic complete lake drainage last summer and as a result the bass population plummeted. Without any regard to the condition of Turkey Creek, RMH tournament directors decided to include it in this year’s tournament. A marked lack of concern for the lake considering all of the contestants that fished there would take the biggest fish they caught and trailer them an hour and fifteen minute drive to the weigh-in site in West Monroe. These fish then would be promptly returned to the Ouachita river, not Turkey Creek. The places that were paid and the cost of the Nitro Z7 was taken away from money that was supposed to go to RMH. I wouldn’t have accepted the boat knowing I was taking money away from RMH. My conscious would bother me too much.
carl h
May 25, 2011 at 9:19 am
This sounds like a golf scramble I went to, where they put the hole in one prize for a new hummer H2 on the wrong hole and the insurance of course declined it. But in this case the guy who hit the hole in one, demanded his new H2, so they took from the donation money and bought his truck.
Bass Pundit
June 1, 2011 at 2:19 am
Not to be to negative, but I think there is something wrong with you to allow RMH to pay out of pocket for a prize like that on an entry fee of what maybe $200 . What is a matter with that person? Some things are not worth winning.
Worse, I just read the story and that guy has taken way more from the tourney than he will ever come close to paying in, this is his 2nd boat. I seriously hope Mr. Thomas reconsiders, takes a lot less and lets the extra money go to the sick kids.
Fished it
January 20, 2013 at 11:28 am
The guy that won the boat did not accept it after he found out RMH had to pay for it.