Jess, I see on blogposts from southern states where this type of stealing is dealt with in harsh language. Its akin to cheating with another mans wife. The undercurrents of a lot of interviews on both BASS and FLW circuits is directed at the amount of spot stealing that is occuring and how its ruining tournaments for a lot of guys. Between locals GPSing pros on fish from spectator boats, then showing up on their spots the next day, to pros outright stealing spots from other contestants. On a filming of an Elite Tournament I saw on ESPN last year, Swindle went face to face with another guy over a spot under the same circumstances as yours. He just simply told the guy "it aint right man. You know you saw me on these fish yesterday". He demanded to see the other guys waypoints proving he found the spot in practice. Naturally the guy couldnt show him the waypoints so he left the spot to Swindle. I guess you need to harden your attitude and somehow shame the ba/tard into moving. What else you going to do? For the sake of the integrity of the sport, the higher echelon trails almost need to have mediators who can settle disputes about spots as they occur. Theres enough GPS data in each rig to trace movements. In the big money trails it should be standard equipment. Then they need to assess penalties to the thieves. Its just not right that you should be getting robbed when that much is at stake.


Edited by mattmann7 (11/21/08 05:49 PM)