Iaconelli on 2006 Bassmaster Classic

By Michael Iaconelli

I want to publicly apologize to anyone I have offended by my actions and words during the 2006 Bassmaster Classic. I am a very passionate and emotional person. After finding all of my fish dead or dying, I handled the crisis in the wrong way. I am human, and I made a mistake. I will be sure to be more careful with my words and actions in the future.

I want to ensure everyone that my frustrations and anger were in no way purposely directed toward damaging safety equipment or degrading the American Flag. I love this country and I love everything that the flag stands for. I totally support our American troops.

By quoting the famous American president JFK, he said that "When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters--one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity." In the spirit of this statement I feel it necessary to take this opportunity to speak out on two issues.

The first is the accountability and standard to by which BASS tournament officials make rulings and decisions. There are two parts to this:

First, after finding all of my fish dead or dying, I immediately called one of the official tournament directors. I was informed by a B.A.S.S. official that there was no dead fish culling rule in BASS and it was ok to cull a dead fish. Fortunately, I was able to revive all but two fish and did not have to cull a dead fish. But I later found out that they had given me the wrong information and it was indeed illegal to cull a dead fish.

Second, after being informed that I was disqualified under the sportsmanship rule, I highly disagreed with the decision. I immediately inquired about the appeals process and I was told by BASS officials that there was no appeal process to the ruling. No appeal process? So there is no way to protest a decision made by one mans opinion to a situation. The sportsmanship rule is a gray rule and I do not believe that I deserved to have my days catch disqualified. Was I the first angler ever to use profanity during an event? No. Was I even the first angler to ever damage a light pole during an event? No. Was I being made an example. Possibly, but there is no way to determine this without a formal process of appeal. In a high stakes true professional sport there needs to be a more accurate form of rules and judgments and a rational determination of those rules and judgments.

The second issue that this incident brought up is being forced to use other sponsors equipment and boats. If I was in my own boat during the 2006 Classic there is no way my fish would have died in the live well. It is amazing that in the biggest most prestigious event in the world, we are forced to use equipment and boats other than our own. Until we are able to use our own boats and equipment during all of the events we fish in, these event will never be true professional events.

In closing I'd like to thank my sponsors and fans for sticking by me. I will be looking ahead to moving forward with the rest of the season.
 

By Michael Iaconelli

Posted on www.mikeiaconelli.com