PROSPERITY, S.C. — Tonight, fish in Lake Murray are on the weighing tables at Dreher Island State Park in Prosperity.
In light of a recent fish weighing scandal at an Ohio tournament, organizers at the USA Black Bass World Championship are making sure there’s no fishy business.
This is a fishing tournament of Olympic-level proportion that’s right in our backyard.
Steve Sizemore is the director of Major League Fishing. He’s weighing in the bass.
“The goal at this event is to get this event certified and hopefully be able to make this an Olympic sport down the line. That’s one of the reasons that the officials from Rome and Italy are here to certify this event and then go to the Olympic committee,” Sizemore said.
So of course, the rules are tightly followed. And unlike a recent fishing tournament in Ohio, there’s no rule breaking here.
“Here we have a marshal or a boat captain in the boat with the anglers, so they’re watching everything that goes on so everything is on the up and up with the entire event,” Sizemore said.
Dub Dillion is one of these volunteer boat marshals. He’s lived here 12 years and has volunteered at other bass fishing events.
“The buoy markers, the shallow areas. We’re not allowed to give them any information about fishing. We can’t help them out with where to go fish or where to go cast to, anything like that. That’s all on them. Other than that, we just observe to make sure that they do follow all the tournament procedures,” Dillion said.
Over 60 teams and 20 plus nations represented, Sizemore tells News 19 everything is done by the book here.
“Not only to regulate what’s going on, but also for enforcement and things of that nature so that we can event the playing field for every angler that comes to fish,” Sizemore said.
Sizemore explains one of the big differences between the Ohio tournament and this one is that those fish were dead. These are weighed alive and then released back into the lake. There will be more fishing tomorrow, followed by an awards dinner gala at 9 p.m.