During todays tournament, an incident took place on the water that left me very dejected and even more so DISGUSTED in the unsportsmanlike conduct and overall threatening and harassing behavior by and individual who is notorious around here... Dick Garlock. I had put in a lot of time, money and effort to compete in todays event and had got on one of my prime fishing spots that was holding the potential tournament winning fish in it. There were several 5 and 6 pounders in the swarm of smallmouth bass that I had located and planned to fish for the tournament in my spot and I had based my sole strategy on this area because it was just that good... I had dialed in on them, knew what they wanted to eat and was confident that I could bag five solid big bass in the massive school they were in. Well, when I got to my spot, Dick (oh how his name is so appropriate) was fishing a couple hundred yards away from where I intended to fish. As soon as he had seen me pull up on my spot, he came over to me full bore on his boat. He gets within about 10 yards from my boat and immediately starts to tell me to move on and to find somewhere else to fish! He then goes on to tell me that I wont be fishing there and hell see to it that I wont catch any fish there. I was quite taken aback from all of this as he continued to curse at me and harass me for fishing there. He went on to say that it was his AREA and that the fish clear across the entire stretch (which was approximately a quarter mile) were HIS FISH. I told him (respectfully and politely) that I beg to differ. I even had offered to work together with him (he was in an entirely different tournament that was being held on the same lake) as there were plenty of fish to go around for everyone. His reply was that there was no need to work together because he claimed the entire bay as his own and that I needed to get the hell out of here! After all of his abusive talk and behavior I just ignored him and continued fishing... and then, what was the last straw, he casted his line over mine and reeled in it and snapped my lure off and threw it at me on my boat!!! I told him that he had crossed the line and that Id be sure expose him for the type of person he is and his reply was that he has a rep and that nobody will believe me. He kept following me around on his boat and at one point bumped his boat against mine! This guy SERIOUSLY has issues and someone who has a rep around here should be exposed for the person, unethical sportsman (for lack of better term) he is! More importantly, the reason I wanted to express this, is that this was my first larger scale bass fishing tournament and I had put in a lot of effort into preparing for it and getting on the right caliber of fish that I truly believe that I legitimately had a shot at winning only to have my entire day completely RUINED by this poor excuse for a tournament angler! But whats most important here, is that its people like him that tarnish the image and reputation of our great outdoor sports. I mean, it really bothered me on many different levels ( I mean, the guy potentially cost me $2,500! but also cost me my first opportunity to enjoy and have fun at being a part of such a great event that the New York Bass Chapter Federation put on) and I cand n only imagine if that incident would have been done to a younger angler just getting into the angling sports only to completely turn him or her off and they never get involved in it again! And people wonder why our outdoor sports are losing interest and support.... because of people like Mr. Garlock! When I finally left, I looked right at him as I was motoring away and said... Youre a real class act!. Sorry for the long rant but this DICK cost me a tournament and really completely destroyed a day that I was very much looking forward to being a part of today. I have contacted the local Department of Environmental Conservation to file a formal Sportsman Harassment complaint. *also, as a side note... he also had the same exact confrontations with two other anglers in our tournament today as well that arent quite happy with him either needless to say!
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 00:19:48 +0000
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