Dear Editor,
I love fishing and our entire family has taken part in the Rockstone Fish Festival since the inception of a fishing competition. We have taken part in the competition as a team called Bass Tracker and have won most of the trophies every year. Each year has had its share of problems but this year was the worst, most disorganized and biased event yet.
The Situation
The Fish Catching Comp-etition starts at 5 am and ends at 2 pm. All of the participants registered for the event and left on their fishing adventure to bring back a prized fish for the competition and spectators. It was a hard day to fish, we endured the sun, rain, insects, endless hours of not having a bite but then the day took a turn for the best and our team produced a few fish that were sure to win a prize.
Our team caught:
1 large Lukanani (Peacock Bass – Cichla Ocellaris)
1 medium Lukanani (Peacock Bass – Cichla Ocellaris)
1 small Lukanani (Peacock Bass – Cichla Ocellaris)
2 large Silver Arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum)
2 Houri/Wolf Fish (Hoplias Malabaricus)
1 catfish
1 – 10 – pound freshwater stingray – we threw this back
The Problem
Our team and others returned to the stage area with our catch at 1:50pm for the judging to take place. We were told by the MC of the event (Candacy) and the toshao (Mr. Allicock) that we had to wait until the others came in for them to judge the competition. We were forced to wait 30 minutes over the stipulated 2:00 pm deadline to facilitate 1 person. We were then forced to wait until 3:50 pm for another person to bring in their catch. That is almost 2 hours past the competition deadline for a participant in the competition to return with their catch.
This is blatantly unfair since we were forced to wait on a few persons to return which was apparently the agreement with the Toshao and other officials. I was told that the Toshao made this decision on the spot after the deadline to facilitate the persons.
We paid $6000 to register for an unfair event. At 4:00 pm with still no judging or justification from these incompetent “officials” we took our five prize winning fish off of the judge’s stage and left the event in disdain.
Based on the 2 pm deadline and the officials’ words, that is the MC for the event and her assistant, our team would have won:
1St Place Lukanani
2nd Place Lukanani
3rd place Lukanani
1st Place Arowana
2nd Place Arowana
A Prize for the catfish caught.
It is due to their lack of respect for simple rules and regulations that our entire team packed our gear up and left. To all of the persons that registered for the event, I suggest that they get back their money
.
The entire Rockstone Tourism Development Association (RTDA) refused to enforce the rules and regulations of the competition which allowed one person to be favoured over everyone else. There is absolutely no justification whatsoever as to why the RTDA, Toshao, and other officials did not disqualify the last participants from the competition.
I do hope that the relevant authorities look into the Rockstone Fishing Competition and I look forward to a more organised event next year.
I am a fishing enthusiast and will always enjoy fishing with family and friends but will not tolerate nor allow such an unfair event to go unnoticed.
Yours faithfully,
Daniel Sugrim
