Just curious on people's felling on this.  Not going into detail on which lake or which tournament was involved but here is the situation that has happen the last two weekends
1) Trailing was allowed in both tournaments
2) Both tournament was won out of the same creek
3) Due to low water the creek is not accessible from the main lake due to a sand bar across it
4) A public boat ramp is beyond sand bar where anglers where able to unload and
    load and fish reamaing creek


Cheating or out smarting other anglers?

Outsmarted....

If TD deemed that as legal water then it was a good move. 

Outsmarted in my opinion. 

IMO if there is still water connected to the main body of water it's legal. If there is land between not legal. I would very quietly ask the td before I did it either way.

I want to add or clarify to my original post.  If the tournament director would have did a take off from the host marina then you could not have been able to fish this creek.  It does have water connected to the main lake but not enough for a outboard driven boat to navigate into it.  Basically it is non accessible from the main lake. Never seen any rules on this but I bet this will come into play more and more with the low water conditions this summer

Anxious to read Scott Gordon take on this

Its all the rules of the trail your fishing. What anyone says here opinions etc does not matter. It is all about the trail/director etc.

Do us TD's really need to make a 1,000 page rule book for every little thing that can happen? Come on guys Its fishing so quit your whining and take it like a man.. The TX 3 Bass Rule is Trailering is allowed.. if you are not fishing on the lake you are suppose to then its a DQ. the Creek is part of the said lake and has has access to it even with low water level.....  You got out smarted....

I would think that if trailering was allowed then it was fishable water. I also think it's up to each TD to maske that call.
I think this time they out smarted the rest of the field.  If no trailering then NO problem because the place is too to get to..

Connected by water, it is good to go in my opinion

Outsmarted.

I also think that when people think contiguous water makes it legit, they are kidding themselves.  Do you know about every beaver run between the ditches that has water in it?  That makes it contiguous, you don't know about it, then you want to complain when someone does fish in there and you 'don't believe' the water was contiguous.  So I think 'contiguous' is a bullshit, self implied, justification.

I use rules to tell me what I cannot do.  If they are not clear then I use that in my favor; occasionally I will ask the TD if I am concerned and there is big money on the line.  If they are not clear, and the TD does not specify to ALL anglers (he tells one angler that he can't go in there and its not me), then I'm going in there.

Basically, if I can prove my position in a court room of peers, then I am doing what the rules let me do.  If a TD dq'd me, and enough money was on the line, I would make him pay.

Winning tournaments requires you to be smart.  Being outsmarted is not unsportsmanlike.

I would suggest you loose weight, big fella. Possibly accessible if your Skeeter would draft a few pounds shallower.

I agree for the most part all points  but on the contigous part I am willing to drag the TD and the bitcher out and show em what I mean so on that you are an ASSHAT

Try putt-putt golf.  One club.

I want in on the golf game.

Outsmarted.

If there is a boat ramp that is part of the normal lake it should be legal unless excluded by the TD. What about flooded Cedar creek a few years back for Bass Champs? They allowed trailering because you couldnt get under the bridge. You didnt have to trailer. You could have chosen to fish the upper arm of the lake.

Agreed. If the ramp is on the map and is public it is fair game for anyone that wants to use it.

The situation described does exist at Ray Hubbard with the public ramp up the Rowlett Creek arm. I am not sure how accessible Rowlett creek is from the main lake, areas up there look real skinny. Either way it would be legal to me as the water still exists that connects the public ramp to access the lake. On the river side it is dirt and to my knowledge nothing connects that water with the lake thus at this pool level it is now a seperate area and should be off limits. There will always be those that push the boundaries but this one seems like they followed the rules. The good thing is once a trick is out of the box it is open game for the next time.

Where is there a ramp in Rowlett Creek?

Wrong creek Tim.  lol

There's  no ramp there. Just a parking area.  There's a small ramp that little boats use in the Muddy Creek arm north of Miller Rd and another one behind Rowlett High School.  None of those ramps give access to Rowlett Creek.

The only ramp close to Rowlett Creek was at Marina Del Ray.  It was landlocked with the low water.  You couldn't even leave the ramp if it was even usable at all.

Robert when the water is normal level you can launch a Jon boat off the northwest side. Those are undercut banks and trailers don't stand a chance.

Interesting replies.  For the record neither of the wins affected me  I didn't fish the first
tournament and never had plans to fish that area in the following tournament. I will state that in the next week or two I will own a flat bottom boat equipped with live wells and trolling motor. 

PS.  Your comment Jeff cost you a sale of a flat bottom.