A handful of professional bass anglers have recently been disqualified from national events for not adhering to the “no-information rule,” and it has the bass fishing world up in arms.
Some have cheered on the disqualifications, grateful to see blood drawn from anyone because they know full well this kind of thing happens far more often than it’s found out. Others roll their eyes at what they believe to be an archaic means of restricting anglers, one that’s not only oppressive but unenforceable, often only penalizing the honest.
I find myself somewhere in the middle, with a strong desire for rules and for rules to be enforced, but also an understanding of the sport from the inside that many of you may not have.
What Is the No Information Rule?
There has long been a “no-info” rule of some form or another in professional bass fishing, as well there should be. This rule no doubt came about as a necessary correction to prevent professional anglers from gathering information on fisheries where they had upcoming events.
The following rule has been used for decades by all major tournament bass fishing organizations to ensure anglers’ performances are a result of their own abilities:
During the off-limits period and tournament competition, anglers cannot solicit, receive or gather any information in order to gain a competitive advantage from anyone other than another competitor in the tournament.
Recent Events and DQs
In the past four weeks there have been three notable disqualifications for violations of the no-info rule. Matt Herren was disqualified from the Bassmaster Elite on the St John’s River, Scott Martin was disqualified from the Bassmaster Elite on Lake Okeechobee, and Skeeter Crosby was disqualified from the National Professional Fishing League event on Santee Cooper. While they involve the same rule, the details surrounding these three disqualifications differ.
According to a press release on Bassmaster.com and a video Martin posted on Facebook, he was disqualified from the tournament on his home waters of Lake Okeechobee after engaging in a conversation with a non-competitor about the water clarity in a certain area of the lake.
According to B.A.S.S., Matt Herren was disqualified from the St. Johns River Elite event after reportedly failing a polygraph test.
“Matt Herren has been disqualified and fined after it was determined he had violated ‘Rule C3. 3 PRACTICE AND COMPETITION (ii) a. and j.’ concerning the receipt of information to gain a competitive advantage from a non-competitor,” said a post on bassmaster.com. “Officials said they were made aware of the rule violation on Feb. 23, 2025 based on statements made during a polygraph credibility assessment.”
According to a BassBoats Central Board post apparently made by Herren’s son Josh, Herren was disqualified after Josh made a comment about there being a chance the tournament in question could be won by fishing a spot that had secured a win in a previous tournament.
Finally, the NPFL issued a press release stating that Crosby was DQ’d talking to a cameraman on the final day of the event about how competitor Buck Mallory was faring on the water. He asked, “Is he catching them?”
The Good
Here’s what I’ll say that’s good about all three of these DQs: The tournament organizations enforced the rules. Any rule without consequences is merely a suggestion; that truism has always stuck with me. If you don’t enforce a rule to the letter, you’re going to have one group that goes out of their way to adhere to it and another that pushes the grey area all the way to the limit. So, good on B.A.S.S. and the NPFL for enforcing their rules. And, it’s certainly true anglers can gain an unfair advantage by violating the spirit of the no-info rules that are in place.
The Bad
The wording of these no-info rules is very specific, by design, to limit that grey area as much as possible. The result, however, is a stifling and an unrealistic expectation with severe consequences. Anglers are expected to not even hear anything about a fishery — in some cases from the time the tournament schedule is announced in the fall up until the completion of the event. Again, in a word, that’s completely unrealistic.
The Fix
The no-info rules have to be in place, or we’ll see an all out arms race in the info world and the guy with the deepest pockets and a little skill will be almost impossible to beat. Plus, the wording of the rules has been tweaked for decades to get it to be as all encompassing and effective as possible; even as restrictive as it is, I think all has been done that can be done there.
The only place where something can really be changed is the consequences for violations.
In all three of these instances, I don’t believe the punishment fit the crime. There’s a difference between robbing a bank and stealing a candy bar from a store. Yes, both are wrong and both are theft, but both don’t warrant the same punishment. And as it sits now, as a sport, we’re lopping off people’s hands for lifting a candy bar — heck, for having a candy bar stuck into their pocket by someone else in some cases, even with the angler begging them not to.
Some sort of punishment scale needs to be put in place. If a competing angler truly goes out and pays a local angler $500 for a couple dozen waypoints ahead of an event, ban him from all competitive fishing forever; petition the state to take away his license, for all I care. I can’t stand it when someone truly does something that egregious, because it is straight up stealing from someone else who is trying to do right, and it’s blatant cheating.
But if an angler’s son happens to say something incidental during a phone call, like we saw with Matt Herren and his son Josh, and the angler doesn’t even act on it, it shouldn’t effectively end your season at the first event.
Matt Herren’s 40th place finish was vacated after he was disqualified, and he lost his Angler of the Year points in the process, making it impossible for him to win AOY and making it extremely difficult for him to fish his way back into Bassmaster Classic Qualification. These are all moot points, since Herren chose to quit the Bassmaster Elite Series after the incident, something that he said was a long time coming and not just a result of this incident and ruling.
Scott Martin had a shot at his first Elite Series trophy on his home waters of Lake Okeechobee, where he won a Bassmaster Open last year in dramatic fashion. Martin not only heard information, but he also engaged in the conversation. He was in clear violation of the rule and deserved to be penalized. But again, knocking a guy that makes a living fishing out of a shot at half a million dollars in potential combined prize money for an Elite win ($100,000), an AOY win ($100,000), and a Classic win ($300,000) because he asked about water clarity is pretty severe.
Per the rule, this had to happen, but perhaps letting Martin mull it over for an hour on Day 1 after everyone else took off would have been sufficient punishment.
Then there’s Crosby, whose crime was asking a cameraman, “Is he catching them?” Now, I want to be clear: Something as simple and seemingly innocent as this question can make a huge difference. An angler could already be aware of where or how another angler is fishing and then completely change his own approach based on the answer to that question. Such was not the apparent case with Crosby’s curiosity. But still, his day and tournament ended as soon as those words made it through the LIVE stream.
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I’ll admit that I am giving these three anglers the benefit of the doubt big time on all of this, but I hope you hear me when I say I’m not defending anyone here, nor am I accusing the organizations mentioned of any kind of malpractice. I believe B.A.S.S. and the NPFL both did the right thing in enforcing their rules. I would expect and want nothing less as a fan of the sport and an angler who loves participating in competitive fishing. It all comes down to whether or not the punishment fits the crime for me.
I am keenly aware of the severity of these rules personally, and the ease in which they can be broken. Last year, I signed up to fish the B.A.S.S. Nation Regional on the Arkansas River. I asked a buddy something about a spinnerbait he had told me about 10 years ago. After the text went out, I remembered there was an off-limits for the tournament. I checked and the off-limits period had begun the day before.
I then reported myself and was subsequently DQ’d from the tournament. I was extremely disappointed in myself, but I wasn’t mad at B.A.S.S. about it at the time, and I’m not mad or bitter now. They did the right thing. The rules were clear and it was my responsibility to know them. But these recent DQs have had me thinking that maybe an hour in the penalty box and a mandate that I couldn’t use a spinnerbait in that event would have been a little more appropriate than a DQ and losing my $400 entry fee.
