Bass Tournament News

FLW Outdoors News

On Friday pro Bryan Schmitt was removed from competition in the Walmart FLW Tour Open taking place this week on Lake Guntersville due to a violation of tournament rules that took place earlier this season at an event on the Potomac River. Today FLW Outdoors officials clarified his disqualification, which affects not only his eligibility for this tournament, but also future events with the organization.

FLW Outdoors President of Operations Kathy Fennel released this statement: “Earlier this week FLW Outdoors became aware of a possible rule violation committed by Bryan Schmitt of Deale, Md. Pro Bryan SchmittYesterday, Mr. Schmitt admitted to a violation of FLW Tour rule No 5 'Off-limits, practice and competition' for the Potomac River tournament when asked to take a polygraph examination. Based on this admission, he was immediately disqualified from the FLW Tour Open on Lake Guntersville based on FLW Tour rule No. 9 'Sportsmanship' and will be ineligible to participate in future FLW Outdoors tournaments for at least one year.

“Since a protest was not filed within 30 minutes of the check-in time of the final flight at the Potomac River event, and the violation was not discovered until several weeks later, those results will stand. Time constraints for dealing with protests and violations in a specific tournament are necessary to ensure closure. Had the violation been discovered within the time constraints specified in our rules, it would have resulted in disqualification from that event only.”

Bryan Schmitt has reported that he will make a public statement soon.