Did Hobie Make a $25,000 Mistake?

In this episode of the Kayak Fishing Obsessed Podcast, we’re joined by Ryan Matylewicz to explore the Hobie Bass Open Series (BOS) at Santee Cooper Lakes. We dive into the event and the controversy surrounding a challenged fish catch that led to an appeal to Hobie leadership. Was the winning fish a duplicate fish? We’ll unpack the details, let you decide, and discuss how tournaments can mitigate these risks in the future. This is one conversation you won’t want to miss!

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[wendellfishing]

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[BucktailFishing]

My initial look at the fish when you posted on Facebook led me to believe they weren’t the same after spotting some damage differences on some fins. After seeing how many matches in scale pattern etc you found on the fish I believe it is indeed the same fish. Good eye for detail, sir.

[ryanlundy]

As a long time, full time police officer in a larger city i would highly advise to not waste time and money on using a polygraph. It costs a lot of money and is very subjective. It isn't even admissible in court. There are far too many variables between the polygraphers and the person being interviewed.

[SargesAdventures]

So I guess I was initially confused because I thought the person that reported the same fish submission was the Angler himself.... And Hobie was blowing him off. Now I understand it to be the 2nd place guy trying to report on the winner.
Nothing in life is a perfect system, but the fact is it passed initial judging and seems to pass a secondary look as well... No matter how you feel the secondary look was accomplished, it was done and a decision to keep it was made.... And it stayed.
Be happy with 2nd place, the young man looks to have plenty of awards already and look forward to enhancing your game for the New Year, that would be my opinion.
I am ate up with the Kayak fishing bug.. Love it. I don't tournament fish much... Hate the drama, the games, and the entitlements people boast that come out from some of these organizations.... Fish and have fun.

[Fishn__Reel]

This was a fascinating show. Both of you are outstanding but Ryan is a boss! I really love how this dude stands on principle. Everything he said was logical.

[ryanlundy]

We spend a ton of money to travel to these events for there to be things like this. Time off work, entry fees, gas, mileage, food, lodging, gear etc. This is all money taken from our family or other obligations in an economy that is already squeezing most Americans. Organizations will get things wrong at times, but as long as it's admitted and made right quickly people won't lose confidence in the organization. These types of things keep a ton of people from even entering and the sport shrinks.

[Gitz-Zum]

Lots of tells but i think biggest 1s for me is red around mouth that tear drop spot fin contour and that fade line/strip that runs directly down body

[tylersweet]

I don't think NOT shutting down the leaderboard is necessary, BUT the formal appeals process should not start until the leaderboard is opened, and all anglers should get a push notification that the leaderboard is back up. So everyone knows, the leaderboard goes back online an hour after the event, then for 24 hours, anglers can pour over and review the results and photos and issue any formal challenges. But that timeline and process needs to be formalized. That goes to the "inconvenient" timing issue, and erases that. You can't have a TD say "you have 24 hours from the end of the event", and then not open up the leaderboard till the next morning leaving no time for people to look at it.

[kevinsinvegas]

I don't like the way KBN handled this in their podcast. I appreciate the complete story from Ryan and the space for it by Wendell. Ryan dq'd his own fish for being a duplicate. Would be nice for KBN to bring that up.

Very unfortunate that Hobie took that stance and hasn't been transparent with the appeal process. This is one reason I have not started fishing tournaments. I would never do a monthly. Way too easy for people to cheat. My mind doesn't work that way, so i am always shocked when I hear about it.

Ryan seems to be doing this for the right reason.

[Gitz-Zum]

In live chat i said it wasnt same but i only seen oic for like 2 seconds before it cut but after looking at it its 100 percent same fish thats horrible bro sry it went down like that must have been for a unseen reason.

[jessejkayakfishing]

I’m so glad I run GoPro I would just hand them my SD cards and tell them to check the footage maybe that’s a answer for the bigger tournaments

[cuivre]

Even twins have different fingerprints- and fingerprint analysis has a certain number of points of identity to match people/exclude people. This fish has more points of identity than fingerprint analysis requires.

[CumminsMichael]

Hobie is doing a great injustice to the kayak tournament industry and community if they do not rectify this matter. Confidence is waning every hour.

[MaineStreamFishing]

Thats wild and a wild answer… they gotta do better. Even if they said you right but its too late that woulda been better

[hypotheticalangler]

Is Ryan suggesting that the fish was caught, photographed, not released, and then photographed again? Or CFR then caught a second time?

[dustinlind]

Originally I thought it was same fish because of light spot but the head shape was slightly different…made me double take

[JohnLong]

End result was nothing changed with the outcome? Ryan’s appeal caused the BOS trail to end lol My point behind saying this is by “No comment” from Hobie opens up all kinds of conjectures and ultimately a loss of confidence in the judging process and the appeal process. Huge mistake by HobieCat.

[MassReelFishing]

Seems you got screwed, but you handled it like a pro. Hopefully AI will be judging fish soon!

[iwill]

Hobie doesn't want it to come to light. They have been dealing with quality issues for years. Everyone I know that has purchased a PA 360 is now on their 2nd sometimes 3rd hull. Hobie is in the middle of releasing their new flag ship kayak. My guess is they don't want to have bad publicity at the peak sales time. Sorry this happened Ryan.

[nelhead]

It’s gonna come to everything is going to have to be recorded at all times.