{"id":48388,"date":"2021-02-23T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boys-disqualification-at-vallecito-ice-fishing-tournament-sparks-uproar\/"},"modified":"2021-02-24T03:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T03:00:00","slug":"boys-disqualification-at-vallecito-ice-fishing-tournament-sparks-uproar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boys-disqualification-at-vallecito-ice-fishing-tournament-sparks-uproar\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy\u2019s disqualification at Vallecito ice fishing tournament sparks uproar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Darron
Darron Boling, 14, holds his 2.68-pound brown trout, caught Saturday during the Vallecito Ice Fishing Tournament. Boling qualified for second place but was disqualified for not meeting a $5 recreation permit requirement.<\/span>Courtesy of Boe Boling<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Vallecito Conservation and Sporting Association held its fifth annual ice fishing tournament Saturday, resulting in some winning catches and disputed results.<\/p>\n

The ice fishing tournament is the largest outdoor winter recreation event at Vallecito Reservoir in northeast La Plata County. Every year, people wait for the lake to freeze so they can try their hand at snaring the trout, pike, walleye and other species swimming under the ice.<\/p>\n

The disqualification of 14-year-old winner Darron Boling cast a pall over the sporting event, according to some community members and social media posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole weekend was supposed to be about being out in Vallecito \u2026 getting together, having a good time with friends, and supporting the community,\u201d said Boe Boling, Darron\u2019s father. \u201cThis has turned into something completely different. It has taken away from everybody that participated.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, Chase Ribble won first place with a 5.12-pound rainbow trout. Richard Samora took second with a 2.42-pound rainbow trout and Dave Peterson earned third place with a 2.12-pound rainbow trout.<\/p>\n

In total, 153 people participated in the event, which was funded entirely by VCSA. Fourteen entered trout for the contest\u2019s weigh-in at 2:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Darron qualified for second place and a $500 prize after catching a 2.68-pound brown trout. But before he could be announced as a winner, the VCSA told the crowd that he was disqualified for not having a valid Pine River Irrigation District Recreation Permit, which is a $5 daily pass to access any recreation areas related to the reservoir.<\/p>\n

\"More
More than 150 people signed up for Vallecito Conservation and Sporting Association&#x2019;s fifth annual ice fishing tournament Saturday at Vallecito Reservoir.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The contest required competitors to follow rules set by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Pine River Irrigation District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Those rules included having a valid PRID Recreation Permit displayed in competitors\u2019 vehicles. If the regulations were not followed, the competitor would be disqualified, according to the contest rules sheet that requires competitor signatures.<\/p>\n

The Boling family maintains that Darron tried to pay the $5 fee when he registered around 6:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Darron\u2019s father said the person conducting registration asked Darron if he drove to the event. Darron said he was 14 and did not drive. The registration attendant said he did not have to pay the fee, Boling said.<\/p>\n

Although he drove his son to the competition, he was fishing elsewhere (not as a tournament competitor) when the teenager registered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching my son be told he didn\u2019t do everything by the book \u2013 watching him be told that he cheated and he wasn\u2019t an honest sportsman \u2013 hurt,\u201d Boling said.<\/p>\n

VCSA President Tony Shurts disagreed with the father\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was determined that his father brought him,\u201d Shurts said in an email to The Durango Herald.<\/em> \u201cIt was also determined that there was no recreation permit displayed in that vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shurts also said the permit requirement was announced several times during registration and in event advertising.<\/p>\n

Boe Boling, who said he has taken issue with the recreation permit fee at the marina in the past, says VCSA was \u201ctaking their issues with me out on my son.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019m wrong. Maybe it isn\u2019t because they don\u2019t like me. Maybe they feel they\u2019re just in their determination of what happened,\u201d Boling said. \u201cFor the mistake to be on the tournament people, to not allow Darron to try to rectify that. \u2026 It\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Vallecito Ice Fishing Tournament was held Saturday. More than 150 people competed in the fifth annual contest.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The disqualification provoked a verbal confrontation between Boling and VCSA organizers, prompting Shurts to call the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office. Boling was detained, not for his conduct at the event, but for an outstanding warrant for a missed court appearance.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of comments accumulated on Facebook about the disqualification. Some said the rules were clearly stated. The majority condemned VCSA and PRID for disqualifying the teenager.<\/p>\n

Attendees at the event gave Darron $370 to replace the lost winnings. In total, the community contributed $500 as of Monday, according to Boling.<\/p>\n

Ken Beck, PRID superintendent, wrote in an email to the Herald <\/em>that the district had little, if any, administrative involvement with the tournament.<\/p>\n

He defended VCSA, saying the rules were widely advertised before the contest and called Facebook comments a \u201cgross mischaracterization.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the disqualification, Darron was quiet but upset, his father said. Like many others, the family was hoping for a good day of fishing at the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great day on the ice. We put in a lot of work for it,\u201d Boling said. \u201cDarron truly believed he had an opportunity to be successful and get a prize.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14-year-old loses chance at $500 prize<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[885,13,28,445,346,1500,1394],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fishing","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-sports","tag-vallecito","tag-vallecito-reservoir"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48388"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}