Tournament Etiquette

Ok guys hate to write a book but with the JVD, Denny Brauer debate I thought it might be a good time to get some members thoughts on a recent situation I had becasue I know I will get some honest feedback. Last month I had a tournament on my home lake. I had been prefishing the entire week prior for this event and had stumbled onto a very unique pattern for this lake. I have a close friend of mine who is a guide and also fishes the same tournament series but he fishes the pro side and I am fishing on the co-angler side so I can learn the other lakes such as Lake of the Ozarks and Grand Lake before I make the switch over to the pro side as I am very comfortable on my own on the other lakes in the series and in fact am starting to guide on these lakes. Even fishing on the co-angler side I take it all very seriously and pull my boat to pre-fish all events to get a feel for what is going on, also should I draw a guy out that does not have any productive water I might have some spots located that we can hit to pick up some more fish. Well I talked to my guide friend on Wednesday and he said he was struggling and could not find any fish and asked if I would care to go with him on the Thursday before the tournament so I agreed to go help him out. I showed him a spot that day where I had been catching 18+ pounds everyday I had been in there on a squarebill that I had custom painted. Sure enough we go in there make less than 10 casts and hooked several keepers so we pulled out of there and went to look at similiar water to see if we could find some more areas to fish in additon. We made an agreement that if I drew out a pro that was willing to fish my spot then he would not go there and ht the other spots we found that day which I thought was fair. He also gave me some baits to paint for him that evening becasue my bait in the custom color was out producing his bait by far.So on Friday I go back to do some more pre-fishing farther back in the creek and as I am coming out of the creek I notice a boat on the honey hole I had found so I go into the cove and work down the opposite side of the cove over 300yds away from this other boat. Not 10min after I had been there my cell phone rings from a number I do not recognize and it happens to be another local and its the guy in this boat across the cove. He asked how I had been doing and I was honest (my first mistake but I like to help the local guys around here) and told him for the last week I had been tearing them up in this cove and he said he had not had a bite in there. Well I had not even fished the opposite side of the cove I was on and as I fished to the back of it I caught over 16#s. This guy drives his boat across the cove and wanted to know what I had been catching them on so I told him and he said he would like me to custom paint four of those baits for him as well and wanted to know what I would charge. I started my own part time business this year custom painting baits to go along with the guiding and I told him since I was already going to be painting some that color that evening that I would knock $5 off per bait so he was savign $20. Ok I know $20 is not a whole lot of money but I was doing the guy a favor and I told him all I asked is that if he placed that he mention my baits and me helping out. He asked me not to tell anyone else about the spot and I told him I had took my buddy in there the day before and the agreement that we had and one way or the other if he fished in there he would have company whether it was me and my pro or my friend. This cove was plenty big enough though and had enough fish to pull several limits out of there so I told him not to worry too much about it so he told me thats the first place he was going. I told him I was going to get out of there and leave the fish alone and was going into another creek to check it out and he said he was going to the same area. I cut the only square bill I had on me in that color off my line and threw it to him and said to use it for the rest of the afternoon and see if he could find some more fish as well.Well as I got to my next spot I called the tournament to see who I was paired up with the following day and decided I was going to call it a day and go home to paint those baits. As I was leaving I met the guy I had given the bait too and told him who I drew out with and he said that has to be a mistake that guy was my co-angler in the first tournament so I called back and they verified he had made the switch over to the pro side as there were not enough pros for co-anglers and he wanted to fish so he paid the extra money and made the switch. So I call my pro then to find out he had just arrived and had not prefished at all and on top of that had not been on this lake in over a decade. I let him know I was local and lived on this lake and I was on a pretty good pattern if he wanted to fish my spots and he agreed to do so. So I tell this other guy that we would be going there the next morning and he said I hate to ask you to do this but it would really help me out if you would take him to another spot before you guys go in there. I told him if I found a spot more productive than that then I would not have any problems doing that but I did not see that happening He told me that he had already found several more fish with my square bill and that he understood I had to do what I had to do.So the next morning gets there really early after I had been up all night doing baits and I gave the guy his baits and went to meet my pro. My pro did not know what dock we were taking out of so I went to ask the guy I did the baits for. I wont name any names but he was standing there talking to two fairly local guys that you can watch on tv fishing and placing well in the PAA tournaments and he starts kncoking me out in front of them saying the baits I did for him will not swim right and all they want to do is roll over. I offered to let him use some of my personal baits that day or I would refund his money or whatever he wanted as I want to do right by everyone. He did not want any part of that and said not to worry about it he had another one to use that this tv pro had just gave him. Well I am concerened about my baits so I check with my guide freind and we check all his and they swim right so then me and my pro check all of ours and they swim right so Im not sure what could be wrong with his but I would still do something with him to make it right. I have to be honest though I did take offense him busting me out like that in front of big name guys like that knowing Im just starting that business. Also knowing that he was telling this big name what kind of pattern I had put him on and I am sure taking credit for it all. So the tournament starts and we happen to beat this guy to the spot and he jumps right in front of us by no more than 75yds going the same direction our boat is heading so we catch two keepers quick and I say lets just move to the other side of the cove so this does not turn into a piss*** match and I have caught quality fish over there as well. So to make a long story short the tournament ends and that guy weighs his fish before we weigh ours and as we are walking to the scales I say so how did you end up doing today and all he says is dont worry about those baits and mummbling a bunch of other stuff I cant hear but I can tell he is upset so I drop it and go weigh my fish. Later that day I get ahold of him and he tells me how disappointed he is that I went there and that he has more to lose than I do and has more at stake and co-anglers are not supposed to be telling pros anything. Well he did not have any problems with me telling him what kind of bait I was catching fish on when he could not boat any or me showing him what kind of pattern the fish were on but I did not need to go fish there.He said he paid $100 more money in entry fees than I had and how much money he spent in gas and he is in a points race. Well my response was your money is no more important to you than my money is to me and as far as a points race I was in one too and had I have drawn a pro that had pre-fished or had any idea what was going on I probably would not have been in there. In my series I was in position to possible finish as AOY and get all my expenses paid to fish the PAA series if I won it so his points race was no more impotant than mine. I also made the point that I was not like most co-anglers that fish there and that I have as much expenses as most of those pros. I have a new boat payment as well and had pre-fished for over a week for that tournament so I know he did not pay any more money in gas that I had. On top of that I gave my pro $60 worth of custom baits and offered up $60 for gas as it was a long run to my spot. He basically told me if I was going to take it that serious then I needed to make the switch over to the pro side and I told him once I was comfortable on the other two lakes that was my intentions. Since then he has done nothing but trash my name with several pros saying I took another pro in on water I knew he was going to fish.Ok I know this story has went on forever but I did not want to leave anything out and I really dont know how to handle. I really dont feel like I was in the wrong but maybe I am missing out on some unwritten rules here as well. How do I handle this veteran trashing me to other pros on the circuit or do I just ignore it and grind on? Im sure now if I draw a guy that he is friends with I will have the back of the boat point out towards unproductive water or something like that as I wont cast past the consoles. Should I rush into making the switch over and just dedicate all my time into learning those other lakes? Im just not sure how I could have handled it to make things any better without zeroing on this tournament.