| OT Did y'all catch the news report on the guy cheating in the bass fishing tournaments?

[TerryP]

Last summer a guy was caught cheating in the state wide bass fishing tournament (month to month competition.) In his case he was measuring the same fish twice and submitting them as separate catches. In his case he was taking his knife/scissors and cutting sections out of the tails on each fish so they looked different—IF you didn't look closely. Someone did, he was caught, and from my understanding is still in a lot of hot water with the Wildlife and Game for mutilating fish.

I'd imagine this guy is in the same bucket.

 

[rick4bama]

Saw them talking about this on Crain & Company.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

At the pro crappie tourneys my Dad used to fish in, top money winners had to take a polygraph.

 

[TerryP]

At the pro crappie tourneys my Dad used to fish in, top money winners had to take a polygraph.

How did that work?

Unless a tournament is in a specific body of water those who are in the monthly competition can fish any public body of water. Their "limit" is five and the winner is determined by total length. They report this with a photo of the fish on a measuring board with each contestant's registration card visible in the photo.

Did you dad have to bring in all the fish for measurements? Then release them?

Side story: Several months ago my friend had three of his five disqualified because he used the wrong registration card in his photos. He lost over 60" that month.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

How did that work?

Unless a tournament is in a specific body of water those who are in the monthly competition can fish any public body of water. Their "limit" is five and the winner is determined by total length. They report this with a photo of the fish on a measuring board with each contestant's registration card visible in the photo.

Did you dad have to bring in all the fish for measurements? Then release them?

Side story: Several months ago my friend had three of his five disqualified because he used the wrong registration card in his photos. He lost over 60" that month.

These would be one- or two-day tournaments, specified body of water. Winners in the money, like top 3, took a polygraph. Did you catch the fish that you weighed in, did you catch the fish you weighed in today, did you catch any fish without the use of a qualifying rod and reel, did you catch the fish today within the geographic limits of the tournament, etc.

All fish were brought to the weigh-in, weighed alive and released. Geographic limits are usually easy when you have a single Coosa impoundment like Logan Martin, Lay Lake and such - requiring a single put-in and and take-out - but the tourneys on the Alabama River around Montgomery let you range a bit more, and then the tourney on the Harris Chain of Lakes north of Orlando was complex, as they are sprawling.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Good gosh...what some people will do....

 

[BamaFan334]

I saw this a few days ago. Someone posted on Instagram and I started digging and this guy is lucky he wasn't hurt. They said he won about $300,000 the year before, and of course questioned all of that. They said his buddy high tailed it to the car and locked himself in there until the cops came. Atleast this guy stayed and took his medicine. Now the real trouble starts when the law gets involved.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

I saw this a few days ago. Someone posted on Instagram and I started digging and this guy is lucky he wasn't hurt. They said he won about $300,000 the year before, and of course questioned all of that. They said his buddy high tailed it to the car and locked himself in there until the cops came. Atleast this guy stayed and took his medicine. Now the real trouble starts when the law gets involved.

Hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this. You know the money's gone, so they'll be subject to lawsuits, file bankruptcy and move on. Any return of winnings will just be a fraction, and the real winners won't get much, if any.

They'll never fish competitively again. I'm shocked he didn't get his ass kicked. He may have off camera.

 

[alabama mike]

Saw somewhere recently that fishermen were putting weights in the fish. Since I cant see the twitter, it may be the same thing you are talking about.

 

[bamaledge]

Dayum!!!!!

 

[TerryP]

Hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this. You know the money's gone, so they'll be subject to lawsuits, file bankruptcy and move on. Any return of winnings will just be a fraction, and the real winners won't get much, if any.

They'll never fish competitively again. I'm shocked he didn't get his ass kicked. He may have off camera.

A friend seems to think it'll go farther than this (Game Warden.)

 

[JoshB]

At the pro crappie tourneys my Dad used to fish in, top money winners had to take a polygraph.

The fishermen in question failed one last year and got disqualified. They seem to be more pro cheater than pro fishermen.

 

[JoshB]

Hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this. You know the money's gone, so they'll be subject to lawsuits, file bankruptcy and move on. Any return of winnings will just be a fraction, and the real winners won't get much, if any.

They'll never fish competitively again. I'm shocked he didn't get his ass kicked. He may have off camera.

From what I read about it, the guy that runs the tournament called the cops and had them escorted off the premises partly because he was scared others were going to beat the hell out of the guys.

 

[XXL TideFan]

Didn’t Bill Dance get a lifetime ban for cheating? I’ve never been able to grasp a cheaters mindset.

 

[Secondand26]

Didn’t Bill Dance get a lifetime ban for cheating? I’ve never been able to grasp a cheaters mindset.

Not to my knowledge. I always understood that he parlayed his early tournament success into a fishing show / better $$ & lower stress

 

[It Takes Eleven]

A friend seems to think it'll go farther than this (Game Warden.)

If they perpetrated a fraud that yielded them six figures, it certainly will.

 

[TerryP]

If they perpetrated a fraud that yielded them six figures, it certainly will.

His thought was that it was above and beyond the money. I'll ask him about it, but I got the impression it fell under some type of animal abuse.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

His thought was that it was above and beyond the money. I'll ask him about it, but I got the impression it fell under some type of animal abuse.

I'm sure there's something in that arena, but perpetrating a fraud of that magnitude will put you in jail.