Fishermen caught cheating at Ohio tournament sentenced to 10 days

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, NYWayfarer said:

Newspaper article I read on the subject said cheaters use ice.

5th!

2 hours ago, SWVABass said:

I would also think that this could probably be used for the state to take away fishing access for these two. Pretty sure that stuffing fish with lead makes it unable to eat and could be considered wanton waste (spelling).

Yeah, no that won't stick.

[Big Hands]

They do appear to have been caught cheating, but since they did not actually accept any winnings for this tournament, it could possibly be argued that they hadn't actually stolen anything. . . yet. I have read of speculation that this is how this one could play out in the long run.

====================

Without the weights, they were around eight pounds ahead of second place. But I have to wonder if those fish were even taken legally according to the rules of the tournament.

[thediscochef]

4 minutes ago, Big Hands said:

They do appear to have been caught cheating, but since they did not actually accept any winnings for this tournament, it could possibly be argued that they hadn't actually stolen anything. . . yet. I have read of speculation that this is how this one could play out in the long run.

====================

Without the weights, they were around eight pounds ahead of second place. But I have to wonder if those fish were even taken legally according to the rules of the tournament.

They're bold enough to pull this BS naturally I'd think they'd do all the bad things

 

[TnRiver46]

19 hours ago, TOXIC said:

I thought this might be enough of a deal to push for length vs weight as a way for scoring but then I remembered there have been instances of kayak cheaters in that format as well.  I also don’t think length is a fair measure since I’ve seen a lot of long skinny fish and short heavy fish.  I just think length is more arbitrary.

By that description, the weight is just as arbitrary 

[Deleted account]

14 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

By that description, the weight is just as arbitrary 

Agreed.

[Tennessee Boy]

I think it happens a lot more than you think.   I know a guy that was fishing a BASS open and his partner offered to buy his only fish.  I drew a guy in a tournament once that didn’t say it but strongly hinted that he should take my 6th fish.  There’s a lot of dishonest people out there.  Very sad.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Just watched a crazy video about an epic Bass cheater of recent history....dude actually didn't officially cheat while cheating to the Nth degree.   He used the rules to hide behind.   Apparently, his truck and boat were still shot up though.

 

He held fish in a kiddie pool with a small cut in the lid.....would flip a jig into the hole to fish that haven't ate in a week, and pull out a 20lb bag on a single dock lol 

[TnRiver46]

I read about a guy in a kayak tourney that had a bass tail. He would hold it onto his fish then take the picture 

[gim]

Years ago, when some of the local walleye tournaments still did a real dead fish weigh in (like this one at Lake Erie), they had to abide by the local or lake-specific slot size for keepers.  For example, if the lake they were fishing on only allowed harvest of 14-18 inch fish, that was the only size fish they could weigh in even though they could catch a lot of fish much bigger.  So anglers had to adjust and target specific size fish, and not just the biggest ones they could find.  It was a completely different strategy than it is now with immediate catch and release.  Nowadays, they all target big fish because they stopped doing weigh ins.

 

I heard that a team during pre-fishing had found a school of those specific size slot fish.  They kept them alive, put them in a crab type metal cage thing on the bottom, and marked it on their GPS.  On tournament day, they went over to that, pulled it up, and put them in their livewell.  Someone not in the tournament saw them do this from a distance and reported it.  After they were questioned about it, they admitted it.

[Choporoz]

I don't doubt that there's plenty who have cheated or tried to cheat.  However, maybe I am naive but I suspect there are very few at the top of a regional or national level that do so.  I don't know....maybe it's the idea that jackwagons like these two, or like Mike Long make such big news.  If it was rampant and routine, more would be getting caught, I'd think.

[WVU-SCPA]

Story has really blown up.  Have been sent it or asked if I saw it many times over from non fishing friends.  They say all publicity is good publicity but the whole story is just wooof.

 

It's almost like they were asking to get caught with that amount of weight and tournament format.

 

In the last 5 years of local tournaments we've had some drama. Someone snagging a sunken milk crate with lid the week of a tournament that was very poorly handled.  It was all theories of fish being stored and blasted on social media vs catching someone in the act.  I know of a individual that baits with blended pet food in the prior weeks to draw bait fish.  Shady, but not sure it breaks any rules and he rarely places.

[Hulkster]

look at the belly on this walleye. Knowing what we know now,  I'd bet a million bucks its full of lead. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 minute ago, Hulkster said:

look at the belly on this walleye. Knowing what we know now,  I'd bet a million bucks its full of lead. 

Hey somebody has to pay for those diamond studded earrings?

[looking45]

On 9/30/2022 at 10:10 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I wondered if you could be prosecuted for that...the sirens in the background ironically were perfect.

 

Wonder what specific law they broke, and if it's a felony.   The monetary amount I imagine will determine that as I bet it's a form of theft/fraud, and given modern day tournaments, I'd bet they are facing felonies. 

 

Imagine being a felon for a fishing tournament, they deserve everything that gets thrown at them. 

It’s happened at bass tournaments here on the west coast. I’ve talked to a couple tournament directors. They said if someone is. Aught cheating AFTER they accepted a prize/money, it was considered fraud. Guys who have been caught cheating have been banned for life by all the circuits

[volzfan59]

23 hours ago, Revival said:

Allegedly the same guys have been caught cheating before and one of them also failed a lie detector test.  Any truth to that?

I've read that too, don't know how true it is though. Listening to the video, the second place team had 16 lbs. From what I've read, these cheaters fish weighed 25 lbs w/o the lead. Assuming that's true, they had the thing won w/o cheating.

[gim]

1 hour ago, volzfan59 said:

Assuming that's true, they had the thing won w/o cheating.

Yes, that's true.  They would have won without the added 8 pounds of lead weights.

 

There's nothing that can be done about previous events because there's no evidence.  I work in law enforcement on fraud-type cases.  If there's no evidence, we can do nothing about it.  Simply pointing at a photo of "that belly" or their previous weights is pure assumption.  While I do think its very likely they were doing this in previous events, unless they admit to it, the only portion of this that is fraud is the current event when they were caught.

[TnRiver46]

54 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

  I work in law enforcement on fraud-type cases.  

Now that everything is digital, you’ve got serious job security haha

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

There's nothing that can be done about previous events because there's no evidence

I did read they failed a polygraph test or two last year but apparently that didn’t change they outcome of the tournaments they failed them at. It makes you wonder what the purpose of the polygraph is then?

[gim]

5 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

It makes you wonder what the purpose of the polygraph is then?

Great question.  A head scratcher indeed.

[MN Fisher]

35 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Great question.  A head scratcher indeed.

I just don't trust polygraphs anyway - and they cannot be used in criminal trials.

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-nature-deception/202001/do-lie-detector-tests-really-work

"The federal government sought an unbiased evaluation of the polygraph, so they tasked the National Academy of Sciences with a full investigation of the polygraph’s accuracy. In 2003, this large team of notable scientists came to the conclusion that the polygraph was far less accurate than the polygraph examiners had claimed. Some scientists have claimed that the accuracy may be closer to 75%. This lackluster performance is the reason why polygraphs are not used as evidence in criminal trials. They just cannot be trusted."

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, MN Fisher said:

I just don't trust polygraphs anyway - and they cannot be used in criminal trials.

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-nature-deception/202001/do-lie-detector-tests-really-work

"The federal government sought an unbiased evaluation of the polygraph, so they tasked the National Academy of Sciences with a full investigation of the polygraph’s accuracy. In 2003, this large team of notable scientists came to the conclusion that the polygraph was far less accurate than the polygraph examiners had claimed. Some scientists have claimed that the accuracy may be closer to 75%. This lackluster performance is the reason why polygraphs are not used as evidence in criminal trials. They just cannot be trusted."

I knew that, and that’s part of my confusion about what the purpose of them are? Is it more of a mind game to try and keep people honest, or to try and get cheaters to come clean? 
 

So many questions, so few answers. ?

[Munkin]

He is in trouble now!

[FishTank]

These cheaters are trash but the memes are fantastic.

 

 

[slonezp]

3 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

 It makes you wonder what the purpose of the polygraph is then?

The trail I used to fish did a polygraph for the winners of the Tournament Of Champions as standard procedure, not only because a complaint was made.

 

At the local level, they caught the release boat for a Wednesday night trail "planting" fish for the Saturday trail. What they were doing is releasing the small to average sized fish in the middle of the lake as they were supposed to. They were releasing the big fish on the bottom side of a spillway in the back of a 2 mile long creek. The fish would stay there because of the oxygen and bait. While, they still had to catch the fish for the Saturday tournament, they increased their odds. I've been out of the circuit for 10 years and do not recall the outcome to the offenders. 

[InfantryMP]

I read that they eventually passed the polygraphs from last year. Typically if you fail the first one, you have a grace period of a couple days to re-take it. They passed the second one apparently. 

 

I watched the statement that the tourny director put out, this morning. The issue I see is that since they did not get caught until now, there is not a lot they can do for previous winnings and potential for cheating since there is no definitive proof. 

 

It sucks though for all those 2nd place guys who could have won if they were cheating to win that over 300K in winnings last year. 

 

How low do you have to be, to be good enough to win without cheating, but you still cheat anyway? I mean they had the winning weight without cheating!