According to the responses to the videos, the last tournament they won a little over $300k.

Nobody will Google it but I will try.

https://www.wired2fish.com/news/angler-charged-with-fraud-in-big-bass-event-on-lake-fork/#slide_1

Walleye Tournament/ fisherman = Yankees

Meh! When you let your hunting and fishing get that serious, you better know someone is getting screwed somewhere.

Handheld metal detecting pin pointers are super cheap these days. Why would it not be standard practice to run one over every fish turned in? I know it won't catch the guys stuffing them with fish fillets, but those big egg sinkers he was pulling out would make a pinpointer sing.

Those two dudes will be banned from ever fishing tournaments anywhere.
They deserve it.

I thought metal detectors just picked up ferrous metal

I'm only familiar with the standard sort (not pin-pointers) but they wouldn't work for gold rings if they only detected ferrous metal.

CanyonAg77 said:

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I thought metal detectors just picked up ferrous metal

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There are some that do non-ferrous too. It typically takes more mass of the non-ferrous to be detected, but those big egg weights would be plenty. I use mine to detect bullet fragments in deer meat, and any amount of lead large enough to be meaningful on a tournament scale would set it off for sure.

Gunny456 said:

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Those two dudes will be banned from ever fishing tournaments anywhere.
They deserve it.

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Those guys (if it was a team) will be in jail. And they deserve it.

I'm sure this is a dumb question but for the big money tourneys at least, why can't they put cameras on each boat? Winners tapes would have to be reviewed before payouts. Are the boats out all day, or only hours? Does this happen often?

The organization would supply and mount the cameras. Would it cost too much? Fine the cheaters enough to pay for cameras?

Depends on the circuit. Some do some don't. However in the larger money tourneys they have observers watching from other boats.
Actually the incidence of this happening is very very rare. Almost every tournament gives polygraphs. They are what they are but every fisherman knows he will have to take it if he is in the top 5 places or so. Most of them are in the sport long haul and know if they should get caught it would mean jail time and end a career.
It has been my experience that it is still one of the purest non corrupt sports around. The fisherman police themselves very well.

CanyonAg77 said:

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I thought metal detectors just picked up ferrous metal

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aluminum pull tabs off drink cans are the bane of metal detectors

I've never seen someone stuff one with filets like that, I'm sure on top of everything else, wardens will be interested to find out when those got harvested.

Have heard of some smaller tournaments turn in to absolute chaos when people haul big bass up and weights come falling out of their mouths, or there's lead in the bottom of the weigh in bags

Ag_of_08 said:

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I've never seen someone stuff one with filets like that, I'm sure on top of everything else, wardens will be interested to find out when those got harvested.

Have heard of some smaller tournaments turn in to absolute chaos when people haul big bass up and weights come falling out of their mouths, or there's lead in the bottom of the weigh in bags

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I don't think anything was ever proven but about 10 years ago there were a lot of accusations made at some East Texas tournaments when a couple of guys kept weighing in bass that had bellies full of the Red Swamp Crawfish that is the main species farmed in Louisiana.

I worked lots of bass tournaments in east Texas. Never heard of anything like that. Wow.

chickencoupe16 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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I admit I'm a hunter not a fisherman and may not know how these fishing tourneys work but I thought it was SOP for winners to have to take and pass polygraphs, and had been for like 30 years. How in the world do you get away with shoving lead weights and fish filets down the gullet?

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Why do people believe in lie detectors? Their science is questionable, which is why they are inadmissible in court.

Even if they do work, they work by measuring your baseline during answers the operator knows the honest answer to against that during your response to unknown questions. So if you can "raise" your baseline (ie a tack in your shoe or some other method) or if you honestly believe your lie or if you have no qualms/worries about the lie, then the operator won't know you're lying.

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cool tangent. Now back to the regular thread.

The guys that did this are scum and deserve every harsh word in that video and every bit of prosecution they receive.

I fished the McDonalds Lake Fork tourney three years in a row a good 15 years or so ago.
Lots of rules. On one occasion the guy tied up next to us had caught the big bass of the tourney. They did a boat inspection and found a single beer in one of the boat lockers that had been rolling around so long you can barely read Bud. He was disqualified.

Another guy had a big bass of the hour. They went to inspect his boat and his wife had taken a seat in his boat and was reading. She wasn't in the boat when he was fishing but he was also disqualified.

I can't believe someone could get away with what those guys were doing and suspected of doing for so long.

I quit doing it because it just wasn't fun to me.

David Happymountain said:

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chickencoupe16 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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I admit I'm a hunter not a fisherman and may not know how these fishing tourneys work but I thought it was SOP for winners to have to take and pass polygraphs, and had been for like 30 years. How in the world do you get away with shoving lead weights and fish filets down the gullet?

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Why do people believe in lie detectors? Their science is questionable, which is why they are inadmissible in court.

Even if they do work, they work by measuring your baseline during answers the operator knows the honest answer to against that during your response to unknown questions. So if you can "raise" your baseline (ie a tack in your shoe or some other method) or if you honestly believe your lie or if you have no qualms/worries about the lie, then the operator won't know you're lying.

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cool tangent. Now back to the regular thread.

The guys that did this are scum and deserve every harsh word in that video and every bit of prosecution they receive.

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You must be fun at parties.

Lie detector tests are deterrents. My buddy turned someone in after a fishing tournament and they denied cheating until it was time to take the test. Didn't admit to it, but returned the money and trophies while also refusing the test.

What a crappie weigh to win.

I wish tournaments would just go away

Lots of trolling (and not the fishing kind).

pic.twitter.com/kJzTNEJZww

— NevilleTheCat (@FearTheFloof) October 1, 2022

One of the comments:

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Leaded fish? Was the tournament in Flint, Michigan?

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I'm not much of a fisherman. Who were those guys?
I suppose their endorsements are done.

Apparently this is a thing in Catfish tournaments as well. Heard of some guys catching big yellow cats days/weeks in advance and keeping them alive in a water trough. Thing is, yellow cats actually change color to a lighter shade when exposed to more sun. Some dudes showed up with pale yellow cats & everyone else's were darker. Nothing could be proven that time, but lie detectors were introduced to the tourney the following year & no incidents since.

This.

We would not have the LM bass like we have today if it was not for bass tournaments.
Share a Lunker program is a prime example.

They were fishing a regional local trail. They are done fishing tournaments anywhere in the US. The fact they have done it is the key. In every tournament no matter how small or large.... in the rules... it disqualifies you immediately if you have been caught cheating.

Gunny456 said:

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Those two dudes will be banned from ever fishing tournaments anywhere.
They deserve it.

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This may be the least of their worries

Yes sir. They really messed up.
All the local guys going to hate em on top of all of it...,.,besides they goin to jail!

Any Game Wardens or TPWD guys know what is likely to happen to these guys?

bmac_aggie18 said:

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Any Game Wardens or TPWD guys know what is likely to happen to these guys?

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I'm guessing it pales in comparison to fraud charges from the local sheriff.

Go to church with a warden in our county. We were talking about it. He said it depends on the wildlife code in Ohio, but he said in Texas, if they caught the fish legal and were legal fish as far as minimum length and within creel limits etc. TPWD would have no laws broken in Texas wildlife code. He said it would fall under state and federal jurisdiction... probably some type of fraud and commerce laws according to his thoughts.

I'm a little surprised that no one has had a Eureka! moment and figured out that the specific gravity of these fish is way off. Shouldn't they be close to the same weight per volume as water?

Or, at minimum, couldn't a biologist create a chart that says a fish of X length should weigh Y pounds?

These tournaments are catch/release, right? What did these cheaters plan to do with the fish afterwords? Would they have removed all of the stuff they shoved inside, or just throw them back as is and let them live the rest of their days with a bunch of lead in their stomachs? Also, what happens when an honest but unsuspecting fisherman catches a fish full of weights in next year's tournament?