Bass tournament cheaters

Damn that’s as low as it gets in the fishing circuit.

I would say at the minimum, his tournament days are over. That's pathetic. I wonder how many tournaments he's "Won" and taken home prize money??

might be a stupid question- how is he doing this? Is he forcing the fish to eat the weights?

If you're not cheating, yore not trying...

In the youtube comments someone says they made over 300k in tournaments last year and over 500k this year in winnings. Are these fishing tournaments that big?

outboard_256 said:

In the youtube comments someone says they made over 300k in tournaments last year and over 500k this year in winnings. Are these fishing tournaments that big?

Click to expand...

Yes I had a friend that fished as a second hustle. He’d pull 20-30 a year. Another won 1 tournament for 10K.

outboard_256 said:

In the youtube comments someone says they made over 300k in tournaments last year and over 500k this year in winnings. Are these fishing tournaments that big?

Click to expand...

Maybe not from the tournament itself but think of all those sponsors on his jacket.

Apparently it's not the first time these 2 idiots have been caught cheating either.

Lol.... Funny watching him just stand there as they exposed all his bullshit. I guess he'll be fishing for fun in the future instead of making a living off of it.

When ever money is involved in fishing I guarantee there's cheating going on.

listen to the crowd......one notch below "get a rope"

What a basshole!

Dont a lot of the big tournaments require questions while hooked up to a polygraph after you win?

Got a buddy who fishes as a side gig and i asked him about ease of cheating and he was saying its not as easy as it seems.

I'm sure Ranger boats loves having their name splashed all over that video... LOL...

Nanu/Nanu said:

Dont a lot of the big tournaments require questions while hooked up to a polygraph after you win?

Got a buddy who fishes as a side gig and i asked him about ease of cheating and he was saying its not as easy as it seems.

Click to expand...

Bigger tournaments scan (x-ray) fish to verify no rocks or weights are inside.

That's insane . . . . the guy just staying there was prob. his 'safest' move.
Had he bolted, that crowd sounded ready light his ass up.

Similar deal happened on Lake Mead several years ago . . . a guy was slidding torpedo shaped weights down the bass' throats . . . but he had taken the time to 'sew' on a single hook to the side of the weights . . . .I guess he'd stuff the weights down with the hook point facing him so that the bass couldn't puke them back up in the livewell.

Taks a special kind of scum bag . . . .

“In my defense I can’t control what the fish was eating before I caught it”

There was a dude a while back that would pre catch bass on practice day's tie em up to as log or something and just retrieve them during the tournament. He was good till he got lazy and literally left some stringer rope hanging out of a few mouths and got busted. I'm sure there is video on YT

shintoooo said:

Damn that’s as low as it gets in the fishing circuit.

Click to expand...

"Can’t believe they caught fish that ate weights."

Nanu/Nanu said:

Dont a lot of the big tournaments require questions while hooked up to a polygraph after you win?

Got a buddy who fishes as a side gig and i asked him about ease of cheating and he was saying its not as easy as it seems.

Click to expand...

Apparently this same crew was busted last year on a tournament for failing a polygraph. I found the article last night online

500bbc said:

"Can’t believe they caught fish that ate weights."

Click to expand...

One year we were fishing the Gold Cup Marlin Tournament in Catalina, a well known "Plastic Surgeon" to many Hollywood stars appeared to have won it was announced after weighing in his marlin.
Wasn't long afterwards, it was stripped when the bag fulls of ice he'd apparently filled the fish with, started melting and this winning marlin had gallons of water flowing from his dead mouth.
Another incident had a prominent engineering contractor from San Diego get his trophy and winnings denied when he was exposed for having used a 2nd boat to catch and transfer the fish.
Another had hired and used a Swordfish spotter plane.

The larger the purse, the richer the players, the richer the players, the more creative the cheating became. The first couple of Bisbee's were the worst and of course being held in old Cabo, well, anything was possible.

LOL “call the cops”.

Those shirts / vests will all those sponsors reming me of those Rodeo guys. Shit load of sponsors. Lots of money lost. Bet the boat is Sponsor owned

Javajoe said:

Those shirts / vests will all those sponsors reming me of those Rodeo guys. Shit load of sponsors. Lots of money lost. Bet the boat is Sponsor owned

Click to expand...

And I bet there are all kinds of clauses in those contracts to financially cover their asses if one of their sponsored fishermen get caught cheating like this. He's definitely going to owe a LOT of restitution to a lot of people.

I don’t know shit about fuck when it comes to fishing. But this is fascinating to me. I fucking hate cheaters. Did a little reading on this, and these guys would have won this tournament by a fair amount, WITHOUT the weights being added.

Morons.

Walleye...not bass fisherman but it happens. One of the more common things is having fish caught either 1. on a different body of water (think farm pond honey hole), or 2. caught and caged for retrieval later. Here in AZ, a pile of shit by the name of Michael Orozco was busted for option 1 in 2012. I think he got a big fine, and 5 years not being able to fish. He was a "guide" and had a bunch of sponsors...he disappeared like a fart in the wind after that.

Bass Tournaments and other fishing tournaments can have massive amounts of money involved...but even on the little circuits cheaters are around and the get caught every so often. Those guys will be done fishing, but someone is already lining up to take their place with the next scheme. The bass fishing world has far more drama on a regular basis than anything I've ever seen.

No drama here

Don't know why he stuck around looking all concerned.. should've headed for the hills. Made his chunk of change cheating!.. call it a day and gtfoh.!

4Waters said:

No drama here

View attachment 1159758

Click to expand...

That poor bass has been starving to death! Should be twice that size. Nice catch regardless!!

Rondog4405 said:

That poor bass gas been starving to death! Should be twice that size. Nice catch regardless!!

Click to expand...

I know, that's what I was thinking

Rondog4405 said:

Don't know why he stuck around looking all concerned.. should've headed for the hills. Made his chunk of change cheating!.. call it a day and gtfoh.!

Click to expand...

having been around tournaments growing up....he would have gotten the ever living shit beat out of him in the parking lot. they waited for the cops to prevent that from occurring.

Rondog4405 said:

That poor bass has been starving to death! Should be twice that size. Nice catch regardless!!

Click to expand...

Looks like a male. Warmer (shallow) water and/or spreading his jizzzzz all summer does that to them.

Bass are crazy cool fish!

outboard_256 said:

In the youtube comments someone says they made over 300k in tournaments last year and over 500k this year in winnings. Are these fishing tournaments that big?

Click to expand...

Top guy made $6 million last year

Many years ago (I think 1994) i joined the Yuma Bassmasters as a 'Non-Boater' (I had a little skiff, but it wasn't a full blown bass boat).
I wanted to learn the Lower River and the tournaments were a 'draw' format, where they paired you with a 'Boater'.
Really a great way to learn new places, or techniques.
The first even I fished was at 'Lake Mittry' which is below the Imperial Dam and above the city of Yuma.
Had a blast . . . . but then at the weigh-in, there was some commotion.
I noticed a dude super pissed off talking to the tournament director . . . it got heated quick.
Next thing I know, here comes another dude through the crowd and he's furious . . . big young kid, 200+ lbs. and ready to throw blows.
The other dude see's him coming, and they go right after each other, it was game on for a quick second . . . then the tournament director got between them and a couple other dudes stepped in and pulled them away . . . shirts ripping, hats knocked-off . . . every other word was F-you etc. etc.

I guess what happened was the initial dude complaining had taken the young kid practice fishing the week before in the lake. They went into an area of the lake that was a refuge and was technically off-limits / closed on that day (but was going to be open during the tournament as it's a 'seasonal closure) . . . . I guess they caught some real big bass, and saw some even bigger ones on beds getting ready to spawn.
Well the kid didn't own a boat, but because he saw those big fish in there, he decided to 'borrow' a boat and enter the tournament hoping to clean house.
Well the kid caught the 'winning weight' , but when the guy who had taken him there the week prior saw that the kid was going to win, he protested.

But here's where it got weird . . . . the guy had to disqualify himself first because had taken the kid into a 'closed area' the week prior. (Against club rules).
So technically they were BOTH cheaters, and when one didn't win, he turned out the other one !

That was my introduction to tournament bass fishing ! LOL

I found the original full video because I wanted to see where things turned at the weigh in.. They are the last guys to weigh in so you can skip ahead to the last 6 or 7 minutes. So much cheating in everything these days. Chess, Poker, Fishing, probably anything with enough pride or money on the line.

4Waters said:

No drama here

View attachment 1159758

Click to expand...

Did you return the fish to the corral.. err I mean lake?

Nice Fish

If they weren’t famous before, they are now. Power of social media

Shlbyntro said:

Did you return the fish to the corral.. err I mean lake?

Nice Fish

Click to expand...

Yup, always catch and release, he was stoked to catch that, thanks

FlyByWire said:

I don’t know shit about fuck when it comes to fishing. But this is fascinating to me. I fucking hate cheaters. Did a little reading on this, and these guys would have won this tournament by a fair amount, WITHOUT the weights being added.

Morons.

Click to expand...

If they went through the trouble of stuffing the fish, they likely caught them before the tournament..

People setup fish boxes and drop them in the water a few days before the tournament and then just go and retrieve the fish and claim victory..

They should have strung the guy up by his nuts

Lots of fishing tournaments in the Delta. I’m amazed at the number of brand new trucks and boats, all decked out in full wraps with sponsor logos from bumper to bumper. Spent an hour or so on the Internet and the amount of sponsor and prize money is staggering. Fishing for a living might be my reincarnation gig.

Big money fishing tournaments can, and do, attract big crooks. The Marlin tournaments in Cabo are among the biggest. Besides the official tournament there are also what are known as High Roller Side Bets. Apparently these bets were being made in cash, very large amounts of cash. So at one of these High Roller side bet events the armed and masked bad guys show up and leave with all the cash. Some at the event said the only surprise was, that it hadn’t happened sooner. It was a well known event and the sums of cash were crazy. Did I say, this was Mexico. I’ve no idea if they ever caught the guys. Perhaps others here may know.

It’s really too bad that sometimes these tournaments are affected by these shady characters. I’ve had very good friends who were consistently at the top of these Marlin tournaments. All for one very good reason, they were the best at what they did. That includes fishing and running the boat. These are often team events. Were my buddies “hired guns?” Yes, there were times they were paid by the wealthy boat owners to fish on their team. But, as years went by, the best rose to the top - those fishing, owners, captains and their crews. Best of the best. But, because it is fishing, all stand a chance. And sometimes the luckiest do win. The Catalina Gold Cup was previously mentioned. I was not there, but the year the Outer Limits competed was epic. The Outer Limits was not the typical high dollar sportfisher yacht. It was, as some call them, a cattle boat. But, the captain knew how to fish, how to party and brawl. The rest is history. Yes, I knew him. But, I wasn’t there. May he RIP.

Javajoe said:

Those shirts / vests will all those sponsors reming me of those Rodeo guys. Shit load of sponsors. Lots of money lost. Bet the boat is Sponsor owned

Click to expand...

I have a buddy that was a full sponsored pro bass fisherman. Everything was sponsored. His truck, the boat, all his gear, everything.

I took him out in my boat once, and I was surprised how little he know about boating. By the end of the day, I realized he just shows up and hops in a boat that is already in the water, and at the end of the day smashes it into the dock, and heads out while someone else trailers the boat.

I had him drive mine on the trailer at the end of the day. He damned near drove into the back of my truck. Then as soon as th boat was out of the water, he hoped in his truck and left. No help with wiping down, throwing out trash, or anything.

Those good ol' boys back east are not done with those guys. They should sell everything and go hide. A lot of LEO in the outlying areas where these guys tent to live will turn the cheek when retribution happens.

I've had a couple friends who got very involved with bass tournaments..... one of them won a boat one year....... Both had family's and if they were to
become "better" fishermen, neither one of them would ever be home......... literally.........

so they're each just "good" fishermen........

unless your wife and kids don't ever want you home, you can be a pro bass fisherman.

My brother fishes in some big catfish events on the Mississippi. Big money involved. And yes they do polygraph.

Last year, he took a couple guys down and pre-fished the weekend before. Basically caught nothing, so he didn't go to the event. Guys he took, went back, fished the same spots, and ended up winning like 35k.

I was in a club tournament with my buddy here in havasu. He only invited me along because he had never been on the lake but I am very familiar with havasu for 15 years. i never fished it seriously but all he asked was where have i seen bass boats in the past. We went to all the areas and guess who came in first that day. I didn't catch chit but I guess i helped a little.

checkrdpast said:

I was in a club tournament with my buddy here in havasu. He only invited me along because he had never been on the lake but I am very familiar with havasu for 15 years. i never fished it seriously but all he asked was where have i seen bass boats in the past. We went to all the areas and guess who came in first that day. I didn't catch chit but I guess i helped a little.

Click to expand...

Local help is cheating!! LOL, that's awesome you were able to help him, local knowledge it key

checkrdpast said:

I was in a club tournament with my buddy here in havasu. He only invited me along because he had never been on the lake but I am very familiar with havasu for 15 years. i never fished it seriously but all he asked was where have i seen bass boats in the past. We went to all the areas and guess who came in first that day. I didn't catch chit but I guess i helped a little.

Click to expand...

Did you take him to the middle of the north end of the channel on a Saturday and glare at all the boats trying to pass you as you sit there fucking fishing…?

Cuz that would have been cool

There is betting on fishing, fantasy fishing, major sponsors and big money in it.

It is so crazy there are even groupies.