The fish weighed "THAT MUCH"

[Draconator]

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/cleveland/cleveland-fishing-tournament-controversy-winners-caught-stuffing-walleye-weights/95-1e4ae3e9-bd35-463d-ac35-093c4a75d03b

[Nextmanup]

I remember reading an article about this sort of thing some years ago.  The guilty fishermen were actually going out into their fishing boat with PURCHASED fish like from a fish market...and then claiming they pulled them out of the water.

 

Of course, they were all huge trophy fish!

 

You might laugh at this, but...

 

A good friend of mine worked for years (while in school) at the Erie Basin Marina.  One year they had one of these pro bass fishing contests somewhere down there, and my buddy was talking to some of the guys.

 

He said they were making like $400,000 to $500,000 per year in winnings on the "pro bass tour" or whatever it was!  And that was in the late '80s and early '90s.

 

 

[aristocrat]

Shocked they got outta there without an ass beating. These guys had been suspected before they’re just so dumb they couldn’t quit while ahead 

[Marv's Neighbor]

A lot of the seafood/fish imported from S America has a lot more than weights inside.  Not unusual to find cocaine inside frozen fish.

[Just Jack]

When I was in high school, I used to work part time with a guy that went on to do the Pro Walleye Tour, Todd Frank.

 

https://youtu.be/aFUVsA55Hkw

 

[MarkyMannn]

These two guys won $306,000 last year and a boat all of which is being disputed.

 

Weights LOL. The so-called winning fish was on the smaller size and weighed almost 8# when most fish are 5#. Yeah not obvious

[Just Jack]

For the story behind the story...

 

Lead weights and lie detectors: The scandal that rocked a Cleveland fishing tournament and became worldwide news (yahoo.com)

[davefan66]

14 hours ago, MarkyMannn said:

These two guys won $306,000 last year and a boat all of which is being disputed.

 

Weights LOL. The so-called winning fish was on the smaller size and weighed almost 8# when most fish are 5#. Yeah not obvious

That’s the part I don’t get.  You’d think experienced fisherman would catch on to that.  What, were these guys fish obese fish?  Did they have “glandular” problems?

 

I go find it funny that besides the weights, they stuffed the fish with…fish!

[sherpa]

Here's a Bills related story on the same theme.

During the Super Bowl years, one of our very well known offensive linemen was not at the weight Marv wanted him to be and Marv would tell him every year that he needed to gain weight.

His last two years here, at weigh in before training camp, he had his wife sew weights in a baseball hat and  he would wear it at the weigh in, giving him an additional five pounds.

[aristocrat]

20 hours ago, MarkyMannn said:

These two guys won $306,000 last year and a boat all of which is being disputed.

 

Weights LOL. The so-called winning fish was on the smaller size and weighed almost 8# when most fish are 5#. Yeah not obvious

one guy failed his polygraph so he didn’t get like 100k of that prize money. They were onto them just hadn’t cut open the fish.  Fish from these tourneys are donated to local food banks and these guys were the only ones who kept their fish…also a pretty questionable sign. I’m just surprised they don’t have a metal detector or something. 

[unbillievable]

1 hour ago, aristocrat said:

one guy failed his polygraph so he didn’t get like 100k of that prize money. They were onto them just hadn’t cut open the fish.  Fish from these tourneys are donated to local food banks and these guys were the only ones who kept their fish…also a pretty questionable sign. I’m just surprised they don’t have a metal detector or something. 

 

I'm not a fisherman, but I can come up with a few ways to cheat, from water injections to sand, or even putting fish into fish.

I just think these guys got arrogant at the end after going years without getting caught.

 

 

[aristocrat]

1 hour ago, unbillievable said:

 

I'm not a fisherman, but I can come up with a few ways to cheat, from water injections to sand, or even putting fish into fish.

I just think these guys got arrogant at the end after going years without getting caught.

 

 

 

Ice is apparently something that has been used. The most common is just catching fish beforehand and placing it in a spot where you retrieve during the competition. 

[Warcodered]

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

The fishing tourneys that come through the lock are catch, weigh-in, and release. 

 

They all go back below the lock... Weigh-in, then a few boats come back upbound and dump their live wells with all the fish that was weighed in.

 

If you doctor up the fish you're gonna kill it, right?

 

Here's one tourney, link below.  Not sure if they release after weigh-in... They might not come back through lock... But the DNR wants them to release in the waters where they catch them.

 

Funny thing is, the few boats designated to go back north through lock after weigh-in don't go all the way back to Lake Calumet where they caught the fish.  They release right by lock so they can turnaround and go right back through south, downbound without having to get caught waiting for the lock to cycle, or worse, stuck behind future commercial barge traffic.  The lock is off limits... So all those smallmouth hang around the structure the lock affords... The smallies grow to be monsters there... Probably never to be caught again.  Except by me... 😆 

 

https://www.ssrbcircuit.com/copy-of-2021-div-3-lake-calumet

 

(The background wallpaper pic was shot in the lock)

 

Most tournaments have rules that you must use non-piercing cull tags when placing fish in the livewell during the tournament (in order to cull the smallest fish).

 

https://www.mrboatmechanic.com/best-non-puncture-cull-tags/

 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by ExiledInIllinois

[Buffalo716]

23 hours ago, Warcodered said:

 

That’s my backup* quarterback 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Buffalo716