Fishermen nearly won a tournament. Then weights were found in the fish.

E

ExpressLane

Verified User
Jason Fischer knew the two fishermen needed their catch to weigh in at about 16 pounds to secure the team-of-the-year award at a competition in Cleveland on Friday. Eyeballing their entry, the tournament director figured they were about to easily clear that mark with five fish he estimated would come in at about 20 pounds.

When the scale nearly hit 34 pounds, he grew suspicious.

“It just kind of deflated me, because I just knew it wasn’t right,” Fischer, the director and owner of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament, told The Washington Post.
Fischer grabbed one of the fish, ran his hand over its stomach and squeezed. He felt something hard — too hard.

Fischer sliced open the dead walleye and plunged his hand into its flesh. He rooted around until he found what he hoped he wouldn’t find.

“We got weights in fish!” he yelled, holding one of 10 steel-gray, egg-sized weights that would be pulled from the entry.

Then, Fischer disqualified the two-man team that had submitted the entry.......

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/03/fishing-tournament-cheating-weights-walleye/
==========================================


These guys won multiple tournaments and won tens of thousands of dollars and prizes in the year before this tournament. Things almost got violent when they were caught cheating.
 
cheating is just too tempting when you introduce money into the equation.

I was surprised at just how many weights they used. Should have been caught just by sight.
 
ExpressLane said:
Jason Fischer knew the two fishermen needed their catch to weigh in at about 16 pounds to secure the team-of-the-year award at a competition in Cleveland on Friday. Eyeballing their entry, the tournament director figured they were about to easily clear that mark with five fish he estimated would come in at about 20 pounds.

When the scale nearly hit 34 pounds, he grew suspicious.

“It just kind of deflated me, because I just knew it wasn’t right,” Fischer, the director and owner of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament, told The Washington Post.
Fischer grabbed one of the fish, ran his hand over its stomach and squeezed. He felt something hard — too hard.

Fischer sliced open the dead walleye and plunged his hand into its flesh. He rooted around until he found what he hoped he wouldn’t find.

“We got weights in fish!” he yelled, holding one of 10 steel-gray, egg-sized weights that would be pulled from the entry.

Then, Fischer disqualified the two-man team that had submitted the entry.......

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/03/fishing-tournament-cheating-weights-walleye/
==========================================


These guys won multiple tournaments and won tens of thousands of dollars and prizes in the year before this tournament. Things almost got violent when they were caught cheating.
Click to expand...

How did he manage to stick 10 of them in the fish without getting caught?
 
Celticguy said:
cheating is just too tempting when you introduce money into the equation.

I was surprised at just how many weights they used. Should have been caught just by sight.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but only for the weak, stupid and greedy.

While it's true "for the love of money is the root of all evil", not all succumb to greed. Those idiots were without honor.

Hopefully those organizing the event ban them for life.
 
ExpressLane said:
Jason Fischer knew the two fishermen needed their catch to weigh in at about 16 pounds to secure the team-of-the-year award at a competition in Cleveland on Friday. Eyeballing their entry, the tournament director figured they were about to easily clear that mark with five fish he estimated would come in at about 20 pounds.

When the scale nearly hit 34 pounds, he grew suspicious.

“It just kind of deflated me, because I just knew it wasn’t right,” Fischer, the director and owner of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament, told The Washington Post.
Fischer grabbed one of the fish, ran his hand over its stomach and squeezed. He felt something hard — too hard.

Fischer sliced open the dead walleye and plunged his hand into its flesh. He rooted around until he found what he hoped he wouldn’t find.

“We got weights in fish!” he yelled, holding one of 10 steel-gray, egg-sized weights that would be pulled from the entry.

Then, Fischer disqualified the two-man team that had submitted the entry.......

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/03/fishing-tournament-cheating-weights-walleye/
==========================================


These guys won multiple tournaments and won tens of thousands of dollars and prizes in the year before this tournament. Things almost got violent when they were caught cheating.
Click to expand...
I read that yesterday. These guys were real geniuses.

Cheating is extremely common in all of these tournaments. About 15 years ago a couple of geniuses stopped at a gas station on the way to a tournament. They had a record bass in a live well in the boat, that they showed someone. When they won the tournament, someone at the gas station remembered them.

A couple of morons tried to cheat at an annual ice fishing contest around here. They registered two pike that weighed about 5 lbs. each. One problem...there are no pike in the lake. Catching one 'could' happen if someone dropped some in years earlier after coming home from upstate.

But catching 2 in one day, after nobody has EVER caught one in this area? There are no pike for several counties over.

I was at an ice fishing 'derby' in Vt. many years ago. A weekend affair. When you brought in a fish, they immediately checked the stomach.

If these morons in the article above simply crammed about 1/2 dozen baitfish into these fish, that would have been unprovable.

But fillets? Really?
 
Celticguy said:
cheating is just too tempting when you introduce money into the equation.

I was surprised at just how many weights they used. Should have been caught just by sight.
Click to expand...
They pretty much were. When you've been fishing long enough, you can guess the weight of a fish within 1/4-1/2 lb just by sight. The tournament director knew something was up.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Agreed, but only for the weak, stupid and greedy.

While it's true "for the love of money is the root of all evil", not all succumb to greed. Those idiots were without honor.

Hopefully those organizing the event ban them for life.
Click to expand...
It's more common than you think.
 
Althea said:
It's more common than you think.
Click to expand...

That people are greed, dishonorable scumbags? It depends on the circumstances and, yes, the amount of money at stake.

People tend to remember the negative and forget the positive. Through in someone they already hate, and they'll remember all of those instances. Consider volsrock on black violence or the RW JPP antisemitics.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
That people are greed, dishonorable scumbags? It depends on the circumstances and, yes, the amount of money at stake.

People tend to remember the negative and forget the positive. Through in someone they already hate, and they'll remember all of those instances. Consider volsrock on black violence or the RW JPP antisemitics.
Click to expand...
I've seen cheating at ice fishing contests more than 75% of the time, and I've been doing this for decades.

I've seen some really ingenius methods, though
 
Althea said:
I've seen cheating at ice fishing contests more than 75% of the time, and I've been doing this for decades.

I've seen some really ingenius methods, though
Click to expand...

Still, it's a failure of one's culture that condones, much less supports, cheating.
 
When you get hammered for saying the obvious, or when you are expected to lie and most people do, understand that your society is up Shit Creek.
 
Most conspiracy theorists are slipping a few gears, all are odd gears. Some even drink too much.

nbz4VJj.gif
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Still, it's a failure of one's culture that condones, much less supports, cheating.
Click to expand...
Like most negative aspects of society...a tiny percentage commits 99% of the problems.

In a field of 200 fisherman, perhaps one or two actively cheat. Just like the OP.

Nobody condones it. As the article mentions, proof is often difficult to achieve. In that case, the cheaters were so blatantly ignorant, they almost had to get caught this time. In open water, it's often harder to cheat in tournaments where partners are decided by the tournament director, and not the individuals. That makes cheating harder.
 
Althea said:
Like most negative aspects of society...a tiny percentage commits 99% of the problems.

In a field of 200 fisherman, perhaps one or two actively cheat. Just like the OP.

Nobody condones it. As the article mentions, proof is often difficult to achieve. In that case, the cheaters were so blatantly ignorant, they almost had to get caught this time. In open water, it's often harder to cheat in tournaments where partners are decided by the tournament director, and not the individuals. That makes cheating harder.
Click to expand...

Good to know. Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top