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

[ExpressLane]

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/natio...ights-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.

[Celticguy]

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.

[AProudLefty]

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/natio...ights-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.

How did he manage to stick 10 of them in the fish without getting caught?

[Hawkeye10]

This society is breaking down.

Buckle Up.

[ExpressLane]

How did he manage to stick 10 of them in the fish without getting caught?

5 fish and a big lake.

[ExpressLane]

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.

7 lbs of weight

[AProudLefty]

5 fish and a big lake.

A dumb fishmaner.

[Doc Dutch]

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.

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.

[Althea]

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/natio...ights-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.

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?

[Althea]

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.

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.

[Althea]

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.

It's more common than you think.

[Doc Dutch]

It's more common than you think.

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.

[Althea]

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.

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

[Doc Dutch]

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

Still, it's a failure of one's culture that condones, much less supports, cheating.

[Hawkeye10]

Still, it's a failure of one's culture that condones, much less supports, cheating.

Which is where we are, but watch you get shitty when I say the obvious.

"HE HATES AMERICA!!"