Where were you in September 1984? If you were in Texas and part of the fishin’ scene, you may remember articles about a man being killed because of his alleged role in or knowledge of a ring of bass tourney cheaters. Seriously.
Don’t ask how I tripped over this because it was one of those internet click here/click there things, but here’s all you need to know. I’m assuming and hoping it never got this far before or since.
From The Milwaukee Journal, Sept. 5, 1984:
> Liver tests showed that the two DQd bass were from Florida, not Texas.
Some more excerpts from other papers, followed by the full original article. Crazy. Anyone know if the Texas Bass Act was passed?
Is the criminal element still around?
Wow! Trying to beat the polygraph?!
Full Milwaukee Journal article (click to see a little bigger):
6 Comments
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Tumblebug
April 6, 2011 at 8:42 am
Back in the late 70s or 80s there was an organization called Poor Boys or something like that. It was aimed at the weekend fisherman. This was in the NW Arkansas area. They fell apart when it was discovered that some of the contestants had false bottoms in their live wells.
Jacob Robinson
April 6, 2011 at 9:03 am
I just hope people arent doing stuff like that now. I heard about a guy that won a BFL at Clarks Hill with some bass he put in a cooler and tied to a friends dock. Luckly they caught him though.
Ronald J. Lindner
April 6, 2011 at 10:49 am
In the previous posting my brother Al wrote an open letter to the people involved in tournament fishing. In it he brought up not only the past problems but what could happen in the future with the new technology … yes co-anglers and in boat cameramen as well as the eyes of observers, marshals, etc.are a great help….but in the end a polygraph is the closest thing we have to keep the potential cheaters, rule breakers and the like at bay. We understand that this costs money, but in the end it is a great deterrent and it must be remembered that a polygraph is as good as the understanding of the rules it is meant to enforce. At the higher levels of tournament fishing this probably will become mandatory. Yes you can beat a polygraph … but the percentage of people that can is very low. You must realize that for most people the potential of a polygraph is enough to keep the playing field level. However, those that are bound and determined to cheat (as shown by the preceding articles)
will be found out sooner or later. More than likely most cheating will be done at the lower levels of the sport..and not at the higher levels….too much at stake at the higher levels…..their reputation…..however, let us not forget the W.O.N. problem. They caught it….but I am sure if the fear of a polygraph were in place, it might NOT have happened in the first place…..NUFF’ said!
Brian
April 6, 2011 at 11:04 am
Along a similar vein, and perhaps(?) inspired by the actual case Jay mentioned in this post, my wife got hold of this murder mystery book involving cheating at the professional bass level for me to read. It’s entertaining:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Whammy_(novel)
Chance C.
April 6, 2011 at 1:37 pm
I remember this very well and was actually fishing in a tournament that they cheated in. Back in the 80’s there were some big money tourneys around East Texas that attracted 1000’s of boaters. The KYKX tourney paid 105k to first place! We were fishing and one of the first fish weighed was very big for the time (big fish were just being caught in Texas at the time and none from this lake, Lake O’ the Pines). He won and KYKX had a sister station around Lufkin and they won that too. I remember hearing about them being caught and thinking I knew there wasn’t a fish that big in LoP!
Alex Voog
April 6, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Double Whammy is a great read! Jim Tutt was on Scott Martins show a week or two ago and they spanked some monsters at Lake of the Pines. I doubt the fishing was as good back in the early 80’s. — Sounds like some good Texas Justice was applied to the cheater. Bad things happen when you put your hand in other people’s pockets.