NY Times Kicks Bassin’ in the Nads

Well, well, well. That’s a big surprise…not.

An article published yesterday in the New York Times mostly about what happened in one saltwater derby manages to use a photo of a largie being measured and then tries to throw bass tourneys under the bus.

Surprised? Sheesh. Those weenies wouldn’t know a dang bass from a hammer handle, but they do get read. Some quotes from the article, plus my choice comments:

With numerous fishing tournaments offering $100,000 to $500,000 in cash and prizes, allegations of cheating have become routine in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and other states.

Contestants — both professionals and amateurs — might catch fish long before tournaments begin or inject them with water or stuff them with heavy objects to boost their weight. Keeping fish longer than 16 inches is illegal in Texas, and some fishermen have been caught clipping tails to an allowable length.

Hold on a sec: You’re not telling me a trained Times reporter believes everything he hears…?! (Lol.)

As we all know, allegations of anything and everything in bass fishing are about as routine as breathing. C’mon, NY Times, you gotta do better than that. And look into “allegations” in other sports while you’re at it.

Those who run, monitor and compete in tournaments said that cheating scandals have tarnished the wholesome image of fishing and ruined the final rankings in many competitions, as people handed trophies, cash and other prizes were later found to have cheated.

Huh? How many are we talking? Five solids in 50 years? Ten? And that averages out to….

“We’re more conscientious in looking for this now than we were five or six years ago,” said Kurt Kelley, a game warden with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department who…has investigated about 30 tournament fraud cases in his nearly 13 years with the agency, including one that spanned nearly two years involving a contestant who submitted a dead fish.

So 30 cases INVESTIGATED in 13 years equals 2.3 per year. I’m betting may 2 or 3 actually amounted to a hill of beans – and apparently the Times either didn’t ask that question or didn’t like the answer it got.

We also don’t know how many tourneys. Again: not asked, or whatever.

Not saying the cheating nut-jobs aren’t out there – and gotta say, I find their half-baked ingenuity pretty dang hilarious. But give me a break. Less than one story a year about bassin’ in the Times, and this?

Final thought: Not a regular reader of any newspaper. But in all the years of covering this sport, I can’t recall one positive article about fishing, unless maybe it was fly fishing or a local rich guy’s striper derby, in the Times. Give me a frickin’ break, city-of-money jackalopes. Get outta my yard. And stay out.

And if you don’t like what you see here….