We have the el cheepo sheepshead tournament here every year and winners have been caught cheating in the past. Recently a winner was caught after keeping the winning fish in a pen until the tournament. I think somebody ratted him out, he was also a known poacher.
The rules require a polygraph for prize winners at the tournament's request.
This a just a local tournament but first prize is usually a center console boat and a bunch of cash payouts for placing.

Anytime there money to be had, someone is trying to figure out haw to cheat the system to get it.

Those metal weights found in the fish need to be recycled.

Right up the asses of the fishermen.
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Then there are those guys that meet a second boat on the lake.

Where they get three or four bass.

You gotta remember there's always two guys per boat ,
So it's not a lone cheater its always two.

Sometime three or four

I just kept thinking of those Southwest Airline commercials, “Wanna get away”?

And they’ve each plead guilty to a Felony charge and a Misdemeanor charge and forfeited their boat as well. That makes me happy.


'Weights in fish!' fishermen plead guilty to felony cheating charge.

The long net of the law has bagged two fishermen who put weights in fish in an attempt to win a fishing tournament in September 2022. The men were caught in the act, and became worldwide news, when the tournament's organizer called them out with the instant-classic line, "We got weights in fish!”.

Jacob Runyan, 43, and Chase Cominsky, 36, have pleaded guilty to charges of cheating and "unlawful ownership of wild animals," according to Cuyahoga County (Ohio) prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley.

“This plea is the first step in teaching these crooks two basic life lessons,” O'Malley said. “Thou shall not steal, and crime does not pay.”

Runyan and Cominsky were competing in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament in Cleveland, with a first prize of $28,760 at stake for the anglers who brought in the five largest fish. The two fishermen had aroused suspicions before the Lake Erie tournament because of their long run of striking success in various fishing tournaments, combined with the fact that they didn't follow the custom of donating their caught fish to local food banks. So when they brought in some weighty fish, the tournament was already on high alert.

As the fish were being weighed, the tournament organizer recognized that the fish seemed to weigh more than expected, and sliced them open. Ten lead weights, along with several walleye filets, were found in the fish. The two fishermen were instructed to leave the tournament as the other anglers grew uneasy. The Cleveland Metroparks Police Department responded to the scene, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources investigated the case.

Runyan and Cominsky pleaded guilty to one count of cheating, a felony, and one count of unlawful ownership of wild animals, a misdemeanor. They also forfeited the boat that had been used in the competition. They will be sentenced on May 11.

Link To Story
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Competitive fishing. I have always wondered when the spirit of competition would spread to bird hunting. Or squirrel hunting. When I watched the pro fishing shows on TV, I thought there was a scuba diver under the boat hooking fish on for the "pros".

Many months old now, but if you have nothing to do and want to hear the story from the guy who "caught" them.

https://www.themeateater.com/l...h-the-full-story-fro