If you were wrongfully accused of cheating......

[Matt E.]

A friend of mine fished all the time when he was in college. He fished out of a 17' aluminum with a 60hp. He fished a lot of smaller tournaments and won or placed high in many. He fished all the time on a couple lakes, so he was able to be on the fish all the time. So then the rumor mill started and one guy even followed him around all day long. The guy paid his entry fee even just to follow my buddy. He still won the tournament and the douche bag got to watch the whole show. The whole thing soured him on tournaments and I can't hardly get him to fish with me anymore let alone fish a tournament.

[mikepags]

I don't fish tournaments any more as I need a lake to do so ........back on my old lake I would probably would have laughed at the accuser and said "yeah ok, let me know what the others think" ........not to sound cocky but 99% of the tournaments I fished were team events on the same lake that I lived on, it would have been rare to have a boat or two in any of the trials that I fished that I didn't know or that didn't know my partner (local marine dealer and had been in one of the area bass clubs for 30+ years). Even in the bigger annual tournaments that would have had 50-100 boats I bet we knew half- two thirds of the teams. Most of those guys even knew which house and dock on the lake were mine as you could see my boat either at the dock or parked next to the house from the water easily. I was on the water 3-6 days a week (lots of half day trips) so I was seen quite a bit "putting my time in" learning and my partner had been around forever.

[KyLakeLunker]

I have any old jon boat, so I don't fish any tournaments, but if I did, and was any good at fishing, I'd have a gopro or similar camera mounted to catch the whole day on film. That way if there was any question, I'd have video verification that there was no cheating.

[mikepags]

I have any old jon boat, so I don't fish any tournaments, but if I did, and was any good at fishing, I'd have a gopro or similar camera mounted to catch the whole day on film. That way if there was any question, I'd have video verification that there was no cheating.

except for when the battery died and you had to change it out

[artcarney_agr]

It's one thing when the accuser is a fellow competitor in the tournament..........it's another when it's some random guy who is not even in the tournament.

If a random guy who is not even in the tournament calls it in, I think it would carry more weight than someone else in the tournament....what would a guy who is not in the tournament expect to gain other than doing the right thing?

[blade1970]

I'd put a pitbull in the tx directors truck, my grass clippings in his boat and a union sticker on his outboard.....

[TOXIC]

So you take an observer out and you stink up the place.....Help or hurt your case? That's why you tell them to just put up or shut up. Bring out the evidence and offer to take a poly.

[earthworm77]

I don't participate in tournaments anymore, you have the scumbags who cheat to try to win a few bucks. These *******s simply took all the fun out of it or if they didn't, the ones who encroach on you when you are out there or don't run safe sure do.

[artcarney_agr]

So you take an observer out and you stink up the place.....Help or hurt your case? That's why you tell them to just put up or shut up. Bring out the evidence and offer to take a poly.

[dwa]

Well since we don't have a first hand experience in the thread... I'll add. Me and a buddy was accused of cheating 4-5 years ago. We were wearing them out at a certain time of the year in open night tournaments. It didn't matter if we were fishing together or in separate boats. They had tournaments on Wed, Fri, and Sat nights. We had been winning a few before and then my buddy won on wed night, and I think I had big fish that night. I won on Friday night, and when I went to pay my entry on Saturday night, the tourney director told me "I don't have anyone signed up for my tournament, they decided to do their own tournament. They believe you are cheating." That chapped my ass. I said the hell with it and went fishing anyway. Came back about weigh in time and guess what... tourney director comes back to do weigh in...

No proof, just some older men that have been fishing those their whole life started getting beat by some youngsters... I was pissed. What does "Open" tournament mean? You are OK with us fishing as long as you donate? I donated quite a bit the year before. We finally had some others that knew us stand up. One said to get a polygraph, if we failed, he'd pay, if we passed you pay for it. There were no takers.

The director from Friday night was different from the one on Wed and Sat night. Friday night TD called me and told me we were welcome at his T's. And after that the Wed, Sat crowd quieted down. I've fished a few since then, but haven't done much good, There is a thing called work that is interfering with my time on the water.

To the ones that say they would take an observer to clear their name... Hell no. I'm not going to show someone how I figured something out, and give away the info just because someone started whining. I spent a lot of time on the water to find it.

[smbass]

Does the punch in the throat work both ways?

[m.t.hands]

If I started winning regularly with much larger than normal bags of fish, I would almost expect someone to holler cheater. That just seems to be the norm now. I would have no problem doing what's necessary to prove my innocence. I have been accused of cheating in competition coon hunts. It's the same as bass fishing. I'd someone gets on a roll, they're cheating. They sent an observer with me twice and it was cleared up. I had no problem with that. I just don't see why some guys say screw them, they have no proof or I don't owe them any explanation. That may be true but why not just do what ever to get it cleared up?

myself and my team partner that I fished with when I lived in Texas were in that situation once, we stumbled into some fish and for the next 3-4 months we were hammering them soundly, on a lake that 12-15 pounds was winning on we (the first night we won) brought in a 23 and change bag, then sunday morning we brought in another 20+ bag, suddenly after about 3 weeks they decided they would start poly graphing the winner and a random finisher, well we never had any trouble with the poly's and one of our fellow competitors told them he had watched us catch every fish, and he decided he'd like to "share the area with us (but this is another story),,,anyway, I walked up behind him one night after weigh-in and again he was telling someone he watched us again and then he told the guy "I can tell you where and how they are catching them, but you'll never believe me", we were throwing Fred Arbogast Mudbugs (the big ones 1 1/4 or bigger whatever they are) in 5-8' and wearing the bottom out, and catching the fire out of good fish...it dried up, but we still duplicated the pattern on a few other lakes, once we returned to the normal catch rate it was determined that "now that these guys are being watched, notice how their weights have dropped" here is a pic of the kind of fish we were catching

Attachment 108788

[bigredglass]

Well since we don't have a first hand experience in the thread... I'll add. Me and a buddy was accused of cheating 4-5 years ago. We were wearing them out at a certain time of the year in open night tournaments. It didn't matter if we were fishing together or in separate boats. They had tournaments on Wed, Fri, and Sat nights. We had been winning a few before and then my buddy won on wed night, and I think I had big fish that night. I won on Friday night, and when I went to pay my entry on Saturday night, the tourney director told me "I don't have anyone signed up for my tournament, they decided to do their own tournament. They believe you are cheating." That chapped my ass. I said the hell with it and went fishing anyway. Came back about weigh in time and guess what... tourney director comes back to do weigh in...

No proof, just some older men that have been fishing those their whole life started getting beat by some youngsters... I was pissed. What does "Open" tournament mean? You are OK with us fishing as long as you donate? I donated quite a bit the year before. We finally had some others that knew us stand up. One said to get a polygraph, if we failed, he'd pay, if we passed you pay for it. There were no takers.

The director from Friday night was different from the one on Wed and Sat night. Friday night TD called me and told me we were welcome at his T's. And after that the Wed, Sat crowd quieted down. I've fished a few since then, but haven't done much good, There is a thing called work that is interfering with my time on the water.

To the ones that say they would take an observer to clear their name... Hell no. I'm not going to show someone how I figured something out, and give away the info just because someone started whining. I spent a lot of time on the water to find it.

Me and Brandon were talking about this a few weeks ago. He's able to laugh about it now but I remember how pissed y'all were back then. This is the kind of wrongful accusations I was talking about. Those guys had nothing to base that on other than y'all had fish and they did not. The best theory I heard during that deal was that y'all had a farm pond within walking distance and were going there to catch the fish. I asked them what was next, a UFO dropped the fish off for y'all.

[Fish.Team.Rose]

Im amazed at all the people who would resort straight to violence, possibly felony assult, over a club tournament. Trust me if i saw proof, id be pissed, file for deception charges.. But ruin my life and loose my guns and job?

[BigKev77]

Im amazed at all the people who would resort straight to violence, possibly felony assult, over a club tournament. Trust me if i saw proof, id be pissed, file for deception charges.. But ruin my life and loose my guns and job?

I feel the same way about someone who would call the law or file a law suit over being called a cheater. Bottom line is a guy better have proof if they are going to accuse someone cause they might get into a hornets nest one way or another.

[bigredglass]

I feel the same way about someone who would call the law or file a law suit over being called a cheater. Bottom line is a guy better have proof if they are going to accuse someone cause they might get into a hornets nest one way or another.

The guy they accused around here last yr threatened with a lawyer and shut everybody up quick. I'm anxious to see if they let him fish again this year.

[basscat21]

Doesn't this happen on all lakes, when one guy just kicks the crap out of everyone...... he can't be that good...... but he is.

[BassTaurus]

When the first words out of someone's mouth is "You can't PROVE a thing!" it makes me think he's got his story and M.O. pretty water tight and is very practiced at covering his bases. The words should be "I am certainly not cheating in any way shape or manner. Period!" They wouldn't go down the "Prove it!" path. That opens the door for them to tail you and find out how you fish.

[LTZ25]

I'd find the scumbag that accused me of cheating and give him half of the winning to shut the hell up .

[basscat21]

or just buy his fish.......money talks...........