![]() Protesting another angler’s catch costs $500, money that’s returned only if the protest turns out to be upheld. The many varieties of cheating lead to so many whispers throughout the angler community that tournament organizers have to keep a rein on the avenues of complaint. Or they can simply stuff the fish full of lead weights and hope nobody notices. Or they can pack the fish full of ice to add weight the incriminating evidence theoretically melts before it can be detected. Anglers can catch fish ahead of time, stash them in a secret location or leave them with an accomplice, and retrieve them during the tournament. The challenge for organizers, and for anglers who want to stay above-board, is that there are as many ways to cheat at fishing as there are fish in the sea. Failing, or even refusing, a polygraph test is grounds for disqualification, as is the use of a cell phone or any other potential assistance to seek out more target-rich waters. Tests are administered by a retired police officer and cover the angler’s knowledge of both the tournament rules and the day’s catch. So serious, in fact, that there’s a mandatory polygraph test for all winners, along with random polygraph tests for other competitors. Those are harmless tales, but when money’s involved, things get more serious. There’s a reason “fish story” is a synonym for lying - it’s easy enough to add a few pounds to the tale of that big ‘un you landed with your granddaddy back when you were a kid. ![]() Though there are many rules, the goal is simple: catch the biggest fish in Lake Erie.ĭig a little deeper into the LEWT rules, though, and you can start to see the outline of a pervasive threat to tournament fishing: cheating. The Lake Erie Walleye Trail runs from March to October, a seven-event series where up to 80 two-angler teams compete for tens of thousands of dollars in prizes. Weights and fillets were found in all five fish Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyan entered into a fishing tournament in Cleveland. He reached his finger in and withdrew a chunk of lead with a dramatic flourish. Then he knelt beside one of the fish, took out a fillet knife, and slit open the belly of the fish. “We’re going to do a little tallying up,” Fischer said to the crowd. The crowd milled about, uncertain what to do next. He’d spent his life around walleye, and he knew that the five fish he was looking at should weigh somewhere around 15 to 20 pounds, certainly not more than 30. “Your fish are so much bigger than his!” another said, apparently trying to reconcile what he saw with what the scale read.Ī third simply declared, “No f***ing way.”Īs Runyan and Cominsky posed with their fish, Fischer decided to take a closer look. “Damn,” one man said in disbelief, “thirty-three?” ![]() The silence that greeted Fischer’s announcement was the first sign that something was very much amiss. They needed to beat 16.89 total pounds to claim Team of the Year honors and $30,000 in various prizes. 12, Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyan, brought their five-fish catch up for weighing. Late in the proceedings, the anglers of boat No. He weighed the fish of angler after angler, picking up their fish and setting them on a scale. It begins in Cleveland’s Gordon Park, on the shores of Lake Erie, where the Lake Erie Walleye Trail was wrapping up its championship event on Saturday.įischer - yes, that’s his real surname - was looking forward to the end of a long tournament season, working his way through the catches of the 30 elite two-angler teams. This is a story about the other kind: whole-hog, all-in cheating where plausible deniability doesn’t exist. Check out the Super Bowl 50 roundup below:Īqib Talib falls off the stage! ’s nibble-around-the-edges, cut-the-corners cheating, like going five miles an hour over the speed limit or faking sick to get out of work. But even though the game is over with it doesn’t mean we can’t take a look at all the highs and lows of the night thanks to the Internet and their always hilarious input. Super Bowl 50 came and went with Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos coming away with a 24-10 victory over Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |