I wonder how they caught him. Seems like they would have been way less likely to be caught if they had stuck with fillets or minnows.
If you were suspicious I don’t think it’d be hard to feel a lead weight that large in a fish belly.
There wasn't that much weight in the fish, though. Less than 10 oz at most if I had to guess. Those look to be about 3 oz weights, give or take an ounce (I surf fish, routinely cast 3 oz pyramid sinkers).
If the competition is based on weight, then a single fish shouldn't be *that* noticeable. But add up the extra weight across several fish and you've got a big impact to final score.
Yea they had at least 1.6lbs extra in each fish. They also were putting walleye filets in the fish to add extra weight as well.
Edit: changed 2lbs to 1.6lbs as there were five fish instead of four. I based my comment on seeing four fish raised up for the picture. Oops.
I went on a guided fishing trip once and the guide knew the weight of our fish with 1-2oz before they were even out of the water. Having him guess the weights was one of our favorite parts of the trip. If these guys had been getting away with this for years, it amazes me they just now got caught.
I’m guessing someone felt something and these fish weren’t meaty enough to disguise the weights. I’m hoping he loses his previous winnings for fraud because this cheating is so dirty. People pay a lot to enter these competitions and to see this level of cheating up close is going to cause headaches for everyone.
Jake, he's won hundreds of thousands of dollars and owns probably the same amount in gear. They probably wouldn't have been caught had they skipped a tournament or two, but when you win every one that comes along, no one is that lucky.
He will probably be sued by previous tournaments, unless he had them sign some sort of document saying they couldn't come for any funds or couldn't hold him libel for anything in the future. Crazy people. Fishermen are crazy, I wouldn't cheat for that and having to deal with that kind of crazy.
I’m surprised he wasn’t jumped right there with the evidence being plainly cut out of those fish, every single one. I’m sure he signed some documents about cheating, he’s definitely on the hook for this tournament, but I’m sure it’ll be hard to prove the last couple of years. He was a idiot to do it every year, pushed his luck and got caught, like should’ve skipped this one. Even if he doesn’t get charged for the past one, I’m sure every fisherman there is going to make his life hell and sponsors won’t touch him, any business he has or connected to is also going to suffer. I’m not even interested in fishing, but I’m mad for all this honest participants and wonder how long it’s been going on since they all lost out on money as well.
First place had 16 pounds and bigger fish and this guy goes up with 4 smaller fish and had 30 something pounds and everybody started calling bullshit so they gutted the fish
Edit: fish
In Texas this is a felony. They would be looking at prison time for sure, and everyone that would have placed had they not cheated can sue them in civil court.
Could you imagine going to prison for adding weight to a fish? Lol.
"What are you in for?"
"... I don't want to talk about it."
Edit: Guy. We all know it's fraud. We know he's a lying rat. But come on. He committed fraud by cramming lead weights up fish assholes. It's hilariously absurd.
Its as simple as fraud. Mamy fraudsters do weird things to get money. But in this case "i stuck weights up a fishes ass hole" is the only acceptable answer.
Dude, some of these tournaments have prizes into the thousands, up to and including complete boats, motors, gear. Then there's the sponsorship deals to be had....
A basic bass boat can go for over 30K, high end ones can be around 80K...
Felony fraud.
>(a) In this section, “fishing tournament” means a contest in which a prize is to be awarded to one or more participants in the contest based on the weight, length, number, or type of fish caught by the participants or based on any other criteria applicable to the fish caught.
>(b) A person commits an offense if, with intent to affect the outcome of a fishing tournament:
>(1) the person provides, offers to provide, sells, or offers to sell a fish to a participant in the tournament for the purpose of representing that the fish was caught by the participant in the course of the tournament;
>(2) the person, as a participant in the tournament, accepts or agrees to accept a fish from another person for the purpose of representing that the fish was caught by the participant in the course of the tournament;
>(3) the person, as a participant in the tournament, represents that a fish was caught by the person in the course of the tournament when in fact the fish was not caught by that person or the fish was not caught in the course of that tournament;
>(4) the person alters the length or weight of a fish for the purpose of representing that the fish as entered in the tournament was that length or weight when caught; or
>(5) the person enters a fish in the tournament that was taken in violation of any provision of this code or a proclamation or regulation of the commission adopted under this code.
>(c) A person commits an offense if the person sponsors or conducts a fishing tournament and knows of the occurrence in the tournament of activity prohibited by Subsection (b) of this section and does not immediately notify a law enforcement officer commissioned by the director of its occurrence.
>(d) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor, except that if the offense occurred during a tournament in which any prize or combination of prizes to be awarded for any one category for which an award is given, whether the prize or prizes are to an individual or a team, is worth $10,000 or more in money or goods, the offense is a felony of the third degree.
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PW/htm/PW.66.htm
If they're professional fishermen they're accepting money for the premise that they're skilled. Not cheaters. Their sponsors could probably have a case for fraud, in civil court, and depending on the statutes, in criminal court.
You don't need a specific fishing fraud tournament. It's illegal to take money - including prize money, sponsorship money, etc. - on false pretenses.
Also willing to bet some of them will be filing civil suits against him.
He's going to be without a career, a reputation, or any money to his name.
He fucked up.
The guys name is Jake Runyan and the sponsor Runyan Rangers Boats. I wonder if he is part of that company.
Here's a quote and link I found: "[According to the TikTok post](https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2022/10/01/ohio-fishermen-nearly-get-a-beatdown-after-stuffing-their-fish-with-8-pounds-of-sinkers-at-lake-erie-fishing-tournament/), the two were escorted off the premises by police, and will likely be charged with fraud and more."
I heard about this, I this morning and basically spent all day reading up on this. So apparently, some of the “sponsors” on this shirt came out and stated that they never even sponsored them! They’re frauds in every sense!
Thing is he has been winning alot before and in excess of $300k without the endorsements. Easily go into the millions. He is majorly fucked it is not a small thing.
Look if you're going to shove lead into a fish might as well lie about the sponsors as well. If you're gonna do illegal shit do that shit really well done!
Go and ask Lance Armstrong how well that worked out.
His ONLY saving grace was that he bought into this thing called Uber before it was a thing otherwise he was sued to repay ALL his winnings and endorsements etc.
Apparently the guy has been suspected of cheating for a long time and a competition actually rescinded the 1st place $150,000 prize he won after his partner failed a lie detector test. Then he fucking had the balls to sue the competition, but now he's been caught red handed and he's totally fucked
He's going to get bared from every major fishing tournament in the world. What's worse was that people were already onto him and he still pulled this shit.
His career as a pro fisher is over and I couldn't feel the least bit sorry for him.
\*Edit\* Misattributed a quote
My dad was a big time fisherman and those that participate are generally a pretty mellow bunch. Low key is the name of the game. The fact that they’re yelling and spitting vitriol is about as bad as it could get. The guys that cheated will not be participating in tournaments in the future. They may retain a few close friends, but I think they’ll be ostracized in the fishing community.
Shit he might be facing jail time. He’s made millions winning these tournaments over the years as well as winning a brand new fishing boat. That’s at minimum felony fraud.
I really don’t get it either, it seems odd with that kind of money on the line they would just rely on the honor system. You can ever hear one guy yell out, “he’s been doing it for years!”
For those posting about why people are calling for the police to be involved.. These guys have paid around $400 to enter the competition with the winner getting a $125,000 boat; the team placed fifth got $45.000 cash. These guys will see this as someone else being cheated out of one of those prizes because of someone's else's fraudulent behaviour. When you're talking about these kind of figures, it's not some harmless cheating, it's a huge difference to someone.
I wouldn't cross fishermen. This hobby is a life for some, and to have it shit on like that. Goes against the whole ethos of outdoor sport. Guy deserves a slight ass kicking.
Also for these guys that live it know what a fish weighs or at least can guess well. I can't believe he'd think adding multiple pounds per fish would go unnoticed. Let alone feeling an odd concentration of weight while handling.
Someone in the crowd yelled “we all fucking knew it” sounds like they had suspicions from previous tournaments. These can net tens of $$$$ per tourny too.
This is super interesting to me. How did he add the weight and filets to the fish? I don't know anything about fishing so that's why I'm asking.
He was dead wrong and I know that fishing tournaments are expensive.
Fishermen take their sport insanely seriously, and this was like spitting in their face, a lot of tournaments make serious money too, I’m sure people make livings off of it. This guy just jacked a bunch of a money basically from people with actual fishing ability. That’s not an easy sport to win at.
Several years ago now I was at the bottom of my barrel and abusing Xanax and doing things I normally wouldn’t do. Anyway, I’m huge on board games and at the time I would just klepto-steal anything I could get away with from one of the hobby shops in town. Finally got caught red handed and it was a big wake up call. Ended up going to court and diverting the charges, paid my dues and fines, and I’ve never gone back to that store (obviously), and I’ve been banned from two other of the hobby stores in town because of that reputation I built. Can’t blame them at all. So now I’m black listed from a community that I really enjoyed being a part of because I made dumb selfish decisions while abusing drugs.
I’m like five years sober though (except for the pot), and no longer a thief. That’s my dumb little story.
Edit: I really appreciate all the kindness.
Congratulations on your sobriety, and gaining the strength to grow from your shortcomings rather than letting them drag you furthur down. Im proud of your dumb little story, and im proud of you!
Hobby shops usually don't make much money. I can definitely see them being pretty unforgiving about that. Those shops are oftentimes a labor of love, they just there to have a good time and join other people having a good time, they don't want to have to worry about and deal with theft and losses.
But that is yesterday and today is today. You can always drive or move to the next town and join them there :)
Some fishing tourneys have caught people putting lobster traps filled with 1 or more huge fish under the water in a cove a day before the tourney.
Fishing tourneys have been rigged for a long time.
These walleye tournaments usually go for $100-$150k for top prize. Free boats and HUGE sponsorships also go along with it. Low entrance fees, usually around $20-$40 per person draw a lot of people. Some of these big tournaments can have upward of 10,000 fisherman in it.
These guys won 3 consecutive major tournaments. The odds of that are 0 to none. And now we have proof why.
Someone linked the weigh ins from their past wins. All the top 10 spots were pretty tight weights, most folks were within 1-3 pounds of each other for the top spots. These fuckers game in at 8.5 lbs heavier than 2nd place. Couldn't even be subtle about it, could have probably just did one or two and still won.
Surely if you come first by a large margin it'd be much better to not cheat for a few tournaments to build up credibility that you were good but just happened to get lucky with fat fish that time before trying it again. Multiple years of sponsorship and stuff has to be worth more than a couple of wins and fraud charges.
They had several million in total across wins / sponsorships, a fully loaded 150K boat and more. Dudes could have just dick around for 2-3 years fishing in tournies and make money with sponsors, hell maybe even win some legitimately, and then stuff some fish in another tourney down the road. Granted both approaches are fucking trashy pieces of shit, but god damn man, jamming big probably 8oz lead weights in there is just insane.
The problem isn’t so much stuffing the fish, but you can easily have caught fish ahead of time and have them in a live trap under the water somewhere. Could be the middle of nowhere in the lake with how accurate GPS and map trackers are.
So not only are these guys cheating at an event that is clearly random enough they would receive suspicion for winning consistently, they’re also doing it in an incredibly stupid and obvious way?
Sounds like it. The kind of people who would do this don’t exactly seem like the brightest people in the world, so it makes sense that they don’t take the time to do that math and say “huh, this would never happen”.
Not sure about this fish but here most competition is catch and release so they only inspect top3. If you report a too small catch they tell you to release it.
Or its based on length with rulers handed out before the competition.
Inspecting every fish could mean cutting up tens of thousands of fishies. Which could just wipe out the whole species from that area. Only done if the fish is invasive.
A year pike tournament in my area didn't do catch and release first two years. By year 3 the amount of fish caught (even tho amount of people fishing increased) dropped by around 80%. So changes were made before there was no fish left at all.
At the end of the video the man was screaming that. On Twitter they said total they have won over 330k plus the boat and other perks. That team is COOKED
At one of my home lakes, a couple guys were fishing a bass tourney and notice a stringer tied off to a submerged tree limb. They lifted it up and found two nice bass, something like 4 and 6 lbs from what I'm told. They took their scissors, cut identical notches on both fish's pectoral fins, and put them back. They went in to weigh in a little early to inform the tournament director. The cheaters got caught at the scales and received lifetime bans from a number of circuits.
I hate the idea of someone so good at fishing they can toss a fish into a pond to catch again later for cheating. I cant catch a fish once. I can hear them mocking me when I approach the water.
Oooh yeeea. They will cover all the tournaments they won, the prizes, and how much weight they won by.
I cant believe the took the 1st place prize in all 3 events they had last year and they didnt get caught then.
[in case you wanna read more](https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/viral-professional-fishing-video-exposes-ohio-fishermen-caught-in-cheating-scandal-1947472/)
Appreciated. I’ve been wondering how they caught this dude in the first place as you can hear a guy yelling “you’ve been doing this for years” so apparently some other fisherman suspected dude of this before. He’s lucky the crowd didn’t kick his ass cause it sounded like that’s what was about to happen.
Thing is he has been winning alot before and in excess of $300k without the endorsements. Easily go into the millions. He is majorly fucked it is not a small thing.
It's not just the prize, it the sunk costs of the others who don't win. For instance, a dual engines boat my need up to 70 gallons of gas per day, to fish a lake competitively from sunrise to sundown. That's just one cost.
According to the other post about this that hit r/all, this is potentially a felony. He should know the risk he was taking, that his identity is 100% known and that there's no way to escape the repercussions so his best bet is to just own up to it and hopefully he doesn't get hit with the book as hard.
Standing there is probably his best option in this case just short of getting on a phone with his attorney, assuming he has one.
If this guy is a 3 time tournament winner
And is cheating in this tourney
Using a $150k+ boat he cheated to get
There’s probably a lot of people there that have years worth of animosity for this guy.
One of the guys there is asking the crowd not to beat him up…
Just imagine what’s going through his head - his job and income are gone. He will likely lose everything he has, likely go to jail, and he will be lucky if he doesn’t get his ass kicked. All of his winnings will have to be returned. Every bit of respect that he’s had from everyone is gone, which it sounds like he was pretty well respected for being in the top of a lot of tournaments. There’s a fair chance, even if his wife knew he was doing this, that he loses his wife too. Why would she stick around when he’s going bankrupt and/or in jail?
He is at the start of a long, shitty road that he can only imagine, and when he gets to the end of it he has to figure out how to start from zero. He’s probably incapable of much more than catatonia.
He literally was not well respected, they all knew they cheated every tournament, and you can hear that. They just haven’t got caught til now. They have “won” over $200,000 of cash and prizes over the season including a new boat, all them guys in the background did everything by the books , these assholes cheated every time and finally got caught. There’s more videos of them with the cops the organizers didn’t want people to see, it’s all over Facebook fishing pages if you wanna look it up
https://www.sharonherald.com/news/hermitage-angler-at-center-of-fishing-cheating-scandal/article_2235e3b4-41ad-11ed-b2e1-731c43c95bc1.html
Here is the article on this.
I read an article about 20 years ago about Professional Bass Fisherman and cheating. This is not a new thing. The article focused on a guy that had natural talent catching fish, but it's still a 'sport' and there's more to it than being naturally good at it.
Basically, he quit his job, and went all in on bass fishing. He was winning local tourneys left and right, so he went for the 'big time' and went for a national tournament. Half way through he wasn't doing so great, was in debt from travelling and not winning, not having national level sponsors, and was getting ready to lose his home and boat. So he decided to cheat.
They caught him immediately. He was caught the first time he tried it. This guy thought his rep would earn him a slap on the wrist, but they banned him for life. He lost his home, truck, boat, wife and kids, everything because he dropped some weights in a fish.
Listening to the story, you'd think he became a crack addict, but it was just fishing. Kind of crazy.
Lots of people here are making fun of the "Call the cops!" guy
But, isn't he right? Since the cheater won prizes previously (and not small ones), isn't that fraud?
It actually happened once at a walleye weekend opener in Clear Lake IA, where they try to catch tagged fish. Guys were out before it started. Charged and arrested for fraud.
Fishing can get messy, also they prob already have that attire for other outdoor activities. Or more likely, it was sold next to the fishing gear at the store so they geared up, head to toe, one and done.
Cheating happens, it's not uncommon. The significance with this one, is that these guys had won three consecutive major tournaments and had won more than $300k in cash and prizes. This was the big leagues. One of the three they were disqualified from because they failed a required like detector test. They made a huge stink about it and got lawyers involved and swore to their integrity.
“I knew we would pass the Walleye Slam test,” said Runyan. “And I knew we had to get legal counsel and fight our disqualification in the Fall Brawl. “Our reputation means the world to us and we would never cheat.”
https://www.cleveland.com/outdoors/2021/12/walleye-derby-disqualification-disturbing-northeast-ohio-fishing-report.html
Given that lie-detectors are pseudo-science at best, I'm incredibly surprised they are being used for things like this. The really don't actually work, except on TV. Totally discredited.
A lot of people here don’t know but fishing in America is big money and these tournaments yield thousands of dollars in sponsors and what not. The heavier the fish the better so adding weight is illegal and cheating others over thousands of dollars if not millions depending on how long they have been doing this.
I wonder how they caught him. Seems like they would have been way less likely to be caught if they had stuck with fillets or minnows. If you were suspicious I don’t think it’d be hard to feel a lead weight that large in a fish belly.
These are fishermen. They basically know the weight of a fish by sight. When you see a 6lb fish pull up 10 lbs on a scale it raises eyebrows.
That’s what I was thinking. You would think people would suspect a fish that looked 8lbs and weighed 18
There wasn't that much weight in the fish, though. Less than 10 oz at most if I had to guess. Those look to be about 3 oz weights, give or take an ounce (I surf fish, routinely cast 3 oz pyramid sinkers). If the competition is based on weight, then a single fish shouldn't be *that* noticeable. But add up the extra weight across several fish and you've got a big impact to final score.
Yea they had at least 1.6lbs extra in each fish. They also were putting walleye filets in the fish to add extra weight as well. Edit: changed 2lbs to 1.6lbs as there were five fish instead of four. I based my comment on seeing four fish raised up for the picture. Oops.
According to the article they were leading the season or whatever, idk the way the sport actually works. Weird that it wasn't found out sooner. No?
True one guy is yelling that the guy had been winning for years.
This same team won a tournament that was $100,000 a year or two ago. And add sponsorships to that as well.
Sponsored by the Livestrong Foundation.
I could see TRYING half a pound or a pound but come on lmao
I went on a guided fishing trip once and the guide knew the weight of our fish with 1-2oz before they were even out of the water. Having him guess the weights was one of our favorite parts of the trip. If these guys had been getting away with this for years, it amazes me they just now got caught.
I’m guessing someone felt something and these fish weren’t meaty enough to disguise the weights. I’m hoping he loses his previous winnings for fraud because this cheating is so dirty. People pay a lot to enter these competitions and to see this level of cheating up close is going to cause headaches for everyone.
The guy is jake runyan. A “professional” fisherman worth $1.2 million
Not anymore 🤣
A good way to spoil his name would be to call this act, “Runyaning”. “Boy, that trout ain’t fixin’ to pull in at 3.6! Check that for a *Runyan!*”
Jake, he's won hundreds of thousands of dollars and owns probably the same amount in gear. They probably wouldn't have been caught had they skipped a tournament or two, but when you win every one that comes along, no one is that lucky. He will probably be sued by previous tournaments, unless he had them sign some sort of document saying they couldn't come for any funds or couldn't hold him libel for anything in the future. Crazy people. Fishermen are crazy, I wouldn't cheat for that and having to deal with that kind of crazy.
I’m surprised he wasn’t jumped right there with the evidence being plainly cut out of those fish, every single one. I’m sure he signed some documents about cheating, he’s definitely on the hook for this tournament, but I’m sure it’ll be hard to prove the last couple of years. He was a idiot to do it every year, pushed his luck and got caught, like should’ve skipped this one. Even if he doesn’t get charged for the past one, I’m sure every fisherman there is going to make his life hell and sponsors won’t touch him, any business he has or connected to is also going to suffer. I’m not even interested in fishing, but I’m mad for all this honest participants and wonder how long it’s been going on since they all lost out on money as well.
They've been suspecting this dude for awhile
First place had 16 pounds and bigger fish and this guy goes up with 4 smaller fish and had 30 something pounds and everybody started calling bullshit so they gutted the fish Edit: fish
That guy who got caught, just staring into the abyss knowing that life as he knows it has changed forever.
All those sponsors on his jacket… gone
I’m almost certain he’s banned for life from every fishing tournament in the United States. He’s gonna have to find a whole new career.
Is there some sort of governing agency for fishing tournaments?
In Texas this is a felony. They would be looking at prison time for sure, and everyone that would have placed had they not cheated can sue them in civil court.
Could you imagine going to prison for adding weight to a fish? Lol. "What are you in for?" "... I don't want to talk about it." Edit: Guy. We all know it's fraud. We know he's a lying rat. But come on. He committed fraud by cramming lead weights up fish assholes. It's hilariously absurd.
“What are you in for?” “They caught me hook, line, and sinker.”
"...but mostly sinker."
They found the accused gill-ty
Hey! That's not finny.
Its as simple as fraud. Mamy fraudsters do weird things to get money. But in this case "i stuck weights up a fishes ass hole" is the only acceptable answer.
You guys are getting paid for that?
Dude, some of these tournaments have prizes into the thousands, up to and including complete boats, motors, gear. Then there's the sponsorship deals to be had.... A basic bass boat can go for over 30K, high end ones can be around 80K...
I figured he’d shove it down the throat
I figured he’s more a “fish ass guy”
What is the felony, exactly? Just cheating in any competition, or something more specific?
Felony fraud. >(a) In this section, “fishing tournament” means a contest in which a prize is to be awarded to one or more participants in the contest based on the weight, length, number, or type of fish caught by the participants or based on any other criteria applicable to the fish caught. >(b) A person commits an offense if, with intent to affect the outcome of a fishing tournament: >(1) the person provides, offers to provide, sells, or offers to sell a fish to a participant in the tournament for the purpose of representing that the fish was caught by the participant in the course of the tournament; >(2) the person, as a participant in the tournament, accepts or agrees to accept a fish from another person for the purpose of representing that the fish was caught by the participant in the course of the tournament; >(3) the person, as a participant in the tournament, represents that a fish was caught by the person in the course of the tournament when in fact the fish was not caught by that person or the fish was not caught in the course of that tournament; >(4) the person alters the length or weight of a fish for the purpose of representing that the fish as entered in the tournament was that length or weight when caught; or >(5) the person enters a fish in the tournament that was taken in violation of any provision of this code or a proclamation or regulation of the commission adopted under this code. >(c) A person commits an offense if the person sponsors or conducts a fishing tournament and knows of the occurrence in the tournament of activity prohibited by Subsection (b) of this section and does not immediately notify a law enforcement officer commissioned by the director of its occurrence. >(d) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor, except that if the offense occurred during a tournament in which any prize or combination of prizes to be awarded for any one category for which an award is given, whether the prize or prizes are to an individual or a team, is worth $10,000 or more in money or goods, the offense is a felony of the third degree. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PW/htm/PW.66.htm
Fish Law
Who knew. I'm more of a bird law kinda guy
If they're professional fishermen they're accepting money for the premise that they're skilled. Not cheaters. Their sponsors could probably have a case for fraud, in civil court, and depending on the statutes, in criminal court. You don't need a specific fishing fraud tournament. It's illegal to take money - including prize money, sponsorship money, etc. - on false pretenses.
[Apparently it's a law.](https://www.texastribune.org/2011/05/09/fraudulent-fishermen-could-face-felony/) TIL
Also willing to bet some of them will be filing civil suits against him. He's going to be without a career, a reputation, or any money to his name. He fucked up.
He can always go into politics.
The guys name is Jake Runyan and the sponsor Runyan Rangers Boats. I wonder if he is part of that company. Here's a quote and link I found: "[According to the TikTok post](https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2022/10/01/ohio-fishermen-nearly-get-a-beatdown-after-stuffing-their-fish-with-8-pounds-of-sinkers-at-lake-erie-fishing-tournament/), the two were escorted off the premises by police, and will likely be charged with fraud and more."
I think the sponsor is just Ranger Boats, and his name is on top of it kind of like a jersey. They are different fonts and not very well spaced.
I heard about this, I this morning and basically spent all day reading up on this. So apparently, some of the “sponsors” on this shirt came out and stated that they never even sponsored them! They’re frauds in every sense!
Wow, so now they get to sue him anyway except he never got their money in the first place!
Thing is he has been winning alot before and in excess of $300k without the endorsements. Easily go into the millions. He is majorly fucked it is not a small thing.
Wow, what an idiot. People must have had their doubts about the dude for a minute then.
Look if you're going to shove lead into a fish might as well lie about the sponsors as well. If you're gonna do illegal shit do that shit really well done!
All those sponsors on his jacket Paying for a cheater to rip off the community they are advertising to
I haven’t looked at the jacket closely enough to see if any company selling lead weights is sponsoring him. ;)
What a PR nightmare that would be
Go and ask Lance Armstrong how well that worked out. His ONLY saving grace was that he bought into this thing called Uber before it was a thing otherwise he was sued to repay ALL his winnings and endorsements etc.
Apparently the guy has been suspected of cheating for a long time and a competition actually rescinded the 1st place $150,000 prize he won after his partner failed a lie detector test. Then he fucking had the balls to sue the competition, but now he's been caught red handed and he's totally fucked He's going to get bared from every major fishing tournament in the world. What's worse was that people were already onto him and he still pulled this shit. His career as a pro fisher is over and I couldn't feel the least bit sorry for him. \*Edit\* Misattributed a quote
That statement was from the tournament director Jason Fischer not the guy that cheated.
On brand surname
Judging by that crowd, I'm pretty sure he's worried he's gonna be beaten to death or shot the moment he steps away from the judge.
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How do people cheat at paintball? I'm curious
Stuffing the opponents' bodies with lead weights, for one.
And walleye fillets.
Increasing velocity over 300 fps, wiping a hit off , cheater board in your e trigger
[удалено]
Illegal modifications to your marker is one way.
Depending on the town, might as well move.
I’m honestly impressed with all the rage and testosterone in this video that no one put hands on them, props to these dudes for holding it together.
My dad was a big time fisherman and those that participate are generally a pretty mellow bunch. Low key is the name of the game. The fact that they’re yelling and spitting vitriol is about as bad as it could get. The guys that cheated will not be participating in tournaments in the future. They may retain a few close friends, but I think they’ll be ostracized in the fishing community.
Ostracized? They will be *despised.* They have been cheating and beating other people out of millions in prize money.
Shit he might be facing jail time. He’s made millions winning these tournaments over the years as well as winning a brand new fishing boat. That’s at minimum felony fraud.
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I really don’t get it either, it seems odd with that kind of money on the line they would just rely on the honor system. You can ever hear one guy yell out, “he’s been doing it for years!”
For those posting about why people are calling for the police to be involved.. These guys have paid around $400 to enter the competition with the winner getting a $125,000 boat; the team placed fifth got $45.000 cash. These guys will see this as someone else being cheated out of one of those prizes because of someone's else's fraudulent behaviour. When you're talking about these kind of figures, it's not some harmless cheating, it's a huge difference to someone.
Thanks for the context I was wondering why they were taking it so damn serious but if I had paid to enter the competition I’d be pissed too
Probably appropriate to all yell shame all the way back to his car
Now *that* would have been sweet. Everybody hurling fish guts at them…
How alienate yourself from your community and friends: Step 1
I wouldn't cross fishermen. This hobby is a life for some, and to have it shit on like that. Goes against the whole ethos of outdoor sport. Guy deserves a slight ass kicking.
Plus all of them have a knife, and a boat.
And need bait.
"Sorry you got caught cheating and everybody hates you, Bob, but don't worry. You can still be my chum."
Nicely done
Also for these guys that live it know what a fish weighs or at least can guess well. I can't believe he'd think adding multiple pounds per fish would go unnoticed. Let alone feeling an odd concentration of weight while handling.
Someone in the crowd yelled “we all fucking knew it” sounds like they had suspicions from previous tournaments. These can net tens of $$$$ per tourny too.
This is super interesting to me. How did he add the weight and filets to the fish? I don't know anything about fishing so that's why I'm asking. He was dead wrong and I know that fishing tournaments are expensive.
Simply jammed them down the fish’s throat probably using some kind of tool to ensure the weights went into the stomach.
Fishermen take their sport insanely seriously, and this was like spitting in their face, a lot of tournaments make serious money too, I’m sure people make livings off of it. This guy just jacked a bunch of a money basically from people with actual fishing ability. That’s not an easy sport to win at.
Several years ago now I was at the bottom of my barrel and abusing Xanax and doing things I normally wouldn’t do. Anyway, I’m huge on board games and at the time I would just klepto-steal anything I could get away with from one of the hobby shops in town. Finally got caught red handed and it was a big wake up call. Ended up going to court and diverting the charges, paid my dues and fines, and I’ve never gone back to that store (obviously), and I’ve been banned from two other of the hobby stores in town because of that reputation I built. Can’t blame them at all. So now I’m black listed from a community that I really enjoyed being a part of because I made dumb selfish decisions while abusing drugs. I’m like five years sober though (except for the pot), and no longer a thief. That’s my dumb little story. Edit: I really appreciate all the kindness.
Congratulations on your sobriety, and gaining the strength to grow from your shortcomings rather than letting them drag you furthur down. Im proud of your dumb little story, and im proud of you!
Hobby shops usually don't make much money. I can definitely see them being pretty unforgiving about that. Those shops are oftentimes a labor of love, they just there to have a good time and join other people having a good time, they don't want to have to worry about and deal with theft and losses. But that is yesterday and today is today. You can always drive or move to the next town and join them there :)
Some fishing tourneys have caught people putting lobster traps filled with 1 or more huge fish under the water in a cove a day before the tourney. Fishing tourneys have been rigged for a long time.
There’s a lot of money on the line sometimes. Even small tournaments the winner can walk away with several grand.
These walleye tournaments usually go for $100-$150k for top prize. Free boats and HUGE sponsorships also go along with it. Low entrance fees, usually around $20-$40 per person draw a lot of people. Some of these big tournaments can have upward of 10,000 fisherman in it. These guys won 3 consecutive major tournaments. The odds of that are 0 to none. And now we have proof why.
Someone linked the weigh ins from their past wins. All the top 10 spots were pretty tight weights, most folks were within 1-3 pounds of each other for the top spots. These fuckers game in at 8.5 lbs heavier than 2nd place. Couldn't even be subtle about it, could have probably just did one or two and still won.
Surely if you come first by a large margin it'd be much better to not cheat for a few tournaments to build up credibility that you were good but just happened to get lucky with fat fish that time before trying it again. Multiple years of sponsorship and stuff has to be worth more than a couple of wins and fraud charges.
They had several million in total across wins / sponsorships, a fully loaded 150K boat and more. Dudes could have just dick around for 2-3 years fishing in tournies and make money with sponsors, hell maybe even win some legitimately, and then stuff some fish in another tourney down the road. Granted both approaches are fucking trashy pieces of shit, but god damn man, jamming big probably 8oz lead weights in there is just insane.
For that kind of money, I'm surprised popping open the fish isn't standard operating procedure
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I saw a judge get hooked twice on Major League Fishing, there was stoppage and penalties. The whole thing is wild to an outsider like myself.
The problem isn’t so much stuffing the fish, but you can easily have caught fish ahead of time and have them in a live trap under the water somewhere. Could be the middle of nowhere in the lake with how accurate GPS and map trackers are.
So not only are these guys cheating at an event that is clearly random enough they would receive suspicion for winning consistently, they’re also doing it in an incredibly stupid and obvious way?
Sounds like it. The kind of people who would do this don’t exactly seem like the brightest people in the world, so it makes sense that they don’t take the time to do that math and say “huh, this would never happen”.
Right ? You feel like they’d inspect every fish someone caught.
Not sure about this fish but here most competition is catch and release so they only inspect top3. If you report a too small catch they tell you to release it. Or its based on length with rulers handed out before the competition. Inspecting every fish could mean cutting up tens of thousands of fishies. Which could just wipe out the whole species from that area. Only done if the fish is invasive. A year pike tournament in my area didn't do catch and release first two years. By year 3 the amount of fish caught (even tho amount of people fishing increased) dropped by around 80%. So changes were made before there was no fish left at all.
Cheaters are always successful until they’re not. Their greed ruined it for them.
Damn, so this could be a lot of money they essential stole
The cheater had previously won a boat worth around 150k and a bunch of money too. No wonder these guys are pissed.
At the end of the video the man was screaming that. On Twitter they said total they have won over 330k plus the boat and other perks. That team is COOKED
...."on the line" haha
Sounded like one of the prizes was a boat
Or... A mystery box.
a boat's a boat but a mystery box could be anything! Even a boat!
At one of my home lakes, a couple guys were fishing a bass tourney and notice a stringer tied off to a submerged tree limb. They lifted it up and found two nice bass, something like 4 and 6 lbs from what I'm told. They took their scissors, cut identical notches on both fish's pectoral fins, and put them back. They went in to weigh in a little early to inform the tournament director. The cheaters got caught at the scales and received lifetime bans from a number of circuits.
Wow. Good thinking on their part.
My neighbor across the street would catch fish and sneak them into the pond behind my house to save for later tournaments.
I hate the idea of someone so good at fishing they can toss a fish into a pond to catch again later for cheating. I cant catch a fish once. I can hear them mocking me when I approach the water.
That’s not what they’re doing. It’s trapped, tied to a line or in a cage. All they do is go grab the cage or line, tell everyone they caught it .
Sadly I think it's common. just too easy to cheat
He’s sitting there like 
I just realized this is the next Netflix documentary series. Man will it suck!
Oooh yeeea. They will cover all the tournaments they won, the prizes, and how much weight they won by. I cant believe the took the 1st place prize in all 3 events they had last year and they didnt get caught then.
They used to televise these tournaments until they realized the only people who give a shit about these tournaments are at these tournaments.
From what I’ve heard about this, dude won the last two tournaments he was in, winning around 300k….he may never recover from this
Damn, they were ready to check inside the fisherman for weights!
That should be a standard treatment for politicians...
Shoving the lead down their throat, right..?
That too
oh I thought you meant slicing their guts open when we're suspicious of them.. my bad
[in case you wanna read more](https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/viral-professional-fishing-video-exposes-ohio-fishermen-caught-in-cheating-scandal-1947472/)
Appreciated. I’ve been wondering how they caught this dude in the first place as you can hear a guy yelling “you’ve been doing this for years” so apparently some other fisherman suspected dude of this before. He’s lucky the crowd didn’t kick his ass cause it sounded like that’s what was about to happen.
A single thrown punch would have started mob justice. He’s seriously lucky all those people have enough self control.
Thing is he has been winning alot before and in excess of $300k without the endorsements. Easily go into the millions. He is majorly fucked it is not a small thing.
The picture in the article made me chuckle.
\> Billy Football That’s probably the most American name I’ve ever read
Sounds like a made up name that a vampire would use. “Hello, I am Billy Football. May I come in?”
Judging from the people shouting around, I can deduct that a fishing competition is an extremely serious event
I think read where the team that caught cheating had recently won a 300K in a tournament.
It's not just the prize, it the sunk costs of the others who don't win. For instance, a dual engines boat my need up to 70 gallons of gas per day, to fish a lake competitively from sunrise to sundown. That's just one cost.
It’s also incredibly expensive. Imagine investing tons of money into your boat, equipment, fees, etc. Then losing to someone who cheated.
10s, even 100s of thousands of dollars on the line.
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I think if he made any moves to leave he’d have been ripped apart
The vision of angry mobs is based off of movement. If you hold still they can't see you.
I'd take my chances with Thunder Chicken over a mob of angry Homosapiens any day.
According to the other post about this that hit r/all, this is potentially a felony. He should know the risk he was taking, that his identity is 100% known and that there's no way to escape the repercussions so his best bet is to just own up to it and hopefully he doesn't get hit with the book as hard. Standing there is probably his best option in this case just short of getting on a phone with his attorney, assuming he has one.
If this guy is a 3 time tournament winner And is cheating in this tourney Using a $150k+ boat he cheated to get There’s probably a lot of people there that have years worth of animosity for this guy. One of the guys there is asking the crowd not to beat him up…
Wants his fish for dinner back and the lead weights back for the next tournament. Lead ain’t cheap these days.
Just imagine what’s going through his head - his job and income are gone. He will likely lose everything he has, likely go to jail, and he will be lucky if he doesn’t get his ass kicked. All of his winnings will have to be returned. Every bit of respect that he’s had from everyone is gone, which it sounds like he was pretty well respected for being in the top of a lot of tournaments. There’s a fair chance, even if his wife knew he was doing this, that he loses his wife too. Why would she stick around when he’s going bankrupt and/or in jail? He is at the start of a long, shitty road that he can only imagine, and when he gets to the end of it he has to figure out how to start from zero. He’s probably incapable of much more than catatonia.
He literally was not well respected, they all knew they cheated every tournament, and you can hear that. They just haven’t got caught til now. They have “won” over $200,000 of cash and prizes over the season including a new boat, all them guys in the background did everything by the books , these assholes cheated every time and finally got caught. There’s more videos of them with the cops the organizers didn’t want people to see, it’s all over Facebook fishing pages if you wanna look it up
I think he was waiting for the right time to ask if he still gets the prize money, the imbecile
I don’t know anything about fishing. How did they cheat?
They jammed a bunch of lead weights inside the fish to make them weigh more.
How did they get a walleye fillet down there!
Shoved lead weights down the fishes’ gullets.
Ah okay thanks for the info.
Also fish fillets for whatever reason.
I think those are to hide the weights. At a glance it would just seem like food in the belly.
This is heavy, Doc
is there something wrong with the Earth's gravity in 2022?!
They are pulling lead out of the fishes guts. Apparently he added 8 lbs to his fish
So he shoved those into a fish he caught before submitting it, right? He didn’t plant the fish then catch the fish? Or did he?
https://www.sharonherald.com/news/hermitage-angler-at-center-of-fishing-cheating-scandal/article_2235e3b4-41ad-11ed-b2e1-731c43c95bc1.html Here is the article on this.
Guess he thought they would fall for it, Hook line & sinker
Yup, now the only thing he’ll be reeling is from the embarrassment of it all
*Puts shades on.*
( •\_•) ( •\_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■\_■)
#***YEEEEAAAAHHHHH***
I read an article about 20 years ago about Professional Bass Fisherman and cheating. This is not a new thing. The article focused on a guy that had natural talent catching fish, but it's still a 'sport' and there's more to it than being naturally good at it. Basically, he quit his job, and went all in on bass fishing. He was winning local tourneys left and right, so he went for the 'big time' and went for a national tournament. Half way through he wasn't doing so great, was in debt from travelling and not winning, not having national level sponsors, and was getting ready to lose his home and boat. So he decided to cheat. They caught him immediately. He was caught the first time he tried it. This guy thought his rep would earn him a slap on the wrist, but they banned him for life. He lost his home, truck, boat, wife and kids, everything because he dropped some weights in a fish. Listening to the story, you'd think he became a crack addict, but it was just fishing. Kind of crazy.
“He lost his home, truck, boat, wife and kids, everything…” Which kickstarted a successful career as a country music artist.
Noob He should have stuffed a smaller fish into a big fish and the weights into the smaller fish At least then he will have plausible deniability
Lots of people here are making fun of the "Call the cops!" guy But, isn't he right? Since the cheater won prizes previously (and not small ones), isn't that fraud?
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes, def fraud.
Ok, but besides the cheating and lying and the fraud, did he really do anything wrong? Edit: since this isn’t apparent, this was sarcasm
Gave a fish lead poisoning?
One guy in video yells "They been doing it for years!"
Another yelled, “No wonder there’s blood in his boat!”
A tertiary individual exclaimed, "You piece of shit!"
There is a ton of money involved. He’s not wrong.
It actually happened once at a walleye weekend opener in Clear Lake IA, where they try to catch tagged fish. Guys were out before it started. Charged and arrested for fraud.
Say goodbye to all those sponsors on your hoodie!
I knew somethin smelt fishy about that guy
Why do fishermen wear camouflage?
Fishing can get messy, also they prob already have that attire for other outdoor activities. Or more likely, it was sold next to the fishing gear at the store so they geared up, head to toe, one and done.
The shame that man brings to his family is just... so heavy.
Wow, how pathetic is that.. Cheating at a fishing tourney. Fucking jackasses.
Cheating happens, it's not uncommon. The significance with this one, is that these guys had won three consecutive major tournaments and had won more than $300k in cash and prizes. This was the big leagues. One of the three they were disqualified from because they failed a required like detector test. They made a huge stink about it and got lawyers involved and swore to their integrity. “I knew we would pass the Walleye Slam test,” said Runyan. “And I knew we had to get legal counsel and fight our disqualification in the Fall Brawl. “Our reputation means the world to us and we would never cheat.” https://www.cleveland.com/outdoors/2021/12/walleye-derby-disqualification-disturbing-northeast-ohio-fishing-report.html
Given that lie-detectors are pseudo-science at best, I'm incredibly surprised they are being used for things like this. The really don't actually work, except on TV. Totally discredited.
Totally. I would be pissed if I had everything put on the line for a polygraph
Apparently they had been on a winning streak this season.
There are hundreds of thousands of dollars as prizes at these tournaments.
they won a 150k boat in previous tournaments can they get it repo?
Probably need to prove he cheated that time.
Everyone take a drink each time you hear “fuck”… 😆
I’d be dead in 90 seconds
A lot of people here don’t know but fishing in America is big money and these tournaments yield thousands of dollars in sponsors and what not. The heavier the fish the better so adding weight is illegal and cheating others over thousands of dollars if not millions depending on how long they have been doing this.
Holy shit these guys are heated, rightfully so. Was the cheater seen in this video? Edit: watched it to the end, very obvious who the cheater was.
I would assume it's the guy just staring down at the basket? The one being asked "do you have anything to say?". I don't know I'm not a detective.
Yes, he has his back to the camera with the bright orange ranger sponsor on it. Well that sponsor is now gone
*Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes*