Rock the Riviera Redfish Tournament - Cheaters Busted!!!

[jsmoke222000]

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who was telling me about some crazy mess that happened @ the Rock the Riviera Redfish Tournament in Texas on South Padre Island this past weekend. The leaders at the end of the day had some nice fish, and would have won a brand new Dargel boat, but someone must have smelled something fishy & their fish were inspected and found to have huge lead weights inside of them. I was told that the weights were 6 oz. lead balls, 1 in each fish. I can't confirm this & nothing has been posted on the TRS website about it as of yet. The police were called, and the tournament organizers said they were pressing charges for attempted theft.

I don't know the names of the folks that got busted but I'll post more info as it becomes available.

[Ray]

All they need to do is put the fish on a wooden table and pass a metal detector over them.
If it beeps, kill the fish, cut them open and check for metals.
Some people just don't want to be honest anymore.

[Pole_benda]

These guys should get the lifetime from all tournaments!

[Pole_benda]

Here is a thread from the texas flast page. Sounds like there were multiple cheaters at that tournament.
1. Guys loading fish with weights
2. Another team loading up a pen with fish and getting them on tourney day

Rumor mill but I wouldnt put it past some people.

http://www.texasflats.net/index.php/topic,10915.0.html

[gerald]

[jsmoke222000]

These guys really tried to take advantage of the situation & steal a win. The larger tournaments that we fish have taken some steps to keep folks from cheating. Kudos to Scot & Jim for calling the cops on these guys!

[fishintechnician82]

These guys could never be called a sportsman. how the hell could you be proud of a win if you have to cheat??

[jsmoke222000]

The sad thing is that they had the winning fish without the extra weights being added to the fish. I guess they really wanted that boat. There are a million ways to cheat in these tournaments but the polygraph machine doesn't lie. The larger tournaments like the HT Cup & the Texas Series both polygraph the winners along with random contestants.

[fishintechnician82]

that is pretty sad. its also sad that they have to go to such extremes like a polygraph to prevent cheating. my brother in law and i fished a small redfish tournament a while back and took second place with 42.6 lbs and the first place guys had 42.8 lbs dont get me wrong it sucked to loose by 2 frickin ounces but i was more proud of an honest second than i would have been if i cheated and won first!!!!