Prove they cheated before this time to win. Did they probably but if it can't be proven well there is nothing to stand on.

If trolling , any fish caught is pulled up too fast , and will blow their blader .
Many people will maybe troll until they get a hit, then drift fish just because there's so many undersize walleye being caught.
Can't keep them , and it's a waste.
Some will just join others drift fishing, some read their finders and drift.
I'm with the drift fishing crowd.

Prove they cheated before this time to win. Did they probably but if it can't be proven well there is nothing to stand on.[/quote]

Obviously can’t and more than likely cheated. They did win last years walleye fall brawl, a brand new boat but failed the poly so didn’t get it.

I remember the winner of a Bass tournement was banned for stuffing the weights from a scuba belt inside a Largemouth. Got caught when the fish puked them up at the weigh in! lol

I fished only one fishing tournament in my life - a walleye tournament on Lake Erie. It was a new startup beginning with a one day tournament. The prizes were donated by companies with relatively small amounts of cash. I volunteered to take out a couple executives from an outdoor industry products manufacturer. I was pleasantly surprised because the guys were great to fish with. First and second place were extremely close with a big gap to third. We came in first. The second place guy went berserk - called the cops, screamed and yelled, demanded multiple reweighs, threatened to cause bad publicity, etc. He said we should be disqualified because I was being paid to take them fishing. I have never been paid to take anyone fishing. In fact I live 3 hours from the lake. His final reasons? His boat was larger, cost more, and he spent more on gas because he ran all over looking for fish. Sadly the tournament ran only once more and died out probably because of that maniac.

Sounds just like the last few elections! ROTFLMAO

Is that what's wrong with Joe? He ate to much lead?

I never saw any fun fishing in them, it just took the fun outta fishing for me.

Very true.I saw this happen with big buck contests.When the pot grew into hundreds and then a couple thousand dollars there were bucks being shot out from underneath a light.When a couple of them were caught by the game warden it took the wind out of the contests sails.It folded the next year.Too bad.What started out as a small friendly competition grew into a greedy every man for himself fight for the money and bragging rights.

Good thing there is no money in trapping anymore!

Se there us always a bright side to everything.

So my buddy and his son who are two extremely good walleye fisherman and the best I personally know. I just hung up from him. He said the tourney was a struggle for most, even the pre fishing Thursday
he caught one. Friday they decided to go to the Canada line and caught one, along with 2 big cats and 4 steelhead. They then decided to head into skinny water to end the day and figured they had nothing to
lose. He decided then that they were going to have some fun at weigh ins and take their steelie and one eye in. When they were up in the skinny water they ended up close to Jake and Jason and told them they
had a really good bag of probably 32-33 pounds, once again funnin. Those two ended up weighing in 33 pounds (+-). When they weighed in they told the tourney director and asked if it was alright to have a little
fun and he Ok'd it. But does make you wonder. Sad thing is these two morons would have had 25ish pounds and either won it or came in second. Shows you it pays more to be honest than deceiptful. On yet
another note: these two are full time anglers with sponsors etc. looks like they'll be going into the job market.

I heard they will race their boat through trees at night in order to weigh in a couple of bait size fish

A young teen walked into the local marine shop with his min. wage paycheck in pocket and stocks his tackle needs.
He notices a big trout contest and figures wth I know were those are from the hours outdoors trapping,
and signs up.
Turns out he won 1st and 2nd place. The locals were abuzz about the punk smoking the basket creelers, who whined "he had to cheat etc". The kid packed out his shopping cart full of loot.
There was a lot of talk about this.
The next season the kid went in to sign up and was told there was no contest.
Sometime later there was chatter about the recent contest, "where's the punk" etc etc.
There was much talk of this also.
The kid shrugged it off and vowed not to return.
That shop closed within a year.
The kid learned a lot from this.
The snobs? Probably learned nothing.

If you hesitate to take a young guy, or old guy along, you might be blowing a learning opportunity.

Yeh, locals in PA used to complain of a young angler that would show up and win a many tourneys in his 16 foot jon boat. They'd all show up in their $30K bass boats (alot back then) expensive setups, electronics, etc.
He had to be cheating. He was Ike Iaconelli. This situation is not one in the same though.

Not good for the antis to read that we can not even play well among ourselves let alone work to hold back the many that want us to not do any hunting or fishing and especially the tourneys that we have gravitated toward to add the rush to being in nature.

Bryce

Where there's money there is evil lurking jmo

Yes, and whitetail farms too.

what good comes of fishing tournaments?
And whitetail farms and I'll toss in high fence whitetail hunting too.

Lots of posts above of all the evils of mixing money and fishing and the ugly side of competition.
None of this stuff helps the resource or the guy who gets out once and awhile to catch a couple of fish.

Got to love people willing to ban things they are not into or don't like. After all if for the best. Just wow...

I never fished competitively, been involved with deer farms or high fence hunting but an against the line of thinking of making them illegal.

Should probably eliminate pro sports and gambling also it does no good and gives a platform to morons to spout off from on things they know nothing about.