Cheating in Bass Fishing Tournaments

[MD_Gene]

Interesting article including a brief history of bass fishing....

http://grantland.com/features/bass-fishing-cheaters/

 

[lestrout]

Yo MD - that was one fine and very well written article. Didn't know any of that stuff, and lots of food for thought. Thanks for posting this.

 

[BrookieChaser]

Thanks for posting that, Gene.

Two things stuck out; I never knew catch and release started with fly fishing, well basically the FFF, and the story of the Bends Mender.

 

[phiendWMD]

"Winning meant you cheated the best without getting caught."

I used to play a different sport competitively. I was never good enough to go that far. So I ended up getting a job behind the scenes and playing in recreational leagues. For 10 years it was my life. I met a lot of people involved at all levels. Pretty much anyone that knew anything said "The difference between pros and amateurs is the pros can cheat without getting caught.

When ever money is on the line, it really brings out the worst in people. If people put half the effort into improving they did into creating ways to cheat they probably wouldn't have to cheat.

 

[IdratherbePhishing]

Phiends right, cheating ran ramped in paintball

 

[Pwigglez]

IdratherbePhishing wrote:
Phiends right, cheating ran ramped in paintball

What, that? That's just bunker smear!

 

[troutbert]

BrookieChaser wrote:
Thanks for posting that, Gene.

Two things stuck out; I never knew catch and release started with fly fishing, well basically the FFF

Re: the development of catch and release. From Wikipedia:
"In 1939, Lee Wulff released the book, Handbook of Fly Fishing, where he maps out the principals of catch and release fishing. The way he puts catch and release is that there will be more fish in the rivers, so you can come back again and again and catch fish."

1939 is back there pretty far. He was a pioneer.

Trout Unlimited was formed in 1959 and helped spread the idea of C&R and limiting your kill, particularly among flyfishers.

The C&R bass tournaments, with their TV shows, probably did have a huge impact in spreading the C&R idea to a larger audience, i.e. the non-flyfishers, and beyond trout to bass and other fish.

The practice of people at least limiting their harvest in order to prevent hammering fish populations probably goes way back. I read somewhere that on some of the chalk streams in England the custom was for an angler to keep a "gentleman's brace" of two trout.

I didn't know about the cheating in bass tournaments. Sad.

 

[lineman]

Thanks for the article, it was very interesting. I would have never guessed those sorts of things went on in a bass tournament.

 

[phiendWMD]

When you aren't cheating, it can be so frustrating trying to play against people who are. At least until you learn to overshoot people.

 

[duckfoot]

HAHA, they haven't listed some of the tricks I know about cheating!

 

[Chaz]

People cheat at everything why not Bass Tournaments?