Cheater Busted in Bass Fishing Tournament!

We don’t call people out lightly on this channel—but when someone disrespects the sport, the community, and the integrity of tournament fishing, we speak up. This isn’t drama. It’s about accountability and protecting something we all love.

🫡 If you’re a veteran, a weekend warrior, or just learning to fish—honor matters both on and off the water.

Let us know your thoughts below 👇
And if you’ve ever seen shady stuff at a tournament, tell us your story.

My buddy caught about 16 to 17 inch smallmouth that weighed about 4 lbs. I wondered if someone hadn't put lead in it because it shouldn't have weighed no more than 3 for it's size but it was fat and solid.

I miss the good old days when you tell the story of "the one that got away" with a straight face. People would roll their eyes. But that was part of the game.

Just wait until people start using AI 😮. It's getting so good that you can't tell from real and fake anymore. I don't do tourneys but sucks for the people who do.

I’m in Texas and have seen tournaments ruin lakes lots of dead fish afterwards there is no integrity in tournaments that’s my take

Tournaments have ruined fishing, glad you're having problems, I hope it adds up and ruins it.

It dont have a thing to do with the win , it has to do with sponsors , if you win tournaments consistently, its a new boat for free , a new truck for free , etc etc.

We had a guy on Lanier that was cheating for a long time in striper tournaments. He was going out in the hours before club tournaments and running dock lights and cherry picking two bigger stripers then throwing them in the 50 gallon bait tank and holding them until lines in the water and then busting them out on the measuring board with the control number on his hand.

He finally got caught cheating when he decided that was too much work and started photoshopping the control number on top of fish he’d caught weeks earlier on his guide trips. What got him busted was two tell tale marks that were super imposed on both fish. He admitted to the photoshop but tried to claim it was a lapse of judgement and the fish were legit but he’d lost his paper with the number on the way to the last spot. Well some of the club members knew that was BS and went and scoured his pictures on his guide page and found those same two fish were caught just one and two weeks prior on customer trips and since all stripers have unique stripe patterns it was stone cold proof of the cheating. When he was confronted with the hard evidence he just tucked tail and never responded but now days he runs around telling anyone who’ll listen that he’s not aloud to fish club tournaments anymore because he was too good and was winning too much so they banned him. I was disappointed when the club president decided to keep the incident in house as not to ruin the guys business but let’s be real he stole somewhere between $3k-$5k from club members over the course of the year he was active and then had the audacity to rub it in people’s faces about how great he was and how no one was on his level etc. I could see maybe just cutting him loose and being done with it if he was just cheating but his ego and behavior such as his peacocking around and rubbing everyone’s faces in his greatness definitely warranted being exposed for what he really is.

I think all kayaks should have mandatory cameras running during the duration of the tournament.

It’s all about $. I have seen cheating twice in tourneys, while I was on the lake. I wasn’t in either tourney. One a basket , the other fish tied to a dock. I had a guy too offer to buy fish off me.