I'm sure it has happened in more than one event, but I believe this is what happened here on the Red River in a BASS event a few years ago. The LA WLF marked the bass and met him at the weigh-in if I recall correctly. If I am off on this, I apologize. My memory is not what it once was!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\.....This please.

i don't remember his name, it was the only fishing tournamnet I've ever fished there and the guy apparently won a bunch of working man tournaments out there. That's just what some of the guys were talking about after it happened the director for the Oklahoma bass club that hosted the tournament informed everyone of the information that was shown to him and the individual was banned.

What year, what bass club?

This is true, he had them tied up with mono and was fishing a jig on Braid He would cast to the fish, feel the jig to the fishes mouth set the hook, which would break the braid, and the jig would be in the fish's mouth. He got caught by his Co-Angler. Saw what was going on and turned him in.

It was 2011 I'm almost positive I can try to text the guy I fished with as he fished there a lot to see if he remembers the guy. On the club I have no clue it was an open tournament they had there. They also had one at graham the next month if anyone remembers the club

It probably happens here more than we would like to admit

Which is why I don't fish tourneys. No thanks. Not donating my hard earned money to a scumbag.

I know 2 guys that have been caught and pretty much Black Balled from fishing tournaments on Conroe, one of these fella's was a pretty good friend of mine that i duck hunted with, i would've never thought he would do something like that, he was always by the letter when we duck hunted, but i guess sometimes you never really know people.

I guess I'm to naive of a angler! If I've way to much faith to the human race!

guess that duck hunting didn't pay as well as the Bass Tournaments.

Money always reveals character

Ya, trash cans and barrels are not rare on Arlington!

Lots of folks live by the car racing saying of "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying". I believe it happens way too much for me to ever enter a serious fishing tournament. I work too hard for my money to give it away to someone who isn't fishing honestly. Or even if everyone is fishing honest, I work too hard for my money to give it away to someone who spends their whole life fishing. I'd rather avoid that scene altogether and enjoy my time on the lake sometimes catching, sometimes not, and not worrying too much about which one it is at the moment.

when Honey hole stopped having tournaments in the late 90s (I think). A new trail opened up for North Central TX. I dont remember what it was called. I was young and dumb at the time but when I look back on it now I feel like something fishy was going on.

They had this deal called a "calcutta" I have never seen anything like it before or after. We all showed up for a pre tournament meeting and you paid your entry fee like normal. Then they held an auction where you could bet additional money on another angler or yourself to win. So they would call out Team #1. That team would normally bid 50 bucks on themselves. But the entire room had a chance to bid on that team to have them for themselves. This was paid out as a side pot. So the theory was that if you had a bad practice you could bid on a real stick to have as your "Calcutta team". I could be wrong but I think it was winner take all. So all the money that was bid was paid out to the Team who owned the winning "Calcutta team."

Now from my point of view it just meant that you had to come up with another entry fee because how bad would you feel if you didnt pick yourself and you actually won? So when our team came up for auction we would yell out 50 bucks and then the guys running the tournament would start to urge the other guys to not let us get away with a $50 bid. So someone would bid $60 until they messed with your pride enough to fork over another 100 bucks to own your own team!

Well here is where it got fishy. Our first tournament was on Bridgeport. A team came up for bid and they threw out the normal $50 bucks on themselves. The tournament director and his friends actually started bidding on the team themselves! From my recolection the guys running the trail were from Amarillo or something like that. They acted like they knew this team was going to smash em and they wanted a piece of it! They bid these poor guys up to nearly 500 bucks. I remember thinking how crappy this was for the team who had to pay 150 entry fee and another 500 just for prides sake.
Well the next day that team weighed in an 11 lbr and they won the derby

I cant prove anything and I dont know who the team was or even the name of the trail or anything. I was too young to realize that something strange was going on. But the locals were mad as hell. Nobody seemed to know this "Stick team". I was so oblivious at the time that I walked up to the winners and told them congrats and what a nice fish they caught on Bridgeport which at the time was stingy on 4 lb fish. They just looked at me....didnt even say thanks or anything.

Sorry for the long post. Ive never told anyone about this whole deal. The trail was one season and done. We never heard anything about the trail again. Maybe one of you guys remember this deal and maybe correct some of my mistakes remembering the details