What’s the Michael Bennet deal?

He won the All-American that was held at Mobile/Alabama delta....the guy that came in second was from the that area and reportedly said that he "lived there 30 years and caught one 6lb bass and tony christian must be a heckuva fisherman to come down here and catch two in one week".....

Wow that was a low weight event, feel bad for the guy in second and look who got 3rd https://majorleaguefishing.com/events/2003-05-28-all-american/results/ His weight was over twice what 2nd had I have no doubt he cheated and stole $101,000 some serious coin and even more so in 2003.

What’s the Michael Bennet deal?

I have met and talked with Bennet over dinner along with some other guys. He’s a good dude I would say, he actually took the winnings bought a house, and went to nursing school if I remember correctly, I think there was a girl mentioned also. He was talking about coming back. Some folks see life differently.

I have met and talked with Bennet over dinner along with some other guys. He’s a good dude I would say, he actually took the winnings bought a house, and went to nursing school if I remember correctly, I think there was a girl mentioned also. He was talking about coming back. Some folks see life differently.

Wow that was a low weight event, feel bad for the guy in second and look who got 3rd https://majorleaguefishing.com/events/2003-05-28-all-american/results/ His weight was over twice what 2nd had I have no doubt he cheated and stole $101,000 some serious coin and even more so in 2003.

Trust me TC was caught red handed. I was there! How they handled all of it I will never agree with. They used Walmart as the excuse not to want any bad press. The sheriffs dept arrested him when he waked of the stage in Morgan City but later released him and everyone involved was told not to ever discuss the details! There was a whole sting operation set up starting in Florida at the first tournament that yr and then carried over to La. It always amazed me that he was so arrogant that he didn't pull the plug on what he was doing but I guess he thought he was smarter than everyone else. The all american he won at Mobile. He caught both of those 6 pounders off the same end of the same pipe. The Everstart he won in SC he caught every fish off of 1 dock pole and never fished any others during the days. How the co anglers didn't see it earlier is kinda crazy. He cost all of us money at some point in time whether it was a place or 2 doesn't matter. He cost several people a chance at a win of a lifetime! And as far as the whole team deal story with MB there was a whole group of us that got dropped at the same time. Wasn't really anything any of us did. They were scared that we were discussing our deals with the companies we ran the wraps for and in our contracts it said we couldn't! All had to be done thru them. A couple of guys had and they got really paranoid and kinda cleaned house and started over.

So how exactly was he cheating with a co angler in the boat? What was the tactic that was so discreet and sneaky that he could pull it off with someone 10' away on the back deck. I just don't get it but i mean it seems pretty obvious that he definitely cheated.

I'm told there is a cheating method in which the angler catches fish prior to the tournament then ties them off with light line to something like a dock post....during the tournament the angler makes repeated casts to that spot with a jig and exposed hook until he hooks the line then slowly pulls it up to the fishes jaw and sets the hook hard enough to break the light line and hauls the fish into the boat....usually the fish has enough strenght to put up some fight and the angler can swing the rod back and forth and make it look like the fish is putting up a bigger struggle.....there is a video out there showing T.C. catching a large fish that some felt like he was manipulating the fish to make it look like the fish was fighting harder than he really was...
Reportedly they put a cameraman in T.C.'s boat and he never caught anything all day until the cameraman left the boat then he ran to a dock and made repeated casts to a corner of the dock until he caught a large bass...

I heard he had plastic tubs planted with fish in them. cut a hole in the top with slits around it. Flip jig in, fish bite and due to the slits was able to pull them out. Just rumor

I heard he had plastic tubs planted with fish in them. cut a hole in the top with slits around it. Flip jig in, fish bite and due to the slits was able to pull them out. Just rumor

Pretty warm right there! But there is alot more to it and the whole situation. I can't say details bc I am to close to the people who set it all up and busted the cheating piece of [censored]! Trust me it's not a rumor!!

And you are who? Did you fish professionally?

HDVS is legit, no need to worry about that

this is an interesting read on the cheating story

https://www.chestercountybassmasters.com/forums/index.php?topic=2172.0

Question....and just asking, dont tear my head off cuz I know these guys who might be inferred are hammers....do you ever find it suspicious when a local completely dominates on his home lake in a bigger/national tournament?

HDVS is legit, no need to worry about that

No, what I find suspicious are local "hammers" that bring in insane bags of fish at the toughest time of year and that can't seem compete regionally or nationally.

anytime I see a giant tourney bag I wonder a bit. But...i think locals plant their own secret brush too. I feel its an unfair advantage from an outsiders perspective, but I dont think its cheating. But...you also hear rumors about baiting those brush piles too...so I dont know, slippery slope. Agree about the consistency though....you dont have to win every tourney, but even if you look at all the opens last year....the good guys seem to float around the top. so its a bit sketchy in those situations you mentioned.

theres always cheaters when money is involved

I’ve never once left a tournament and thought those guys must have cheated. If I thought like that I’d have quit.

what makes it real upsetting with guys like this and mike long.....it seems like they are legitimately bad fishermen, and not just some guys tired of being average and cheating to get the edge. theyre just suckasses. Funny in this link how it mentions the guy getting skunked...and it being hard to skunk on the lake

Question....and just asking, dont tear my head off cuz I know these guys who might be inferred are hammers....do you ever find it suspicious when a local completely dominates on his home lake in a bigger/national tournament?

Pretty warm right there! But there is alot more to it and the whole situation. I can't say details bc I am to close to the people who set it all up and busted the cheating piece of [censored]! Trust me it's not a rumor!!

anytime I see a giant tourney bag I wonder a bit. But...i think locals plant their own secret brush too. I feel its an unfair advantage from an outsiders perspective, but I dont think its cheating. But...you also hear rumors about baiting those brush piles too...so I dont know, slippery slope. Agree about the consistency though....you dont have to win every tourney, but even if you look at all the opens last year....the good guys seem to float around the top. so its a bit sketchy in those situations you mentioned.

theres always cheaters when money is involved

https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/tourneys_148970/


Excerpt from the link:

I fished with a couple of pros this year and they didn’t talk specifics but they said what he was doing was catching fish out of a box. This may not have technically been illegal because he was indeed catching fish. I guess it might be a loophole. It does in my mind violate the sportsmanship rule.

I was also told that there were lots of lawsuits proposed against FLW for winning that fishermen were cheated out of and this prevented FLW from announcing anything. It appears they are more scared of being sued than being fair.

I admit this is hearsay but it was told exactly the same way to my by at least 6 people who should be “in the know.”

I’m more upset by FLW’s handling of it than the act. ABA or BASS would have announced it as would any other sports organization. I can assure you if this happend in my circuit everyone would know what happend. I don’t tolerate cheating.


Another Excerpt:

This is what I “heard” about the box in question.

It was large enough to hold some decent fish. The lid was constructed in a manner that would allow a small gap for a bait to fall through. Once a lot of upward force was applied the fish could be pulled through the top. Maybe the top was made out of some thick semi-flexible rubber or something of that nature.

Not 100% clear on the exact construction but I have a basic understanding of how it “supposedly” worked.

And you are who? Did you fish professionally?

HDVS is legit, no need to worry about that

Well somebody had to put the fish in the box, correct? lol

That woulda been his brother who was an ex military diver!

keep in mind those polygraphs stop about 99% of the cheating in buddy or solo tournys.....FLW should have asked T.C. to take a polygraph (or maybe they did and he refused)....

Yes I did! Had to walk away to raise my kids bc my ex went off the deep end. Back to fishing now and doing pretty well. Just not full time anymore for now. That's why I don't like throwing names around on a public form. Other than a Cheater! lol.

Ain't tournament fishing grand???... Dan

Not at all tearing your head off but I gotta say you have a bit of an unhealthy view of competitive fishing.

I have lived in Wylie since 1999 , I have fished both Lavon and Ray Hubb mostly for all those years , recently on Lavon there has been some awesome bags weighed in on weekly tournaments 8-10 lbs more that what I used to consider a pretty darn good bag in the past.

I can’t even tell you any names of the current group of competitors but I can tell you the thought that they are cheating is no where in my head.

Also I can add that there are “good” fishermen which most of us on here are and then there are “great” fishermen that are simply on a different level talent-wise which seems to come naturally when you fish with one of them.

Guys like TC , ML,or RR were probably in the “good” but couldn’t stand not being in the “great” so they squared away in their head what scum bags they were/are and somehow in their mind elevated themselves to “great”

Yes I did! Had to walk away to raise my kids bc my ex went off the deep end. Back to fishing now and doing pretty well. Just not full time anymore for now. That's why I don't like throwing names around on a public form. Other than a Cheater! lol.

BV?

M Delgado was a wack job for sure

Not at all tearing your head off but I gotta say you have a bit of an unhealthy view of competitive fishing.

I have lived in Wylie since 1999 , I have fished both Lavon and Ray Hubb mostly for all those years , recently on Lavon there has been some awesome bags weighed in on weekly tournaments 8-10 lbs more that what I used to consider a pretty darn good bag in the past.

I can’t even tell you any names of the current group of competitors but I can tell you the thought that they are cheating is no where in my head.

Also I can add that there are “good” fishermen which most of us on here are and then there are “great” fishermen that are simply on a different level talent-wise which seems to come naturally when you fish with one of them.

Guys like TC , ML,or RR were probably in the “good” but couldn’t stand not being in the “great” so they squared away in their head what scum bags they were/are and somehow in their mind elevated themselves to “great”

What's BV? But not my initials

M Delgado was a wack job for sure

Apparently it’s not Byron and Mary wasn’t the one that he would be referring too anyways, her name was Melinda. Byron was on BTL a few months back and did a great job with their interview. Said he had an online tackle shop setup in eBay, but I can’t remember the name of it. Had some really good stuff for sale.


If anyone of you guys remember what his account was called (I think it was on eBay), can you post it please?

anytime I see a giant tourney bag I wonder a bit. But...i think locals plant their own secret brush too. I feel its an unfair advantage from an outsiders perspective, but I dont think its cheating. But...you also hear rumors about baiting those brush piles too...so I dont know, slippery slope. Agree about the consistency though....you dont have to win every tourney, but even if you look at all the opens last year....the good guys seem to float around the top. so its a bit sketchy in those situations you mentioned.

theres always cheaters when money is involved

I'm not a local hammer, but last September I found one spot where I caught two five pounders prefishing for two tournaments, one a circuit and one my bass club tournament the next week. I refused to go back there in the next two weeks of prefishing because I didn't want anyone to see me catch a fish. We had a fairly big three fish bag in the team tournament, then the next Saturday I caught almost 24 pounds (five fish) in about 30 minutes. The funny thing is I had to wait two hours for a guy from Louisana to move off the spot so I could move in. I didn't see him catch anything. I caught a 7.63 on my first cast. Second place that day was 6 pounds. Another guy in my club saw me catch them from another boat, plus I had someone fishing with me. He zeroed. I had exactly the right bait and threw to exactly the right spot, plus I knew they were there so I fished with confidence.

It happens.

I don't know anything at all about what happened with Tony Christian so I won't offer an opinion on him.

What was the magic bait?

This is interesting, I will listen to that podcast for sure if they do it https://youtu.be/xxC0XmheFgk?t=3870

Now I know why I’ve never won a tournament

Not at all tearing your head off but I gotta say you have a bit of an unhealthy view of competitive fishing.

I have lived in Wylie since 1999 , I have fished both Lavon and Ray Hubb mostly for all those years , recently on Lavon there has been some awesome bags weighed in on weekly tournaments 8-10 lbs more that what I used to consider a pretty darn good bag in the past.

I can’t even tell you any names of the current group of competitors but I can tell you the thought that they are cheating is no where in my head.

Also I can add that there are “good” fishermen which most of us on here are and then there are “great” fishermen that are simply on a different level talent-wise which seems to come naturally when you fish with one of them.

Guys like TC , ML,or RR were probably in the “good” but couldn’t stand not being in the “great” so they squared away in their head what scum bags they were/are and somehow in their mind elevated themselves to “great”

I gotta bring this back to the top for video I saw Mark Perry posted over on BBC, just LOL, I had no idea this video existed and I'm surprised FLW didn't have this scrubbed from youtube

https://youtu.be/H_7L04p6CrY?t=464

I gotta bring this back to the top for video I saw Mark Perry posted over on BBC, just LOL, I had no idea this video existed and I'm surprised FLW didn't have this scrubbed from youtube

https://youtu.be/H_7L04p6CrY?t=464

No, what I find suspicious are local "hammers" that bring in insane bags of fish at the toughest time of year yet they can't seem compete regionally or nationally.

Seen this before but it is brilliant.

I thought TC was a technicality, basically rules not concise enough to say he broke the rules. if he did what I heard he caught them in the mouth, with a rod and reel, basically passed all the written rules. Still cheating in my mind, but did he break the rules of that time period? Im not sure.