Yeah, interesting. Here we have a guy on an Internet forum, that basically nobody knows and he says he knows all the details; but yet....this guy that nobody knows, won’t tell them??? Sounds legit! His new profession must either be a lawyer or in politics.

HDVS is legit, no need to worry about that

+1 he fished the flw tour for many years

Have a friend who is ex FLW employee and told me same thing HVDS is describing……

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?

He's legit, there are many a angler that fished that qualified and fished FLW tour you've never heard of, I drew one couple years ago in a Toyota event, dude was a stick. Remember they used to have a 200 boat field

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.

Just curious who he is, name?

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.

I concur, not sure how people take the time to worry about others and still concentrate on their own fishing enough to be competitive. If I worried about all the "could-bees" I'd be so spun out that I would be fighting mad before Lee Greenwood finished singing.

No and here's why.....the top guys on Rayburn literally put in a ton of time on the water scouting.....in Mundy's case, the holes he fished in January were community holes by March. Albert Collins has qualified for the classic at least 2 times. I fished with Clayton boulware in an open and he was awesome. The sticks on ray urn would know who is shady and shut them down. The truth is a hammer on Sam or Toledo can make $25-30k a year just jackpotting local tourneys and still sleep at home and not fade the expense and travel of a regional schedule.

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.

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”

Now I know why I’ve never won a tournament